Engl 222 Critical Analysis Essay (with minimum one page or more draft, including provisional 'thesis' (sentence or sentences) due for peer editing in class on Thursday April 26, then send a follow up draft of your first page or so, to me by email, preferably by 5pm Friday or on Saturday--the final completed hard copy of the essay is due in my Brink 200 mailbox by the start of class on Tuesday May 1--late essays accepted no later than in class Thursday May 3--also send to me by email MS Word or RTF, with your last name as the first part of the name of the file (Smith_CA.docx) to sflores@uidaho.edu):

Aim: To present a clearly written argument and analysis, based on evidence, about the meaning, power, or structure of a film that you select from this (highlighted weblink) list. Aim to produce a narrative that offers an explanation for the effects of the film—these effects, for instance, are (arguably) the ideas and feelings produced by the film. You will need to describe the evidence you are using, state your interpretations of this evidence, and bring those insights together into a claim (thesis) about the way the film works, what it means, and how and why it has the effects that you claim (such as its emotional impact).  Such an argument aims to analyze examples in order to come to broader conclusions—your argument therefore should demonstrate inductive reasoning that moves logically and persuasively from particular pieces of compelling evidence to broader generalizations that advance, deepen, and enrich understanding. The evidence that you cite and analyze may include, for example, elements of cinematic form and techniques as well as attention to the film’s narrative arc, including its representation of specific cultural and historical issues, identities, and relationships. The story of the film typically engages with conflicts, contradictions, and questions or problems, and your analysis may consider to what degree the film seems to answer or to resolve such issues.

Resources: Plan to strengthen your insights and support by reading essays, film reviews, and other resources included in our main film history text and in folders in Bblearn.

Note/constraint: if you wrote on an American film (directed by John Ford or a film set in the United States) for the Sequence Analysis Plus Essay, then you must write on a film by a foreign director (preferably a non-U.S. setting) for this assignment. You cannot write about the same film (or even same director) that you analyzed for the prior Sequence Analysis Plus essay, or the same films that you wrote about in your midterm exam.

Length, Format, Citation of Sources: Minimum six-pages, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, preferably also with header that includes your last name and page number(s). Include a title for your essay, and be sure to cite any sources of information that you incorporate into your essay from your research: include citations within the body of your essay as well as a bibliography of Works Cited. See cautions about 'plagiarism/academic dishonesty further below and as noted in the assignment—I am obligated to report all such instances to the Dean of Students Office.

Additional Observations and Advice, depending in part on to what extent your essay focuses attention on cinematic elements relative to story and characters:

For example, in the film Frozen River (2008), what challenges do differences (of age, ethnicity/culture, or ?) pose to the two primary women characters' relationship, and what commonalities or compromises/exchanges enable these women to work together, perhaps to begin to understand one another, and to bond ? How does the film (and its form/techniques) enact or represent such issues and relationships and developments over the course of the narrative? Note: you may also incorporate some attention to film history and to helpful information about the director and the film (from review-essays, our textbook), and if you do so, that will adjust the ratio in your essay between such "research" and your "analysis," but be sure to include a substantial, majority portion of your essay as analysis relative to the research on the film's and director's place in film history. I expect that your essay will be strengthened by some consulation/research, for example, by taking advantage of essays (such as the examples of students' critical essays on Two Days, One Night, on Her, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and on other films) and other materials included not only in our main film history text but also in folders in Bblearn (including, for instance, Norman Holland's online critical analyses of various films and his essay on distinctions between film criticism and film reviews.

Watch your selected film (repeatedly) and take notes. Pay attention to the primary issues/contradictions/conflicts explored in the film, its overall structure, and significant techniques used. Ask yourself the same kinds of questions that prompted and informed your Sequence Analysis Plus Essay. For instance, does a particular color or lighting scheme dominate? If so, why? Is the narrative chronological or achronological? What effect does this arrangement have? Does the film engage with genre conventions? How and for what purpose? With whom do we identify, or is 'identification' frustrated or undermined or used to challenge our assumptions and values? What effect does this have? What are the roles and relationships between characters who appear to be aligned with dominant cultural politics and ideologies, and as these characters are juxtaposed or connected to characters in subordinate or marginalized positions and identities? How are they shot and lit? What story and plot and action and performances are these characters embedded and embodied within? What patterns of familiar images and motifs help to structure the film?

Begin to formulate an argument. In the course of exploring your essay you may develop a specific (hypo)thesis statement about how one or two particular cinematic techniques underscore one or more key issues/motifs (or problems/questions/conflicts) in the film. Or you might begin with the film’s story/narrative to see what you most want to focus upon in your interpretive argument, with some analysis of cinematic techniques deployed to support and to illustrate your explanation and exploration. Your essay will most likely be strongest if you include some close cinematic analysis of one or more shot sequences, as you did in the prior sequence analysis essay. While some brief (plot) summary may be helpful, plan to avoid or minimize bare description so that you focus instead on writing an essay with well-developed and supported cinematic analysis and argument/interpretation.

If you select a film that we have studied in class, your analysis must go significantly beyond or take a different perspective on what we have studied in depth in class, and the same restrictions apply to films for which there are sample student essays, such as on Her. Though you are not required to draw upon and incorporate criticism on the film that you are analyzing, if you happen to choose a film for which there are film analyses or reviews in our Bblearn materials/folders, feel encouraged to consider and to cite/quote such criticism to develop and to suppport your essay, and as points of reference and departure. As noted below, if you learn from and draw upon other sources of information and scholarship for aspects of your analysis, be sure to cite such sources appropriately and clearly--do not risk violating the UI Student Code of Conduct's guidelines on academic integrity (in such a case, namely, plagiarism). I am not so much concerned with the notion of 'originality' in your analysis as with the outcome of having discovered, developed (your understanding) and learned from the process of writing this essay, culminating in the understanding demonstrated in the completed assignment. And keep mind that for general as well as specific points about film studies, you may want to cite one or more passages in our primary text on film history or other film studies/criticism excerpts (PDFs) from our course Bblearn folders--as mentioned above--to support and illustrate your analysis.

As assigned earlier in the semester, review Corrigan and White PDF in Bblearn folder for Chapter Twelve (429-461): Writing a Film Essay: Observations, Arguments, Research, and Analysis Writing an Analytical Film Essay and also read the Introduction to Film Analysis chapter from Film Analysis: A Norton Reader (available via PDF in the Bblearn folder).

• Consider also the following advice excerpted from Timothy Corrigan’s A Short Guide to Writing about Film.

The critical essay usually falls between the theoretical essay and the movie review. The writer of this kind of essay presumes that his or her reader has seen or is at least familiar with the film under discussion, although that reader may not have thought extensively about it. This writer therefore might remind the reader of key themes and elements of the plot, but a lengthy retelling of the story of the film is neither needed nor acceptable. The focus of the essay is far more specific than that of a review, because the writer hopes to reveal subtleties or complexities that may have escaped viewers on the first or even the second viewing…

• As with the prior assignment, keep in mind (in view) your prior reading and the resources available via PDFs and video clips in the course website and Bblearn folders, including the many analyses of films.

Tips:
-Avoid plot summary and extended visual description. Aim instead to analyze how specific cinematic techniques function to underscore the film’s themes and ideas. Organize your essay around key points in your argument, rather than a chronological or primarily descriptive account of the film's plot and story.
-Avoid evaluative language. (“The costumes are beautiful.”) Aim instead to analyze the effects of the techniques used. (“Ada’s restrictive, layered clothing impedes her movement through the natural surroundings and symbolizes her oppression.”)
-If you know precise film terminology, use it. (Is the camera movement a track, tilt, pan or zoom? Is it a high-angle shot or a low-angle shot?, etc.)
-Avoid vague language. (“The use of lighting in this scene is very effective” or “Parallel editing helps to create suspense,” etc.) Aim instead to analyze the specific effect of individual techniques. (“Closed frame compositions emphasize Susan’s entrapment.”)
-Make a strong argument about the film!
-Ineffective thesis statement: In this essay I will analyze the use of sound in Blackmail’s “knife” sequence,  connecting it to larger thematic and visual patterns in the film as a whole.
-Effective thesis statement: In Blackmail off-screen sound illustrates Alice’s powerlessness, while also encouraging viewers to identify with this position of victimization.
-You are not required to do any additional research for this paper. Rely on the analytical skills that you have been learning in class and our reading and study materials in the main text as well as via our Bblearn site.
-You may find it helpful to read/review several examples of student essays that were written for shot and sequence analysis assignments and critical essay assignments in Engl 230--though these assignments differ somewhat from your assignment, these examples provide some instances of how other students have analyzed films productively. See the folder in Bblearn on writing advice and examples of student writing.

Essay Format:
• Type and double-space your paper, using 1-inch margins and 12 pt Times New Roman font. Do not use extra return/spaces between paragraphs.
• Number the pages.
• Underline or italicize film titles. (CAPS or “quotation marks” are incorrect.)
• Give your paper a title that reflects your argument about the sequence.
• Put your name near the top left of the first page, followed by Engl 222.01 and the date on separate lines
• Spell check and proof read your paper.

• Works Cited page, see guidance on MLA format at Purdue's OWL site
List films by their title. Include the name of the director, the film studio or distributor, and the release year. See examples immediately below:

The Usual Suspects. Directed by Bryan Singer. Polygram, 1995.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Directed by George Lucas. Twentieth Century Fox, 1977.

Ebert, Roger. Review of An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim. rogerebert.com, 1 June 2006, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-inconvenient-truth-2006. Accessed 26 March 2017.

Lateness Policy: Excerpt from Course Requirement: All required work is due at the begin ning of class on the due date—work turned in late will be graded accordingly. Required graded written work will be downgraded one notch (for example, B+ to B, converted to points for each assignment) for each weekday late (not just days classes meet but counting just one day for a weekend). For this assignment, an essay submitted later than in class Thursday May 3 will not be accepted. I will grant short extensions for medical and family emergencies—but talk with me as soon as possible to request an extension. Always keep copies of your work.
Reminder of Guidance and Advice:
• Consult "Film Analysis: Approaches and Strategies (from Film Analysis: A Norton Reader)" and also see in the Bblearn folder "Examples of Student Sequence Analysis essays from Engl 230, plus two Critical Analysis essays, and other advice on writing about film" that I have included many examples of other students' sequence and shot analysis essays and critical essays so that you can get a sense of what other students have done on similar assignments

Also see Corrigan and White chapter on Writing a Film Essay: Observations, Arguments, Research, and Analysi (PDF in Bblearn folder); also see the PDF excerpt from Gocsik et al Writing About Movies. For example, the Sequence Analysis Plus Essay shares features of the Formal Analysis that Gocsik, Barsam and Monahan describe as follows: a Formal Analysis “dissects the complex synthesis” (33) of elements that work together to express the meaning of a film. A Formal Analysis involves “dynamic, detailed, descriptive writing,” in which you show, rather than tell your readers (35) what happens in the film.  In other words, your analysis should evoke the film’s form and your experience of it. [See Writing About Movies (35 – 37) for a detailed example of this principle, using the open sequence of Vertigo as an illustration]. [For fuller guidance, see Writing About Movies (37 – 50) for a detailed discussion of how these elements relate to Formal Analysis]. As you know, there are also short videoessays about the elements of film, in a Bblearn folder entitled Film Clips, including clips with analysis--these provide a short course in learning about cinematic form and technique--you might start with the Film Analysis short video essay clips on analyzing Harry Potter and on analyzing Juno.

Rubric for Evaluating Critical Analysis Essay

Concise Advice on Writing a Critical/Analytical/Argumentative Essay

Academic Misconduct: Any act of academic misconduct, including but not limited to cheating, fabrication, plagiarism or facilitating academic dishonesty, will result in failure of the assignment and given the points available, likely failure of the course. Your case will be reported to the Dean of Students according to campus guidelines, and such matters are subject to policies in the UI Student Code of Conduct. Unfortunately, I have had to refer students' plagiarized work to the Dean of Students in past sections of this class and other classes, nearly every year. See this helpful highlighed weblink to learn more about academic integrity on the Dean of Students' website, including plagiarism: Plagiarism includes the using of ideas, data, or language of another as one’s own without specific or proper acknowledgement or citation, lack of knowledge of proper citation is not valid excuse for plagiarism as it is the responsibility of the author writing the material to know the proper methods for appropriate citation and/or seek guidance/help when using another’s work.

Plagiarism can be committed in any type of assignment and includes, but is not limited to, the following behavior that also does not include the full, clear and proper acknowledgement of the original source: 

• The copying of another person’s work, published or unpublished;
• The paraphrase of another person’s work, published or unpublished;
• Using another person’s ideas, arguments, and/or thesis from a published or unpublished work;
• Using another person’s research from a published or unpublished work;
• Using materials prepared by a person or agency in the selling of term papers or other academic materials. 

See UI Library Guidance on Avoiding Plagiarism

Purdue OWL workshop/guidelines on using MLA for citation

MLA Quick Guide to Works Cited/citation

Reminder of Guidance and Advice:
• Consult Corrigan and White chapter on Writing a Film Essay: Observations, Arguments, Research, and Analysi (PDF in Bblearn folder); also see the PDF excerpt from Gocsik et al Writing About Movies.

• You are invited to meet with me – Office hours: W 2:30pm-4:00 p.m. & by appt./Office: Brink 125, and of course, to send queries to me by email: sflores@uidaho.edu

Ford’s The Searchers(1956)
Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train or Notorious or Vertigo or Rear Window or Shadow of a Doubt
De Sica’s Umberto D. or Bicycle Thieves
Rossellini’s Journey to Italy (1954) or Rome, Open City (1945)
Renoir’s The River (1951)
Melville’s Le Samouraï
Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (1957) or La Dolce Vita(1960) or 8½ (1963)
Powell and Pressburger’s  I Know Where I’m Going(1945) or Black Narcissus (1947) or The Red Shoes (1948)
Bergman's Persona (1966), Wild Strawberries (1957), The Seventh Seal (1957), or the [lengthy] masterpiece Fanny and Alexander
Ozu’s Late Spring (1949) or Tokyo Story(1953)
Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai or Rashomon
Mizoguchi's Ugetsu monogatari (1953)
Ray’s Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road, 1955), Aparajito (The Undefeated, 1956), or Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959)--UI library
Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966) or L’avventura (1966)
Truffaut’s Day for Night, Shoot the Piano Player or The 400 Blows (1959), or Antoine and Colette, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, or Love on the Run
Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) or Vagabond (1985) or La Pointe Courte (1956)
Godard’s Contempt (Le Mépris, 1963) or Breathless (1960) or Pierrot le fou
Frears's My Beautiful Laundrette
Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959)
Wenders's Alice in the Cities (1974) or Paris, Texas (1984), or Wings of Desire (1987)
Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), or Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Menzel's Closely Watched Trains(1966)
Chytilová’s Daisies (1966)
Wexler's Medium Cool (1969)
Loach's Kes (1970)
Jutra's Mon oncle Antoine (1971)
Egoyan's the sweet hereafter
Fassbinder's Ali Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Erice's Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Hood's Tsotsi (2005)
Meirelles's City of God (2002)
Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham (2002) or Bhaji on the Beach
Rocha's Barravento
Semebene's Moolaadé (2004)
Haneke's Caché (2004)
Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Kieślowski's Three Colors: Blue
Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love (2000) or The Chungking Express (1994)
Hunt's Frozen River (2008)
Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise (1994)
Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997)
Demange's '71 (2014)
Lee's Do the Right Thing
Dardenne brothers' Two Days, One Night (2014), or La Promesse, or L'Enfant
Demme's Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Linklater's Before Sunrise (1995) or Before Sunset (2004) or Before Midnight
Allen's Manhattan or Annie Hall
Nolan's Memento
Yates's Breaking Away (1979)
Chazelle's Whiplash(2014) or La La Land (2016)
Granik's Winter's Bone (2010)
Alfredson's Let the Right One In (2008)
Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Iñárritu's Birdman (Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)--2014
Jonze's Her (2013) or Adaptation
Bertolucci's The Conformist
Makhmalbaf's The Silence
Campanella's El Secreto de Sus Ojos
Chopra's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Big-Hearted Will Take Away the Bride)
Varma's Satya
Nair's Monsoon Wedding
Gowariker's Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Varma's Company
Advani's Kal Ho Naa Ho (There May or May Not Be a Tomorrow)
Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997, animated) or Spirited Away (2001)
Dassin's The Naked City
Shepitko's Wings
Camell's and Roeg's Performance (1970)
Hodges's Get Carter (1971)
Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976)
Reitman's Juno
Johnson's Brick
Rozema's I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
Scherfig's An Education
Kiarostami's Close-Up
Almodóvar's Volver
Yakin's Fresh
Garland's Ex Machina
Raimi's A Simple Plan
Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001)
Luhrman's Strictly Ballroom (1992)
Barnett's Killer of Sheep
July's Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
Raimi's A Simple Plan (1998)
Anderson's Magnolia
Heckerling's Clueless
Majidi's The Color of Paradise or Children of Heaven
Tabrizi's The Lizard
Nakata's Ringu
Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1 or Vol. 2 (2003-2004)
Zwigoff's Ghost World (2001)
Cuarón's Children of Men (2006)
Chopra's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Big-Hearted Will Take Away the Bride, 1995)
Varma's Satya (1998) or Company (2002)
Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Gowariker's Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)
Advani's Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003/There May or May Not Be a Tomorrow)
Briski's and Kaufman's Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004, documentary)
Forster's Stranger Than Fiction
Anderson's If (1968)
Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Dahl's The Last Seduction,
Jewison's In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Young's Wait Until Dark (1967)
Anspaugh's Hoosiers
Sluizer's The Vanishing (1988)
Kiarostami's Close-Up (1990)
Zhangke's Still Life (2006) and Platform (2000)
Cissé's Yeelen(1987)
Glazer's Under the Skin (2014)
Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Villaneuve's Arrival (2016)
Jenkins's Moonlight (2016)
Ade's Toni Erdmann (2016)
Peele's Get Out (2017)
Showalter's The Big Sick (2017)
von Trotta's The Second Awakening of Christina Klages (1977)
Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979)
Robinson's Withnail and I (1987)
Andersson's Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
Jonze's Adaptation (2002)
Braff's Garden State (2004)
Von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006)
Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Weerasethakul 's Tropical Malady (2005)
Fleck & Boden's Half-Nelson (2006)
Vigalondo's Time Crimes (2007)
Spielman's Revanche (2008)
Martel's The Headless Woman (2008)
Assayas's Summer Hours (2009)
Denis's White Material (2009)
Audiard's A Prophet (2010)
Rees's Pariah (2011)
al Mansour's Wadjda (2013)
Chabrol's La Ceremonie (1995)
Porumboiu's Police, Adjective (2009)
Pawlikowski's Ida (2013)
Nemes's Son of Saul (2015)
Haynes's Carol (2015)
Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird (2017)
Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Weber's 500 Hundred Days of Summer (2009)
Coogler's Creed (2015)
Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (2007)
Farhadi's The Salesman (2016)
Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Anderson's Phantom Thread (2017)
Assayas's Personal Shopper (2017)