OK, cinephiles, here's the deal. Ages ago when I was assembling the syllabus for the Intro to Film class I've been regaling you with tales from, I left the screening selection for the unit on genres open. My thinking was that I'd suss out the students and try to come up with something we'd otherwise not cover.
Since then, I've agonized over this choice so much that the Fesser has banned all discussion of it. So now I must turn to you. What should the kiddies watch next week?
Of course, there are some caveats. The text we're using singles out the following six genres [while allowing for hybrid genres and subgenres]: comedies, westerns, melodramas, musicals, horror, and crime. I know, it's ridiculous, but there you have it. So far, crime has been well represented at our screenings, and after Singin' in the Rain, I don't know if I can risk another musical without a revolt.
Also, I have tried to show films from the 1940s to the present, but the 50s are already overrepresented and the 80s and our current decade are underrepresented, so the film ideally would be made during either of those latter two periods. [And, in a perfect world, already part of our library's meager holdings.]
Finally, another prof is giving a genre class on sci-fi, in which some of my students are enrolled, so I don't want to overlap. Which rules out The Empire Strikes Back, Alien, Blade Runner, Brazil, The Terminator, etc.
Oh, yeah, and I'm a total wuss when it comes to horror, so although Aaron insists that I screen Halloween, there's the issue of maintaining my dignity in front of the young people to consider.
So, have at it, and remember, most of my students were born in 1986 or so.
