Quirky Cinema of Wes Anderson (& others)

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Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
376QC exam 2 4 lecture hours (45 min) of instruction once per two weeks, 29 to 39 hours of self-study English summer

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Name of lecturer(s)

Department

The subject provides Department for Theory and History of Audiovision

Contents

StructureFive Biweekly Seminars (21.02; 06.03; 20.03; 03;04; 17.04)

Time Wednesdays, 14:00–17:00 (includes a break)

LocationU7 (except 6. 3. when lecture takes place in U4)

Office HoursOnline, by appointment, at a time of mutual convenience.

Genre theory may seem to have little to do with creative practice; but, ideas about media categories derive from understandings of media itself, and have helped shape creative decision-making. Accordingly, this course explores how genre theory can help with the assembly of one particular type of film: Quirky Cinema – those eye-catching, bitter-sweet dramedies typically associated with the American writer-director Wes Anderson. Across five seminar-workshops, students will consider a) how film scholars have understood this format, b) how their ideas manifest in individual films, and c) how their contributions can help students create innovative contributions to this genre. Students will therefore consider Quirky Cinema’s distinctive textual model, its indie branding, its address to hipster audiences, its Manic Pixie Dream Girls, and its preoccupation with Father Figures. By examining these topics in relation to Rushmore (1998), Ghost World (2001), Me, Earl & the Dying Girl (2015), Ruby Sparks (2012), and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), students will develop their own Quirky Cinema concept in a final creative project.

COURSE AIMS

This course uses the case of quirky cinema to promote critical and revisionist understandings of audio-visual formats, considering their industrial, aesthetic, and socio-cultural dimensions. The course therefore familiarizes students with transferable tools, frameworks, approaches, and skills that promise to deepen their understanding of media formats both on and beyond this course. By the end of the course, students will be expected to demonstrate a capacity to synthesize understandings of scholarly frameworks and textual and contextual analyses. Their proficiency in these areas will be assessed through their production of a short video essay pitching their original concept for a Quirky Film, one that requires direct engagement with the key ideas about Quirky Cinema introduced on this course. This will require students to develop insights on the following areas:

•Quirky and formula film-making

•Quirky and cultural politics

•Quirky and audience address

•Quirky and gender representation

•Quirky and fatherhood

For learning outcomes specific to each of these topics, please see individual session outlines below.

TEACHING METHODS

This course is built around five biweekly seminar-workshops. The sessions will combine elements of both traditional seminars and lectures, insomuch as student-focused discussions are supported with brief framing, summarizing, and contextual “lecturettes”. The sessions will also provide students with a space to discuss their own Quirky Cinema concept, which they will develop across the course. As preparation, students are expected to study the provided scholarship and the home screenings in relation to the questions included in the syllabus; these will form the basis of discussions, to which students are expected actively to contribute. Such an approach is intended to maximize students’ engagement and comprehension of the learning outcomes of each session.

SESSION ONETHE QUIRKY MODEL 21 FEBRUARY

Where it is often considered to represent the whimsical worldview of eccentric filmmakers, this session suggests that quirky is perhaps best understood as a longstanding industry format, one that most certainly includes – but also preceded and extends beyond – Wes Anderson’s high-profile adoption of it. Students will consider how The Quirky Model is characterized by a combination of aesthetic, tonal, and thematic elements that invites audiences to process these films in a quite distinctive fashion. In so doing, they will be furnished with a flexible framework with which to develop their own Quirky Cinema concept.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

A sound understanding of:

I: Quirky cinema’s distinctive content.

II: Quirky cinema’s distinctive themes.

III: Quirky cinema’s distinctive modes of address.

Preparation

Reading : MacDowell, 1–16.

  1. What content distinguishes quirky cinema?
  2. What are quirky films about?
  3. How do quirky films encourage audiences to evaluate or process this material?

Home Screening: Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)

Available at: https://m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-rushmore-1998-13659.html

1.How would you describe the look and sound of this film?

2.What emotional themes does this film explore?

3.How did you respond emotionally to the characters and situations in this film?

Original Quirky Cinema Concept

Start thinking about some ideas for your own original Quirky Cinema concept. And be prepared to chat about your ideas in class.

SESSION TWOQUIRKY & INDIE BRANDING6 MARCH

This session explores Quirky Cinema’s reliance on indie branding. In particular, students will examine how the core values of indie are mobilized by and in quirky films, considering aspects such as soundtracks, inter-textual references to other films, and the nature of the characters and the worlds they inhabit. In so doing, this session provides students with a means of constructing the cultural and taste politics of their orginal Quirky Cinema concept.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

A sound understanding of:

I. The values of Indie Culture.

II. The logics of Indie branding.

III. How indie values are projected by/in quirky films.

Preparation

Reading: Newman (2009), 16-34

  1. What is indie’s relationship to the “mainstream”?
  2. What are the three core values that define indie?
  3. How are these core values projected in media works?

Home Screening: Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 2015)

Available at: https://m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl-2015-21999.html

  1. How does this film use characters, narrative, and aesthetics to project indie’s core values?
  2. How does this film use depictions of creative practice to position itself as indie?
  3. How does this film use its content to distance itself from the mainstream”?

Original Quirky Cinema Concept

Start thinking about how you will use depictions of culture in your original Quirky Cinema concept to project its indie credentials.

SESSION THREEQUIRKY & THE HIPSTER AUDIENCE20 March

This session considers how the targeting of a key audience segment contributes to the ways Quirky Cinema operate. Students will examine how filmmakers using the Quirky Model address “hipsters”, exploring how depictions of trauma, coping, and renewal imbue the films with a covert therapeutic dimension for a sensitive audience reticent to expose its vulnerabilities. In so doing, students will be furnished with an emotional-thematic core for their original Quirky Cinema concept.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

A sound understanding of:

I. Hipster identity.

II. The Hipster and cultural interests.

III. Quirky cinema and hipster life-lessons.

Preparation

Reading: Newman (2013), 71-82.

  1. How does Newman define the hipster?
  2. What roles do growing up play in this subculture?
  3. What roles do culture play in this subculture?

Home Screening: Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

Available at: https://m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-ghost-world-2001-243678.html

  1. How does this film depict hipster characters?
  2. What roles do culture play in their lives?
  3. What roles does this suggest the films might play in the lives of real-world hipsters?

Original Quirky Cinema Concept

Start thinking about how investments in personal development offer emotional support to characters in your original Quirky Cinema concept. And be prepared to chat about your ideas in class.

SESSION FOURMANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRLS 3 APRIL

The session focuses on quirky cinema’s depiction of girls and women, through an examination of the format’s more notorious character-type: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Students will consider whether these characters have been primarily used to support the supposed male-orientation of the films, or whether they may also be used to address female audiences, even critiquing men on the screen and in front of it. In so doing, students will be furnished with a key character-type for their original Quirky Cinema concept.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

A sound understanding of:

I. The characterization of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

II. The socio-political phenomena this character-type mediates.

III. The ways this character-type is used to address audiences of quirky films.

Preparation

Reading: Vazquez Rodriguez, 168–201.

  1. What are the defining traits of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl?
  2. How do such characters embody ideas about “Neoliberal/Postfeminist” femininity?
  3. Why does this particular author find the Manic Pixie Dream Girl so troubling?

Home Screening: Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 2012)

Available at: https://m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-ruby-sparks-2012-230541.html

  1. To what extent does this film mobilize the Manic Pixie Dream Girl character-type?
  2. How does this film use this character to speak to male viewers and to female viewers?
  3. Do these films have something critical to say about the Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

Original Quirky Cinema Concept

Start thinking about how you will use (including subverting) the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in your original Quirky Cinema concept. And be prepared to chat about your ideas in class.

SESSION FIVEFATHER FIGURES17 APRIL

This session will consider whether Quirky Cinema is really format with major “daddy issues”, given its supposed propensity for absent, inept, and malicious patriarchs. Students will be invited to assess this claim, considering whether some quirky films offer more sympathetic portrayals of father figures, not least because these films are often pitched at older males for whom parenthood is a major part of their lives. In so doing, students will be furnished with another key trope for their original Quirky Cinema concept.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

A sound understanding of:

I. How quirky films are argued routinely to critiques father figures.

II. More sensitive depictions of father figures in these films.

III. How address to older audiences drives more positive depictions.

Preparation

Reading: Robe, 101–121.

  1. What psychological shortcomings characterize older males in Wes Anderson’s films?
  2. Why do they suffer from these issues?
  3. How do these issues affect their conduct as fathers?

Home Screening: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Mariella Heller, 2019)

Available at: https://m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-a-beautiful-day-in-the-neighborhood-2019-235024.html

  1. How are fathers – literal and symbolic – depicted in this film?
  2. How might this material be geared to fathers (or sons/daughters) in the audience?
  3. How do these films suggest quirky cinema itself can help support fathers in the audience?

Original Quirky Cinema Concept

Start thinking about how your will depict fathers/father figures in your original quirky cinema concept. And be prepared to chat about your ideas in class.

READINGS:

MacDowell, James. “Notes on Quirky”, Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 1 (2010): 1-16.

Newman, Michael Z. “Indie Culture: In Pursuit of the Authentic Autonomous Alternative”, Cinema Journal 48.3 (2009): 16–34.

Newman, Michael Z. “Movies for Hipsters”, in Geoff King, Claire Molloy, and Yannis Tzioumakis (eds), American Independent Cinema: Indie, Indiewood, and Beyond. London: Routledge, 2013: 71–82.

Robe, Chris. “Because I Hate Fathers, and I Never Wanted to Be One: Wes Anderson, Entitled Masculinity, and the ‘Crisis’ of the Patriarch”, in Timothy Shary (ed), Millennial Masculinity: Men in Contemporary American Cinema: Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 2012: 101–121.

Vazquez Rodriguez, Lucia Gloria. “500 Days of Postfeminism: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Stereotype in its Contexts”, Prisma Social 2 (2017): 167–201.

SCREENINGS:

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Mariella Heller, 2019)

Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 2015)

Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 2012)

Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)

Learning outcomes

Advice and Learning Outcomes: Towards the end of the course, an advice sheet will be issued spotlighting the general qualities graded highly on this course.

Targeted Learning Outcomes/Areas of Assessment

  1. An understanding of The Quirky Model
  2. An understanding of Indie Branding
  3. An understanding of address to Hipster Audiences
  4. An understanding of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope
  5. An understanding of the Father Figure trope.
  6. An innovative approach to these components of Quirky Cinema.

All video essays are to be submitted in VLC-playable format to richard_nowell@hotmail.com - Please include your own name and course title in the name of the file.

NB: Extensions can be arranged with the instructor in advance, based on health, humanitarian, and other grounds.

Tutorials

Students may arrange one-on-one tutorials to discuss any issues arising from the course, including the assessment. Meetings can be arranged by email and will take place online at a time of mutual convenience or after a teaching session.

Feedback

Each student will be emailed individually with detailed personal feedback on video essay. This feedback is designed to be constructive, so will spotlight strengths, shortcomings, and suggestions on how the paper might have been elevated.

General Evaluation: Grades from A-F will be awarded based on the following general criteria. Please see above for the specific areas of assessment for the prompt. Please note that appropriate leeway will be afforded to students using a second language.

Prerequisites and other requirements

NA

Literature

NA

Evaluation methods and criteria

At the end of the course, students are to submit a circa 10-munite video essay, pitching their original Quirky Cinema concept.

Value: 100% of Final Grade

Due Date: Midnight CET Wednesday 15 May 2024

UnderstandingSources/EvidenceCommunication

A

90<Insightful, vigorous, and demonstrating considerable depth of understanding and a significant amount of original thought; addressing prompt directly through a wholly coherent synthesis of ideas; demonstrating a degree of mastery over subject; demonstrating a deep and thorough understanding of key concepts.Full range of set resources consulted; sources employed with significant discrimination and sound judgment; thorough assessment of evidence; use of a broad range of examples.Near-flawless turns of phrase and expression; sophisticated and precise vocabulary; clear structure; exemplary citation/bibliography.

B

80 – 89.99Perceptive and insightful; some evidence of original thought; for the most part addressing prompt directly; mainly coherent synthesis of ideas; thorough and somewhat critical understanding of key concepts.A fairly wide range of set resources consulted; solid assessment of evidence; sophisticated use of a fairly broad range of examples.Few errors in expression; mainly sophisticated turns of phrase and expression; mostly clear structure; strong citation and bibliography.

C

70 – 79.99Solid understanding addressed, for the most part, to the prompt; good synthesis of ideas; reasonably solid understanding of key concepts; evidence of gaps in knowledge and some minor misunderstandings of key concepts.Some sources consulted; evidence of some assessment of evidence; use of mostly workable examples.Comprehensible and largely error-free expression; reasonable clearly structured; some attempt to provide citation/bibliography.

D

60 – 69.99Indirectly addressed to prompt; no real synthesis of ideas; mainly descriptive rather than analytical; patchy understanding of key concepts; significant gaps in knowledge.Restricted range of sources consulted; superficial understanding of evidence; limited range of examples, many of which are inappropriate.Numerous errors; limited vocabulary; ambiguous or inaccurate turns of phrase; weak or missing citations/bibliography.

E

50 – 59.99Barely addressed to the prompt; largely disconnected series of points; poor understanding of key concepts; major gaps in knowledge.No sources consulted; poor understanding of evidence; few useful examples.Poor, with numerous errors; limited vocabulary; ambiguous or inaccurate turns of phrase; no citations/bibliography.

F

<50Not addressed to the prompt; largely incoherent; little evidence of an understanding of key concepts; demonstrating little knowledge of subject.No sources consulted; poor understanding of evidence; no useful examples.Poor with numerous errors; limited vocabulary; ambiguous or inaccurate turns of phrase; no citations or bibliography.

ZERONo assessment submitted; Plagiarized submission. Submission showing little or no effort to respond to the prompt.

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans