Test on Monday, 5/16

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Asghar Faradi's A Separation, the Student Choice Film for your period, and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In A Separation: Visual and physical separations in the mise en scene; how is the depiction of life in modern Tehran, Iran similar and different to life in the west?; drama as genre; long takes at the film's beginning and end; what crucial information is not divulged at the end of the film? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval and ending in harmony); comedy as "serious fun"; Sugar's songs' lyrics; Screwball Comedy; curtain line; swish pan and its effect as visual rhetoric; filmed in black and white for a reason; parallel editing (crosscutting); using proxemic patterns to create humor; Kinds of Comedy: parody, sight gags, slapstick, repartee, situational comedy, sexual innuendo, phallic symbols, running gag, dramatic irony, and meta-filmic moments. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In American Beauty (Period 1) OR The Sixth Sense (Period 2): Be familiar with the characters, plot developments, and the concepts discussed in class. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Thursday, 5/12 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 40% short answers

Good luck!