Critical Essay

Using one or more of the films presented this semester as a case study, discuss the complex relationship between history and (personal or shared) memory in films that deal with the past.

1.

Argo (Ben Affleck, 2012, 120 min)
Readings:
Christopher Cram (2012), ‘Digital Cinema: The Role of the Visual Effect
Supervisor’, in Film History, 24, pp. 169-86.
Julie Turnock (2012), ‘The ILM Version: Recent Digital Effects and the
Aesthetics of 1970s Cinematography’ in Film History, 24, pp. 158-68.

2.

The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966, 121 min)
Readings:
David Forgacs, (2007), ‘Italians in Algiers’, Interventions, v 9, n 3, pp
350-364.
Paul Haspel (2006), ‘Algeria Revisited: Opposing Commanders as
Warring Doubles in The Battle of Algiers’, Journal of Film and Video, v
58, no. 3, pp 33-42.

3.
Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2002, 99 min)
Readings:
José Alaniz (2011) ‘Crowd Control: Anxiety of Effluence in Sokurov’s
Russian Ark’ in Beumers, Birgit Condee, Nancy (eds) KINO the
Russian Cinema : Cinema of Alexander Sokurov, pp.155-75 (UTS
library has web access)

Ivan S.Eubanks (2012) ‘The Irony of Absence in Aleksander Sokurov’s
Russian Ark’, in SEES, Vol. 26, Nos. 1-2, pp. 57-75

4.
Gallipoli (Peter Weir, 1981, 110 min)
Readings:
Leonard Richard (2009), ‘Gallipoli’, in Mystical Gaze of the Cinema The
Films of Peter Weir, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, pp. 164-189.

Michael Bliss (200), ‘The Deatch of a Nation’, in Dreams within a Dream:
The Films of Peter Weir, Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni press,
pp.81-93

5.
Waltz with Bashir (Peter Weir, 2008, 90 min)
Readings:
Katrina Schlunke (2011), ‘Animated Documentary and the Scene of
Death: Experiencing Waltz with Bashir’, South Atlantic Quarterly,
Vol.110 n. 4, pp.

Robert Moses Peaslee (2011), ‘It’s Fine as Long as you Draw, but Don’t
Film: Waltz with Bashir and the Postmodern Function of Animated
Documentary, Visual Communication Quarterly, vol.18 n.4, pp. 223-35.

3 movies or more from above and must use their readings in your essay. Do not quote, get their ideas and use your own words to deliver the messages.