Bölümler
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What does this 1984 film, a largely fictional account of the relationship between Mozart and fellow composer Antonio Salieri, tell us about the mix of jealousy disgust and admiration that motivates Salieri as he deals with the profane Mozart? How does the movie portray Salieri’s conflicted love/hate relationship with God, and use the contrast between Mozart’s profane life and personality, and the profound and sublime beauty of his music, to motivate that conflict? How does Salieri’s plot to convince Mozart that his deceased father has commissioned him to compose a Requiem Mass illustrate? Does Salieri ever reconcile himself with his own mediocre talent? Why does this film largely fictionalize the actual relationship between the two men, which did have elements of friction, but was largely professional and, to a degree, collegial? How does this film from the 1980s reflect the hard living by pop stars in the 1960s and 1970s? How does the film comment upon censoriousness with regard to art? How does it comment upon the musical tastes and political concerns of the aristocracy of the day, upon market forces, and reflect similar dynamics in today’s film industry?
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How does this 2023 film, which is set in post-WWII Japan, explore the complex emotions of its main character, Koichi, as he deals with survivor’s guilt? How does he compound the shame he has for having been too afraid to undertake his kamikaze mission in the late days of the war? When he and his unit are attacked by Godzilla why does he fail to carry out his part of the counterattack? How does the film portray post war Tokyo, and Koichi’s relationship with survivor Noriko and the orphaned child, Akiko, who she cares for? How does her action to save Koichi’s life during Godzilla’s attack on her home town compound his survivor’s guilt? Do elements of the film amount to a critique of Imperial Japanese attitudes toward life and death? How does the film portray comradery between Koichi and the men he works with as they clear mines, and later, confront the mutated Godzilla? What is symbolized when Koichi flies a modified jet aircraft into Godzilla’s mouth, and ejects before the explosion? What does Sosaku’s provision of an ejection seat symbolize? Is the film a conservative political statement of some sort? Why does the film have the Americans stepping back from confronting Godzilla? Do Godzilla movies symbolize Japanese feelings about the country’s Imperial past, along with the more obvious inspiration derived from Allied use of atomic weapons?
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Eksik bölüm mü var?
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What does this 1976 film, which tells the story of a failing television network, and the psychological breakdown of its primary news anchorman, Howard Beale, tell us about market forces in media and the import of ratings in generating income? Why does the programming director, Dianne Christinsen, have no problem with exploiting Beale’s mental breakdown? What message is sent by the ironic fact that the communist party USA enters into contract with the network and a leftist splinter group, the Ecumenical Liberation Army to create a reality show? Are they not behaving exactly as the capitalists do? How does this film portray the cynicism in the arrangement and mirror the exploitative relationship between the establishment Communist Party and the splinter group, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the relationship between the CCA holding company, the UBS Network and Howard Beale? Why does CCA head, Arthur Jensen, sell Howard his “corporate cosmology,” yet not seem concerned as the message causes ratings to decline as Beale takes it up on the network’s revamped “news” show? What does the broadcast assassination of Beale tell us about all the parties involved in the conspiracy? How does the Hollywood of the time reflect the cynicism of the 1970s? Does this film’s message and “cosmology” have relevance for today's media environment?
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How does this film make use of relativistic time dilation to set up its twist ending, where Taylor discovers he is on Earth in the distant future, after humanity suffered some great catastrophe (probably a world-wide nuclear war)? How much does Dr. Zaius, the ‘defender of the faith,’ know about Taylor, human history on Earth, and why does he feel it necessary to hide what he knows from Ape society? Is he afraid that Ape society will traverse the same dangerous road of technological advancement that led to the end of human civilization? Why is he concerned that humans are inherently a dangerous influence on apes? Did Apes kill one another prior to Taylor’s arrival? Does Zaius take it that the measures taken against the breeding of human beings by Ape society are justifiable because they insure that humanity will not bring on another globally catastrophic event? Why does he move to suppress evidence that Cornelius and Dr. Zira have found of an ancient human civilization? Do Zaius’s action show that the ancient Ape called ‘The Lawgiver’ knew the truth about man’s past? In what ways does the film depart from its source material, the Pierre Boulle novel of the same title? How do both explore ethics of animal experimentation and research via the use of role reversal? How do the three different species of ape (chimpanzee, orangutan and gorilla) function in the society portrayed in the film? In what ways does ape treatment of human beings reflect our treatment of non-human species?
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What does this 2024 film, portraying the family life of Auschwitz Commandant Rudolph Hoss, teach us about that family’s ability to compartmentalize the horrors from which they directly benefit, and what lessons does this hold for us? How does the film make use of the aural atmosphere laying over the mundane activities of the family to implicate their guilt? How does the film portray the bravery and heroism of the young girl who, at great risk to herself, plants apples around the work areas for the prisoners that are slave laborers? Does the concluding set of scenes, showing Hoss retching as he descends a darkened flight of stairs alone, and then taking us forward in time to the present-day Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum, portray Hoss’s recognition, at some level, of the enormity of his crimes, illustrating something reflected upon by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he wrote about his own experiences in the Soviet Gulag system? “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained”
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How does this 2023 film satirize the market forces in the publishing world? How does the market encourage those indulge and pander to liberal white guilt and traffic in stereotypes concerning black Americans? What, if any significant difference is there between the motivations and justifications Thelonius ‘Monk’ Ellision and fellow author, Sintara Golden, both upper middle-class, well-educated and black, cite to explain why they write stories that indulge these stereotypes? In the end, are they all that different from each other? Is there anything objectionable in their both pandering to liberal sensitivities of the literary and Hollywood markets? How does the film’s late twist or reveal, showing Monk pitching, instead of his novel, My Pafology, his own story, the story of how he came to write the novel under the pseudonym ‘Stagg R. Leigh,’ force the audience to reflect back upon the whole film? Does it raise questions as to how much trust we can put in the film’s portrayal of its main characters, his family? How does the case of Cliff, his brother, illustrate? How does this film comment upon and fit into the history of the portrayal of black Americans in film? How do Hollywood’s recent efforts at inclusion and portrayal of minority groups play out as films are distributed to world markets? What does this reveal about Hollywood’s primary motivations in these efforts?
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How does this 2002 film, about an unfolding alien invasion of Earth, use the premise to explore faith, the problem of evil and the differences between fundamental world views with regard to meaningful coincidences? How does the film’s pivotal conversation between Merrill and his brother Graham, a former Reverend who had lost his faith, illustrate these two views, and what events in the film lead Graham from one to the other perspective? How does the film engage the question of whether God can fully eliminate pain and suffering? How does the film tap into and play with pop-cultural themes involving extraterrestrials, media coverage, and pay homage to War of the Worlds?
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What does this 1994 epic tell us about the tumultuous period in Chinese history (the civil war of the late 1940s and the first decades of Maoist rule) that is its setting? How does the character arc of its protagonist, Fugui, convey his maturation, his growth as a husband and father, and the effect of four decades of communist rule had upon himself, family and friends? How does the film deal with the “Great Leap Forward,” and the “Cultural Revolution?” How does the fate of the local communist chief Cadre, Nui, reflect the tenuous nature of political or social status in China during the cultural revolution? How does the film contrast the family’s personal relationships with Red Guard, in the person of their loving son-in-law, Wan Erxi and his friends, and the Red Guard running the smelting operations and hospital which ultimately take the lives of Fugui and Jiahzen’s two children, Fengxia and Youqing? How does the film use Fugui’s traditional Chinese shadow-puppetry to comment upon communism's antogonism toward elements of traditional Chinese culture? Why did communist China allow production of this film, its international distribution, but refuse to allow its theatrical release in China? How does Chinese cinema reflect the cyclic and tenuous nature of the CCP's openness to criticism of communist practice?
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What does this 1964 black comedy about a nuclear doomsday scenario tell us about the strategic thought surrounding potential nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. during the early years of the 1960s? How does the film play with the concept of a ‘doomsday machine’ as described in the strategic literature of the day? How does the device described in the film reflect an option described by Leo Szilard, a key figure in the development of atomic weapons? How did economist/strategist Thomas Schelling’s work influence Stanley Kubrick’s script? How does the film explore the kind of thinking that backstops the notion of mutually assured destruction? How does the character Dr. Strangelove reflect Kubrick’s desire to combine and satirize aspects of the real-world figures Wernher von Braun and John von Neumann.
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What does this 1997 film, set in fascist Italy during WWII, tell us about the gathering threat in Northern Italy for its Jewish citizens, and how the main character, Guido and his family cope with it? Why does the film explore the Holocaust in the guise of one half of the film being a romantic comedy, the latter being a tragic portrayal of life in an extermination camp? How does Guido protect his young son, Joshua from the harsh reality of antisemitism in Fascist Italy? How does he use deception to protect his son from realizing the true nature of the labor/extermination camp? How does Dora, a gentile, exhibit great love and courage in her insistence on being allowed to board the same train taking her husband and son to the camp? What is the nature of the “game” Guido tells Joshua is actually going on in the camp? What does the alleged ‘game’ have to do with the fact they were taken to the camp on Joshua’s birthday? How does Guido take advantage of Joshua’s fascination with tanks in order to carry out his deception and protection of Joshua? What criticisms did this film garner? How does it illustrate human resilience and love? How does this film illustrate the controversy and utility in using popular culture for keeping historical awareness of events like the Holocaust alive?
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How does this 2007 animated feature play with the premise of time travel and multiple histories or parallel universes? How does the film cause us to consider the plausibility of its main character, Lewis, being able to interact with his adult self after having time travelled into the future? How does the film illustrate the large ramifying effects of small events, especially in the childhood experience of “Goob,” Lewis’s roommate in an orphanage? How does the artistic portrayal of the future world, Lewis as inventor, had largely created, reflect Walt Disney’s futurism and “Tomorrowland” theme parks? How does the film provide opportunity to comment upon the mitigation of potential risks of scientific research carried out in the private realm? How does the AI robot “Doris,” reflect these concerns? What risks would suggest some technologies should not be released into the public? How does the film illustrate these concerns with regard to time-travel technology? Should such technology ever be used, or does it introduce too much potential for chaos? Is time travel only possible in a multiple-universe setting?
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What does this 1984 adaptation of the 1949 George Orwell novel tell us about the totalitarian tendency in human history? How does it adumbrate upon the surveillance state as exemplified in Stalinist Russia? What role does emerging technology of the day play in Orwell’s vision? How does the film do as a portrait of the subjective experience of this state, as lived by the protagonists, Winston, Julia and others? How does the film portray the efforts of Oceania to control information and change or erase objective records, and what is the purpose of the ‘Ministry of Truth’? How does this effort reflect philosophical ‘idealists’? How do current efforts to change classic works of literature bear similarity to these practices? How does the state of Oceania contrast itself with what, from their point of view, were earlier totalitarian states, such as Communist Russia? Does it believe it’s bringing about a utopian vision? What parallels exist between the regular ‘two-minute hates’ aimed at Goldstein and anti-Antisemitism in the modern world? How does Oceania attempt to eradicate all normal human attachments and the need for privacy? Does it succeed?
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How does this 2007 film, based on the 1954 Richard Matheson novel, depart from that book? How effective is the film in focusing on the isolation and loneliness of its protagonist, Neville? How does the dog, ‘Sam’ serve to illustrate that loneliness? What other devices are used to this end? How does the film engage the moral implications of Neville’s search for a cure for the virus that has turned human beings into savage vampiric beings? How does the film’s alternate ending, involving the ‘alpha-male’ leader of the ‘un-dead’ infected, and his mate, who Neville had captured, provide a twist, putting Neville in the role of ‘monster’ and the un-dead infected in role of victims? More generally, how do the novel and film reflect on the darker more savage side of human nature in the person of Neville and in the persons of the living infected, as both fight the almost perfectly savage un-dead infected? In the end, does Neville conclude that any continued efforts on his part in using infected human subjects to find a cure is in fact immoral, given that a large majority of human beings are infected, and that the project requires human trials with an attendant high probability of continued mortality? Is this why he leaves the city with Anna and Ethan, looking for a possible community of uninfected?
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How does this 2000 film engage with and differ from Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, on which it is loosely based? How do various characters in the film, which is set in the deep South during the depression, reflect famous characters in that story? How does the film portray the role of popular music in racial integration during this period in American History? How does the film portray the relationship that existed between racial aspects of the prevailing political order and the opposed and organic growth of integration in popular culture? How does the opportunism of governor, Pappy O’Daniel, with regard to the integrated band formed by Ulysses, Tommy Johnson and the others illustrate? What does the film tell us about the power of recording technology and radio as drivers of social change in the depression era South, and what lessons can we derive concerning the modern media environment and its more positive potential?
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What does this 2021 film premised on the notion of accelerated aging, attempt to tell us about the emotional and psychological impact such events would have on people suffering through it? How does the film portray the rapid onset of maturation in the children involved? How do the characters of the two parents, Prisca and Guy, show the mellowing of age and its power to overcome rifts, and also show the challenges posed for children as their parents age? How does it portray disease progression in the adults on the beach? Why does this medical testing facility, disguised as resort use the beach and the accelerated aging it causes, as a medical testing facility? What arguments are presented to justify the experimentation, and how thoroughly does the film explore these? How does the film compare with others, such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which also engage the ethics of medical treatment and experimentation?
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What does this film, which portrays the events of 9/11/2001 tell us about the responsibilities, training and level of professionalism of the air-traffic controllers involved? How does the film portray uncertainty and lack of information and its effect on the involved people? How does it show the difficulty involved in overcoming assumptions people bring with them as they come to terms with unique events unfolding in real time? How did knowledge of the history of airline hijackings prevent people from realizing these were going to be suicide attacks? What reaction to national tragedy do films such as this typify, and how do they contrast to other darker conspiratorial reactions? How does the portrayal of courage in the face of death play out in terms of the passengers and hijackers? How does this film compare with other films and documentaries that involve the events of 9/11?
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What does this 2017 film, set during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge reign of terror in Cambodia tell us about the radical nature of the communist project of restructuring human society and psychology? Why did the Khmer Rouge resort to using children as soldiers and cadre? How did Pol Pot differ from Stalin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh in his relative anonymity and refusal to create a personality cult around himself? How does the story of the young girl, Loung Ung, and her family illustrate the courage and compassion of that family unit? How do the actions of the mother and father ensure the survival of their children? What lessons should America and her allies draw from U.S. withdrawals from Cambodia, South Vietnam and Afghanistan?
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How does this film’s use of the concept of reincarnation allow it to act as an exploration of human nature? Why do the snakes, a species of what are called “evils” in the film desire to become human? What is involved in the centuries-long training they are undergoing to attain reincarnation as human beings? Why does it take hundreds of years to accomplish this? How do the sisters, White snake and Green snake, exhibit their relative levels of progress in that training? How does the film contrast snake life with human life, and the difficulties of attempting the transformation? Do the films surreal and comedic aspects illustrate Buddhist beliefs with regard to Maya and the illusory nature of reality? How does the Monk Fat Hoi treat the snakes? Why is his treatment inconsistent, sometimes compassionate, sometimes harsh? He sees the snakes serving human beings as medics, sees them save their home village from a flood, and indeed helps them do this, yet wants to capture and banish them from the human world. Why? Is this a commentary on Buddhism? What do the cross-cultural symbolic uses of snakes and spiders tell us about the connection between morality and knowledge? What similarities does the story of White snake and Green snake have with the story of the snake in the Garden of Eden and the Amerindian myths of Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl?
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What does this 2003 film about disgraced New Republic reporter, Stephen Glass, tell us about sociopathic or narcissistic behavior? How does the film engage with matters of journalistic ethics, and illustrate the dangers or traps created by journalistic bias when it comes to exercising critical thought and editorial oversight? How does the film show competition between journals aiding or prodding the editorial and critical efforts that should have been in place at the New Republic? How does this film illustrate the corrosive effects of deception and lying? How does Glass abuse the presumption of veracity that we all bring to life and our interactions with others? How do Glass’s story pitches take advantage of his peers' political biases and their desire to engage in advocacy journalism? How does the case illustrate the risks taken on by journals and news media when they allow writers to use un-named sources?
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What does the pair of films, Fitzcarraldo, and the documentary about the making of that film, Burden of Dreams, tell us about the similarity between the main character, and the film’s director/producer Werner Herzog? How do both illustrate Kant’s notion of the Categorical Imperative in their sometimes-reckless use of indigenous people? How do the indigenous people illustrate that same concept in their use of Fitzcarraldo and his boat? On a related note; how does the film typify the 1980s era in film-making, when some directors took dangerous measures in order to achieve their cinematic visions? How does the film and meta-narrative of the documentary resonate with the era of the rubber barons which it portrays? Why does Herzog repeatedly explore the theme of jungle overpowering man, and man overcoming nature in his films?
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