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"It happened once... It happened once, and so it will be forever.."
Everything is Illuminated - A Movie & Questions: Students will watch a film - answering some questions immediately - and more involved thinking prompts at home. I began with this film (as the movie to accompany The History of Love - but switched to Everything is Illuminated, as many students found this movie to dense and difficult (though many love it - and it then became an Extra Credit assignment).
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
Wings of Desire Movie Questions (see my page on Movie Questions). I initially chose Wings of Desire for two main reasons - the first has to do with the Rilke poems that we go over at the beginning of The History of Love - though this movie came first (in my class). The second has to do with the very important idea of Angels as seen in Leo's son's most famous book of short stories. I don't know if it is coincidental or if Nicole Krauss was a fan of Wings of Desire - but the angels seem so similar - so lots of great opportunities for comparison in the Movie Questions.
You can also see my first film that I showed in this class, The Return of Martin Guerre, for more reasoning on how and why I choose a specific movie. In a nutshell there are two different types of questions - those in bold that the students answer while they are watching the movie (it keeps them focused and on track) and those questions in italics that the students answer for homework. Each of the latter questions is a kind of mini-essay that requires them to use what they found in their reading of the novel, our discussions & group works, and their viewing of the movie.
NOTE: THERE IS A SCENE of Suicide in this FILM. The scene involves a man jumping to his death from a building. Please make sure you screen the movie and act appropriately for you classroom.
The Movie - Wings of Desire
The Movie - Wings of Desire
Here is the description taken from JustWatch (a site that tells you where a movie is streaming): "Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds -- with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk -- that it might be possible for him to take human form.." The trailer can be found here.
Handout (Movie Questions)
Handout (Movie Questions)
Most Recent Handouts & Quizzes
Most Recent Handouts & Quizzes
Movie Questions: Docx PDF NOTE: THERE IS A SCENE of Suicide in this FILM. The scene involves a man jumping to his death from a building. Please make sure you screen the movie and act appropriately for you classroom.
PLEASE NOTE (FOR THIS HANDOUT) - the immediate questions are NOT boldfaced, but the at-home thoughtful questions are italicized. From the handout & Roger Ebert's review: " The angels in "Wings of Desire" are not merely guardian angels, placed on Earth to look after human beings. They are witnesses, and they have been watching for a long time--since the beginning. Standing on a concrete river bank in Berlin, they recall that it took a long time before the primeval river found its bed. They remember the melting of the glaciers. They are a reflection of the solitude of God, who created everything and then had no one to witness what he had done; the role of the angels is to see."
Audio Visual Content
Audio Visual Content
Again - here is the link to JustWatch.com - where you can find where The Return of Martin Guerre is streaming. There are also beautiful bluray and 4k UHD discs of this film at Amazon.
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
It is more than possible to watch films together with your class - usually that means having the video you are watching on your computer and sharing the screen with students. You can also keep the comment window open to share things with them (just don't get too distracting). You can also see if they are paying attention or not.
Links
Links
Class Recordings (for registered members)
Class Recordings (for registered members)
Audio
Audio
Video
Video
The students Illuminated Text Projects should be next. If you want to do an in class essay - you can go here. After that it is time to start Candide.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
This is the second film I've shown with The History of Love. I will also post the other one on our site. But, as much as I love Wings of Desire - this movie really resonated with my students. The suicide scene is always tricky. By this point in the year - I know my students and I not only make a warning in class - it is worked into the handout, and on top of that I speak with individual students as well. This movie concerns a character named Jonathan (like the author) who is termed a "collector". That sure has a special resononance with the author of this website...
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