Chapter 1

1. Does film censorship reflect or impose standards?

2. Taking the studio era blockbuster Gone with the Wind (1939) as a case study,
would you consider the film entirely in keeping with the spirit of the Productio
n Code?
3. Does the BBFC underestimate the maturity of young audiences in the UK?
4. Watch the film Mildred Pierce. In what ways can you identify the Warner Broth
ers authorial style in the film?
5. Imagine Jurassic Park were made today. How would it be marketed? As it was in
1993?
6. Is the new generation 3D a passing fad, like it was in 1953? If not, why not?
7. What distinguishes the release pattern of Gladiator versus Slumdog Millionair
e?
8. Can you build an audience for your own zero-budget production by word of Inte
rnet? Create an on-line marketing campaign based on the case studies of Blair Wi
tch Project and Paranormal Activity.
9. In the modern era, what attracts the frequent film goer to the cinema? Why?
Chapter 2
1. How have computer-generated images shaped our expectations for the blockbuste
r?
2. In what ways does District 9 affirm these expectations or challenge them?
3. What role does computer graphics technology play in this process?
4. Some historians argue that sound and music are simply married to the image to
create a realistic effect. How does multichannel technology challenge this assump
tion?
5. In what ways does sound design, in conjunction with sound technology, create
cinematic spectacle?
6. In what other ways does sound and sound technology create inner and outer spa
ce in Star Trek (2009)?
7. How does the immersive quality of 3-D in Avatar change storytelling?
8. Will immersive technologies like 3-D and multichannel sound become the new st
andard for all science fiction blockbusters? Why or why not?
9. How does Avatar challenge the idea of technological determinism? What are the
contradictions that the film presents in regard to technology?
Chapter 3
1. Consider your own collections of films or those of someone you know. What kin
ds of story/history can be constructed from the inter-connections between them?
2. Take three still images from different films that are important to you. Explo
re in each case some of the ways in which the image has a resonance for you.
3. Take all three images and put them side by side. Explore some of the ways the
y begin to talk to each other. In doing each of the above, what do you discover ab
out single film images?
4. Compare images 3.2 and 3.3 in the fifth edition of Introduction to Film Studi
es. Account for how similar or different your response is to each. In relation t
o these responses, what do you understand by poetics of presence?
5. Consider a film you know well which plays on a sense of time which escapes th
at of chronological clock time. How does the film communicate this?
6. Consider a film from the past as you respond to it in the present. How do ref
lections on time alter the way you respond to the images on the screen?
7. Is it useful to make a distinction between films that are rooted in the moveme
nt image and others that are rooted in the time image?
8. Consider these statements:
Film cannot be defined precisely as a told medium and neither can it be defined ent
irely as an enacted medium.
Film is not past tense, but neither is it present tense.
How do we experience film?
9. What are some of the differences between watching people in a documentary as
opposed to in a fiction film? Are there any similarities?
10. Think of a film that stimulates the effect of a live performance. Do you react
in a particular way to this film?
11. When we watch the moving image work which has no obvious narrative purpose,
such as the work of Bill Viola or of Gustav Deutsch, what do we do as spectators
?
12. (a) Select from a collection of old photographs one that catches your intere
st. Reflect on the different ideas and emotions you experience when you look at
the photo.
(b) Select a contemporary image that has some significance for you. In what way
s does this image allow you to see more and think more fully about the real person
or place represented?
13. Let us go to the BFI channel on YouTube. A number of short films from the va
st Mitchell and Kenyon collection are included. Mitchell and Kenyon travelled ar
ound the cities and towns of Northern England in the early 1900s, filming scenes
of everyday life. They screened the films that very evening or the next, a cine
ma of attractions where people could see themselves on screen. The camera, mount
ed on a tripod, does not move. Like the earliest moving images of the Lumire Brot
hers in France, movement is within the static frame, usually right and left, but
sometimes movement toward the camera and out of the bottom of the frame. This i
s very simple material, but as well as having proved extraordinarily rich as a r
esource for social historians, these films have been recognised for other qualit
ies.
Typical is Preston Egg Rolling from 1901. This is a 2 minute, 42 second film an
d can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/BFIfilms#p/search/23/n0tOv47IYic .
These events filmed on Easter Monday in a public park have an element of orches
tration about them, but what strikes us most strongly is the chance image, capture
d by the mechanical apparatus of the camera. The fixed camera records movement b
ut many of the people filmed stand still, pose looking straight at the camera an
d respond to the new technology as if having their still photographs taken.
What is your response to these images? You may wish to reflect on the idea of c
inematic presence. You may wish to think about the power old moving images have to
communicate with us in the present.
14. Or let us take a second example, Miners Leaving Pendlebury Colliery from 190
1. It can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/BFIfilms#p/c/F3E52E5E9162CCE1/
2/FFKyrUXmCMk.
This is a stock subject of very early cinema: workers leaving their place of em
ployment and passing in front of the camera.
Create a series of still images from the film using the pause facility and refl
ect on their qualities both as social documents and as images of presence. (Thin
king historically, there is a particular and striking face in the crowd which li
nks this film to Springtime in an English Village.) Contrast the experience of l
ooking at these still images and looking at the film as a whole, as a continuous
moving image.

Chapter 4
1. Choose a recent Hollywood film that you have enjoyed. Explain the cause and
effect structure of the films narrative. (It is important that you do not simply
retell the story: make sure that you identify how one event is connected to the
next, and how each event causes subsequent events to happen.)
2. Explain how characterization and character goals are utilized in the narrativ
e logic you have identified.
3. Use your answers to questions 1 and 2 in order to identify some possible mean
ings, or themes of your chosen film.
4. Choose any still from Introduction to Film Studies (Fifth Edition). Identify
what you think are the key features of the images mise-en-scne.
5. Choose a short scene or sequence from a film you have enjoyed. Write a shot-
by-shot breakdown of your chosen extract, listing the types of shot-scale, camer
a angles and camera movement of each take.
6. Play the film extract from question five again, but this time, close your eye
s. List the sounds you hear, identifying their type (speech, music, sound effec
t), diegetic role (i.e. diegetic or non-diegetic), as well as their relative vol
ume, pitch and timbre.
7. Choose a scene from the film you analysed in questions 1, 2 and 3. List the
ways in which the scene conforms to the properties of continuity editing.
8. Again, choose a scene from the film analysed in questions 1, 2 and 3. Consid
er what emotions the characters in the scene are feeling, then list the performa
nce signs that the actors use to convey these emotions.
9. Choose any film which you consider to be self-reflexive. Identify the narrativ
e conventions and cinematic codes which you consider to be self-reflexive, and e
xplain how they draw attention to, and explore their own properties and techniqu
es.
10. There have been many attempts to replicate Lev Kuleshovs experiment in the ef
fects of montage. Below are four examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gGl3LJ7vHc&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=4gLBXikghE0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd0kV43Pkus&feature=
related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tDP49AhRaU&feature=related
Consider how convincing they are in terms of Kuleshovs assertion that cinematic
juxtaposition alone can radically influence an audiences reading of a single imag
e. Assess whether some examples are more successful than others, and what qualit
ies influence their effectiveness.
11. Analyze the use of sound in the opening 12 minutes of Gladiator, in the scen
e of Romes last battle against Germania. How does the layering of diegetic and no
n-diegetic sound, as well as on and off screen sound (comprising speech, music a
nd sound effects) contribute to the films presentation of warfare?
12. Identify further elements of the cinematography, editing, soundtrack and per
formances in A Blonde in Love which resemble the codes and conventions of cinma-
vrit and documentary filmmaking.
13. Analyse the stories contained in the snapshot montages in Run Lola Run. How do
these stories-within-the-story achieve cause and effect structures and characte
rization in their seconds-long running times?

Chapter 5
1. Discuss the film event with a group of friends. Consider: what is said about th
e specific experience of watching a film in a movie auditorium and how much the
experience is enhanced by the ways we engage with the film through the media, wi
th friends etc. before and after the screening.
2. Although home cinema is essentially a marketing concept, there is the possibili
ty that the audio/visual quality of the film experience could be replicated in t
he home. Do you think that this will mean that the film experience as spectator
and audience will also be replicated in the home?
3. Do you agree that film studies is better off avoiding large generalisations a
bout spectators or audiences and is likely to produce more useful kinds of knowledge
by focusing on small-scale studies of particular groups of people?
4. If everyone responds from within their unique formation, both as a social self
and as an interior self, is there any point in trying to generalise about how we
respond to a film?
Chapter 6
1. The auteurist method is largely founded on mapping similarities of technique
and style across a number of films by the same director. Use a resource such as
the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) to compile a filmography of a
director and then watch a sample of his or her films, noting any consistencies o
f style and/or theme that occur across more than one film. See if it is possible
to detect a personal statement or worldview in the films.
2. The method described in question one is not limited to directors. Repeat the
exercise using a cinematographer, actor, fight choreographer, or even a studio s
uch as Disney or Pixar to see if other figures/agencies can be usefully analysed
as if they are an auteur.
3. There is an increasing trend to market films using the rubric Presented by , (f
or example Presented by Quentin Tarantino) even if the star director has not direc
ted the film. How does this notion of badged auteursim relate to the idea of film
authorship in terms of both art and commerce?
4. Auteurs now exist as much outside the film text as inside it. Try watching a
film on DVD or Blu-ray while listening to the directors commentary. How does this
effect delimit or anchor the possible meanings of the film around the directors
putative intentions? Moreover, in relation to the release of a new film, track t
he directors performance of being an auteur across the full range of media chat sho
w appearances, interviews on radio, in newspapers and on the Internet, and publi
c appearances at premieres and other related events.
5. Explore the notion of corporate authorship in relation to Disney or PIXAR. To w
hat extent do their corporate brand names also mark out distinctive stylistic pr
actices? Does the same apply for, say, Universal or Dreamworks?
6. When released on DVD or Blu-ray, an increasing number of films contain a Direc
tors Commentary as part of their Special Features. After initially watching the film
, watch it again while listening to the Directors Commentary and explore the exte
nt to which his or her explanation of the films thematic and stylistic features:
reinforces your own reading of the film
alters your opinion about the significance and meaning of the film.
Chapter 7
1. Choose one male and one female contemporary film star and compare: a. the fre
quency with which, and the ways in which, they are represented in celebrity maga
zines and the press
b. their status within the marketing of their movies
c. the ways in which knowledge of their private lives overlaps with or informs t
heir on-screen roles.
2. To what extent do pop stars, star footballers or stars from other areas of th
e media fit, or resist the models of film stardom discussed in this chapter?
3. Which categories of stardom do animated stars such as Woody and Buzz Lightyea
r fit into, and how might we modify those categories in order to describe this p
henomenon?
4. In what ways is it possible to analyse and understand a special effect such a
s a twister, an earthquake, an alien or a computer generated toy as a star?
5. Discuss the idea that film stars are no longer crucial to an industry that re
lies on franchises and special effects for selling movie tickets.

Chapter 8
1. Categorising films into discrete genres is always a purposeful act. One avenu
e into genre studies is to try to understand the nature and function of that act
. As such, compare the way that genres are defined in different ways in differen
t contexts. Some contexts you might consider looking at are: rental outlets (bot
h physical and online); different kinds of shops where you buy DVDs or Blu-rays
(supermarkets, record shops, iTunes and other online stores such as Amazon or Pl
ay.com); film guides, reference works, or compendia (e.g. Halliwells, Variety, Ti
me Out, IMDB, etc.); film reviews (compare the reviews of the same film by diffe
rent critics); and TV listing magazines and niche television channels (e.g. Radi
o Times, Sky Indie, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Movies4Men). Where are the mome
nts of overlap, and when do categorical discrepancies occur? Can you explain the
se?
2. In writing about The Matrix trilogy of films, David Bordwell has suggested th
at, in order to track the films fully, one would have to enter the Matrix through
many media portals (2006: 59). As such, try engaging in this tracking activity b
y exploring the films generic relationship with Japanese manga and anime, Hong Ko
ng action cinema, cyberpunk novels, music videos, and computer games.
3. Try analysing how a computer game such as Red Dead Redemption reactivates man
y of the generic markers and metaphors that circulate western films in the attem
pt to offer gamers both an authentic generic narrative experience and a sense of re
alistic gameplay.
4. Read the section on Genre as taxonomy and chapter 10 on animation. In what ways
does a consideration of animation problematise the notion of film genre? Is ani
mation a genre in itself, or is it possible to draw generic distinctions between
different animated films?
5. Likewise, try and list some of the difficulties and problems associated with
grouping all non-fiction films together under the singular generic label, documen
tary.
6. Read the section on Genre as economic strategy. If you were to invest in a movi
e, which genre of filmmaking would you choose in order to offset the financial r
isk and hopefully make a profit? Who would you want to star in it? List five thi
ngs that would have to occur in the movie in order for you to sign the cheque. A
lso, what other merchandising products or tie-ins would you sanction in order to
promote your film?

Chapter 9
1. How does the documentary filmmaker use mise-en-scne, editing, sound, cinematog
raphy, and narrative devices to create a point of view/argument? Consider who sa
ys what to whom, when, how, and why, and with what effect.
2. The documentary filmmaker, in dealing with actuality and real social issues may
encounter certain problems in the making of the text. What might these problems
be and how can the documentarist resolve them?
3. In a number of the case studies in this chapter, the political and ethical st
ance of the filmmaker is crucial to the way we understand and perhaps support or
oppose the implied or explicit argument of the documentary. When watching futur
e documentaries consider and evaluate the behaviour, attitude or position of the
filmmakers. Do you believe that they are correct in the ways that they pursue do
cumentary truth?
4. For further study, consider the implications of hybridisation in documentary. F
or example, what aspects of soap opera and documentary combine in a docu-soap and to w
hat effect?
5. In what ways do early cinema actualities behave as documentaries?
6. How does Grizzly Man mobilise ideas of construction and authorship? Does this
make it problematic as a documentary?
7. How do dramatised documentaries such as Twockers raise ethical and moral dile
mmas? For whom?

Chapter 10
1. In what ways and to what advantage does animation have a greater potential fo
r expression than live-action filmmaking?
2. In what ways does animation offer different perspectives on issues of represe
ntation, i.e. How does animation address gender, race, ethnicity, age, the body, e
tc.?
3. How might traditional notions of narrative, genre, authorship etc. in live-action f
ilm-making be revised when defined in relation to animation?

Chapter 11
1. Do mainstream films still represent women in a narrow range of predictable an
d stereotyped ways?
2. How useful a contribution has feminist film theory made to the study of film?
3. Compare and contrast the star images and their representation on film of eith
er Bruce Willis or Russell Crowe with Hugh Grant or Kevin Spacey.
Sally Potter, Filmmaker
4. To what extent can Orlando be considered a feminist film?
5. Is Sally Potter an autuer filmmaker?
Nicole Holofcener, Writer/Director
6. Choose one of Nicole Holofceners films and compare the style and narrative con
tent with Sex and the City 1 or 2.
7. Discuss the representation of the female in either Lovely and Amazing or Frie
nds with Money.
Fight Club
8. Compare the depiction of masculinity in Fight Club with The Hurt Locker.
9. Choose an action film released in the last five years and discuss its represe
ntation of masculinity.

Chapter 12
Sexual Ideology
1. Watch Gods and Monsters and read chapters 10-13 of Whales biography by Mark Ga
tiss (listed in the Bibliography), then consider how the factual and narrative v
ariations relate to Richard Dyers ideas about heterosexual ideology.
2. A similar analytical comparison of the novel and film versions of the followi
ng should produce some worthwhile work:
3. Alice Walkers The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg, 1985).
4. Michael Cunninghams The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2003).
Censorship
5. Watch and assess the famous oysters and snails scene from Spartacus (US, Stanle
y Kubrick, 1960), and read the notes accompanying the special edition DVD, for a
concrete example of Hollywoods gay censorship as outlined by Vito Russo.
The Viewer's Gaze
6. Watch a so-called Pepla muscle epic of the 1950s and an action film from the 199
0s starring Jean-Claude Van Damme or Dolph Lundgren. To what extent do you thin
k these films make the male body into the focus of a homoerotic gaze? Read Rich
ard Dyers essay on muscle epics in The Matter of Images (1993).
Lesbian Looking
7. In the light of Weiss's comments on viewing strategies, analyse the love-maki
ng scenes from Desert Hearts, Go Fish and any other film of your choice.
8. Compare and contrast the lesbian worlds portrayed in some of the following fi
lms in terms of audience positioning: a. Go Fish
b. She Must Be Seeing Things
c. Desert Hearts
d. The Virgin Machine
e. When Night Is Falling
9. Desert Hearts is a romance; Bound is a film noir and Better Than Chocolate is
a comedy. Compare and contrast the lesbian lovers in each of these films in ter
ms of genre.
Playing with Genre: John Greyson
10. Critically analyse the following films by John Greyson in terms of the forma
l qualities that they have in common. Can these films by classified according t
o traditional genres?
The Making of Monsters
Urinal
Zero Patience
Lilies
Gender, Race and Queer Cinema
11. Critically analyse Monica Treut's The Virgin Machine to address the portraya
l of the changing character of Dorothee as she explores the San Francisco lesbia
n scene. Read The Queer Nationhood of Monica Treut et al (Kuzniar: 157)
12. Watch Gohatto and East Palace, West Palace and consider their significance a
s examples of recent queer cinema from Japan and China.
Queer Spectatorship
13. Consider ways in which either the genre or the star systems may mediate the
reception of one or more of the following films for queer audiences:
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
I Married a Monster from Outer Space
Pirates of the Caribbean
Queen Christina
The 'Alien' Films
The Wizard of Oz
Chapter 13
Choose any film mentioned in this chapter:
1. Are there any African American characters in this film? What seems to be thei
r role relative to the other characters? If it is a majority black cast film, ar
e there any other figures of different races? How is difference handled?
2. How is race/ethnicity marked? How important is it to the story or particular
plot points?
3. Does the black character seem to be an essential character? How so? Or why no
t?
4. To what extent does the black character seem to adhere to or depart from ster
eotypes about a particular racial or ethnic group?
5. Does the black character seem to have a private, interior self? Does he or sh
e have a network of family or friends, apart from the white character to whom he
or she is attached?
6. Who has the cameras point of view?
7. What is your definition of black film? Is Black Film akin to a national cinema?
Is it a genre relative to comedy, romance, or thriller films? Do films by direc
tors of African descent have enough in common to be considered as a coherent gro
up?
8. To what degree do you think authenticity is a meaningful goal in the current
media environment? How do you define authenticity in Afro-Diaspora performance?
9. Can you identify racist iconography in the current media environment? What ar
e its historical precedents?
Chapter 14
1. What differences of interest can be identified between producers, distributor
s and exhibitors, and how does government intervention address these?
2. Consider a variety of strategies employed in the production of British films
which seek to attract American investment and American audiences for instance, p
ersonnel, subject matter, locations.
Chapter 15
1. Check your local papers for theatres showing Indian films in your town or cit
y and invite a friend to go with you on an opening night. Describe in detail the
entire visit including standing in the queue for a ticket, the trailers, audien
ce reaction to stars and songs, the conversation during the interval and so on.
As a comparative project, visit your local theatre for a showing of a popular Br
itish or American film.
2. Most DVD versions of Indian films are notorious for expunging the frame of th
e interval, thus making it impossible to tell where the filmmaker stopped the fi
lm, well almost. To understand the full import of the interval, its worth seeing
a film in a theatrical context. Plan such an excursion!
Monsoon Wedding
3. Describe the different signs of globalisation in Monsoon Wedding . As you pro
ceed to identify the various objects in the mise-en-scne, describe how the films n
arrative advances differences between globalization and modernization.
4. In a similar vein, note the different ways in which India and Indianness are
signalled in this film. For instance, how does the film present and resolve Adit
is choice in the film?
5. Viewing the different intercutting sequences describe the differences between
the two couples: Aditi and Hemant, and Dube and Alice. Why does the film feel t
he need to elaborate the romance between Dube and Alice? Pay close attention to
Alices identity. Where would you place Dubes class identity?
6. How does the film employ the song and dance sequences and to what end?
7. The official web site for the film points out that besides the various matchm
aking attempts in the narrative, the film is an adoring tribute to Delhi. How do
es the film achieve this?
8. As in Festen (1998), here too the narration of sexual abuse of children break
s the familial revelry. How does the film choose to resolve the question of ince
st? In other words, describe the films ideology in terms of maintaining familial
relationship.
Sholay
9. Describe and analyse the function of the various interruptions in Sholay, pay
ing close attention to the comedy tracks and their relationship to masculine fri
endship.
Bombay
10. How does the interval structure the narrative? Attend closely to the shift i
n formal strategies.
11. Describe and analyse the relationship between the song and dance sequences a
nd narrative time while paying close attention to the mise-en-scne.
12. Compare Bombay and Gadar (2001) by choosing a couple of cinematic elements f
or example, the song and dance sequences or the interval.

Dil Chata Hai
13. Describe and analyse the relationship between the song and dance sequences a
nd the narrative in the film. Do they serve as distractions, delaying devices, o
r are they totally dispensable?
14. Choose at least two song and dance sequences Woh ladki hai kahan? and Dil Chaht
a Hai for instance to discuss the meaning of the mise-enscne and editing. Do supple
ment your readings with interviews culled from the official DVD with the music d
irectors and choreographers, as ways of understanding the discourse of productio
n.
15. How does the film describe Siddharths relationship with Tara? Why do you thin
k she is cast as an alcoholic and finally killed?
16. Re-watch the closing sequence of the film and frame your analysis in terms o
f Sedgwicks formulation of compulsory heterosexuality.
Mr. and Mrs. 55
17. Describe the spaces of the first song between Pritam and Johnny. By attendin
g to the lyrics explore how the film juggles homosocial bonds and heterosexual r
omance.
18. The song set at the pool re-emerges in Kabirs documentary. Describe the rhyth
m and speculate on Dutts use of the pool as a setting in a film, which seems enam
ored with sports. Anita is introduced as a tennis players fan, for instance.
19. The film reserves the first duet between Pritams friend Johnny and his girlfr
iend by setting it among the tables and chairs of an office space. Analyse the f
ilms investment in doubling couples and the relationship between the two love sto
ries.
20. Johnnys presence in the film is clearly marked as a comedy track and he serve
s as Pritams doppelganger, but how do we read his early success in love?
21. A gypsy in a park sings song five, and six is sung by a nightclub singer. Th
ey seem to be worlds apart in terms of their spaces yet, their narrative functio
n seems very similar with the warring couple in shouting distance. Describe the
relationship between the progression of narrative and the songs.
22. Song number eight evokes the convention of using Qawali singers in Hindi cin
ema in a clearly marked space that resembles a backstage musical. Yet here we vi
ew street musicians performing at night. What is the narrative purpose of this s
ong?
23. Describe in detail the various aspects of the mise-en-scne and soundtrack in
songs seven and nine. Note that seven is a duet set in the countryside and nine
is at the airport. Why do you think that the film chooses a single womans voice a
s its final number?
24. Choose three song and dance sequences and describe the camera movement and m
ise-en-scne details. Analyze how the film deploys these sequences to advance, pr
otract, or divert the love story.
25. Choose another film by Guru Dutt, Kagaz ke phool (Paper Flowers) as an exerc
ise in comparison. After identifying the different genre strands in the film, f
ocus on how song and dance sequences pace the narrative.
26. Using Dutts two films as a template compare his films with the work of a cont
emporary director, Mani Ratnam or Vishal Bhardwaj, to draw out the differences i
n the use of this device. Such an exploration will cull out the differences in
style.
Satya
27. Analyse how the interval punctuates the film, inflecting its formal properti
es as well its narrative preoccupations.
28. Ram Gopal Varma did not wish to use song and dance sequences in this film bu
t his producer Bharat Shah insisted on their marketability. Defend the use of th
ese attractions. What kind of a film would we have seen without these sequences?
29. After seeing films such as Dil Par mat le yaar / Dont Take it to Heart (Hansa
l Mehta, 2000) and Vastaav (1999), attempt to sketch out the ideological underpi
nnings of the urban iconography in these films.
Bandit Queen
30. How does the film privilege a referential reading of its narrative?
31. Bandit Queen is sometimes taught in a course on Westerns because of the films
iconography and its narrative preoccupation with outlaws. Ghosh suggests that t
he film partakes of certain conventions from popular cinema. Attempt to describe
and analyse the films proximity and distance from popular cinema.
32. How does the film juggle inter-caste antagonisms and the raperevenge narrativ
e?
33. Read Mala Sens (1991) Indias Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi as a
way of understanding the public response to the film. Imagine a different visua
l construction to the biography.
Fire
34. Describe and analyse how the film links the friendship between Radha and Sit
a to Mundus desire.
35. Using Chris Straayers (1995) essay Hypothetical Lesbian Heroine in Narrative
Feature Film, evaluate to what extent Fire is beholden to patriarchal representa
tions of women and to what degree it recasts the debates on identity. Does the f
ilm prepare us for the closing moments of the film or does it place them outside
the representational circuits we have been privy to?
Lagaan
36. In his review of the film, David Chute (2002) quotes cultural critic Ashish
Nandys pithy comment that cricket is an Indian game that happens to have been inve
nted by the British. If familiar with cricket, point out the various extra-textua
l references to games and players in the film.
37. If read allegorically, the construction of the village team recalls the utop
ian visions of a secular India, a vision that seems more fragile these days with
the rise of Hindu nationalism and sectarian violence. Elaborate the films invest
ment in a secular vision, however rife with contradictions this may be.
38. The love triangle is the other driving force in the narrative. Describe how
the film uses the song and dance sequences to exacerbate the tensions of this er
otic triangle and explain its desire to form an Indian couple.
39. Critics have noted that the star Aamir Khan is a crucial ingredient in the f
ilms success. Construct an archive of fandom using internet sites, star magazines
and visits to Aamir Khan fan clubs, both virtual and real, so as to plot the wa
ys in which his star presence marks the narrative the opening sequence would be
a good place to begin and then proceed to the song and dance sequences.
Hey! Ram
40. A number of recent films dwell extensively on the male revolutionary leaders
from the colonial period, Mangal Pandey and Bhagat Singh, which offer an intere
sting counterpoint to Hey! Ram. In this context, watch Ketan Mehtas The Rising:
The Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005) to explore how these films deal with the idea
of the past.
41. Choose a segment from the two filmsopening, song and dance, to compare the fi
lmmaking styles of the two directors.

Chapter 16
1. In what ways are the effects of neo-colonialism reflected in early Latin Amer
ican cinema?
2. What changes were heralded by the coming of sound?
3. How important was melodrama to Latin American cinema, particularly prior to t
he 1950s?
4. What are the salient characteristics of the New Latin American Cinema and Thi
rd Cinema?
5. In what ways was Italian neo-realism influential during the 1950s and 60s?
6. What was the impact of the Cuban Revolution on film in Cuba and beyond?
7. Does more recent cinematic output from Latin America continue to reflect the
ideas of Third Cinema? In what ways? If not, what is different?
8. How does the interplay between fiction and documentary manifest itself in mor
e recent Latin America films?
Luca
9. How does the use of different film genres add to Luca?
10. Luca was made shortly after the Cuban Revolution. How is this reflected in th
e film?
Madame Sat
11. How is the story of Madame Sat reflected in the mise-en-scne?
12. What does Madame Sat tell us about Brazilian society at the time in which it
is based?
Amores perros
13. In what ways does the cinematography in Amores perros serve to enhance the n
arrative?
14. To what extent might the film be seen to be distinctively Mexican, and to wh
at extent can it be read as a reflection of global modernity?
Chapter 17
1. Examine the relationship between Soviet cinema, theatre and the visual arts.
2. How successful do you think Soviet filmmakers were in combining mass entertai
nment and revolutionary politics?
3. For many Soviet filmmakers editing was the source of cinematic energy and imp
act. Did this mean that they neglected the impact of mise-en-scne and music?
4. Trace the influence of Soviet cinema of the 1920s on subsequent filmmakers an
d film movements.
5. What are the key differences between Soviet montage editing and continuity ed
iting?
6. Why did the Soviet montage filmmakers believe that a new cinematic form was r
equired to communicate revolutionary ideas?
7. Soviet montage films were more successful as avant-garde art than propaganda f
or the masses. Discuss.
8. Discuss the use of mise-en-scne in Soviet montage films.
9. Russian artists and poets had already experimented extensively with montage pri
or to the 1917 revolution. Why didnt the Russian film makers of the 1910s experim
ent with montage earlier?
10. Discuss the significance of the social and political context of Soviet monta
ge cinema.
11. Discuss the use of performance and mise-en-scne in Kuleshovs The Extraordinary
Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks.
12. What is meant by the term creative geography?
13. Outline the key differences between Eisensteins and Pudovkins approach to edit
ing.
14. Why did the FEKs manifesto favour popular art forms such as cinema, circus an
d music hall posters?
15. What is meant by the term dialectical montage?
16. Why was Bazin interested in cinema as a means of capturing a record of events
before the camera with minimum mediation?
17. Define four different types of film montage.
18. Why might Soviet montage films be classified as alternative?
19. Why does Eisenstein favour non-actors over actors?
20. An Eisenstein film resembles a shout, a Pudovkin film evokes a song. Discuss.
21. Why do Eisensteins films tend not to focus on individual heroes?
22. What were the distinctive features of pre-revolutionary Russian cinema?
23. Why did Vertov believe that Film drama is the opium of the people?
24. What might a statistical analysis of Soviet films reveal if compared to an a
nalysis of Hollywood films from the same era?
25. Trace the influence of Soviet cinema of the 1920s on subsequent filmmakers a
nd film movements.
26. Why might Bazin claim that the audience of Soviet montage films was essentia
lly passive?