don’t bother me. Just as, at least for those who pass the class, I probably don’t bother them much. They can get a B without having to give up too many of their LGHDV DERXW ZKDW Ă€OP VKRXOG EH D VXFFHVVLRQ RI FDU FKDVHV VSHFLDO HIIHFWV IDUW jokes, and sex scenes, all transcribed into the language of the day. I remember telling a class in 1995 that critics thought Citizen Kane WKH EHVW Ă€OP RI DOO WLPH , SROOHG WKHP RQ ZKDW Ă€OP WKH\ ZRXOG JLYH WKDW KRQRU Forrest Gump, still playing in town that week. And then eight or ten years later I repeated the exercise for another generation of students (for generations go by that quickly nowadays— HLJKW \HDUV PD\EH Ă€YH ´7KH\ JR E\ LQ one year,â€? an undergrad once insisted. “My little brother, a year behind me in high school, is into whole different things.â€?) , WROG WKLV FODVV LQ WKH QHZ PLOOHQQLXP WKDW .DQH ZDV VWLOO FRQVHQVXV WRS Ă€OP RI DOO WLPH EXW WKDW VWXGHQWV HLJKW \HDUV DJR VDLG WKH JUHDWHVW Ă€OP WKH\¡G HYHU VHHQ was Forrest Gump. A show of hands: most now had never seen Forrest Gump, many had not heard of it. Their choice for best movie ever: Lord of the Rings.
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each term are more real than the live audience of students for whom I screen them. I’m not proud of this, but it’s true. Who were all those farm kids in those creaky wooden seats in that large and airless room? What are they doing KHUH QRZ DQG ZKDW GR WKH\ ZDQW IURP PH" 7KH Ă€OPV WR PH VWXFN LQ OHFWXUHU SURMHFWLRQLVW PDJLF PDQ PRGH DUH IDU PRUH QXDQFHG IDU PRUH KXPDQ WKDQ WKRVH UHDO SHRSOH VLPSO\ EHFDXVH , NQRZ WKHP VR PXFK EHWWHU 7KH Ă€OPV KDYH ceased to be narratives at all. They’ve become only the succession—and the repetition—of their constituent lines and images. The images follow one another in the dark;Íž the weeks follow one another in two full dimensions on the screen I lowered at the start of class, one full wall of the giant room. If it’s ’96, I’m in my projection booth, reading lips on the screen, doing the dialogue myself between bites of microwaved dinner. Some lines I can deliver with perfect pace DQG LQĂ HFWLRQ 1LFKROVRQ WR 3RODQVNL LQ Chinatown: “I like my nose‌ I like breathing through it.â€? Dietrich to Welles in Touch of Evil: “I didn’t recognize
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