Amarcord

Amarcord is essentially a coming of age film. Choose one scene in Amarcord and another scene in a coming of age film of your choice. Compare and contrast the two scenes cinematically with coming of age as the film focus. Here is an article on Amarcord and another by Roger Ebert. Be sure to include at least one essay on the film of your choice.

La Strada

Roger Ebert, in his Great Films essay on La Strada, states:

"It is Quinn's performance that holds up best, because it is the simplest. Zampano is not much more intelligent than Gelsomina. Life has made him a brute and an outcast, with one dumb trick (breaking a chain by expanding his chest muscles), and a memorized line of patter that was perhaps supplied to him by a circus owner years before. His tragedy is that he loves Gelsomina and does not know it, and that is the central tragedy for many of Fellini's characters: They are always turning away from the warmth and safety of those who understand them, to seek restlessly in the barren world."

Fellini has given us a film about outcasts. How do the roles of these outcasts reflect on each other? Do you see any signs of redemption? Choose a character and examine how that character redeems him or herself and how that character is cinematically presented as an outcast by society. Be mindful of all of Fellini's symbolism!

Minimum: 2 paragraphs

Beijing Bicycle

Wang Xiaoshuai's film Beijing Bicycle is ultimately a film about the effects of "modernization" in China. I'd like you to read this essay and discuss the film's narrative and what you feel is the implied meaning of the film as a whole. Choose one scene and analyze the scene fully and cinematically and tell me why you chose the scene and what is the scene's relationship to the film as a whole.