Contemporary Cinema Essay

Assignment: Choose a film that we are not watching in its entirety in class released between 2010 and
2021 and write a 5-page essay that:
1) introduces your reader to the film (and why you would argue for it as an example of international
cinema
2) discusses how this film engages with two modernist styles (Expressionism, Impressionism,
Constructivism, Poetic Realism, neorealism, surrealism, art cinema, postwar modernism, new
waves, political modernism, Third Cinema, etc.) that we have studied this semester in its narrative
and/or formal aspects
3) what ideology (social values) this film suggests, with extra credit for indicating whether you
would argue that this film’s ideology is representative of a dominant (mainstream/bourgeois),
alternative (art cinema), or oppositional (political modernist) ideology
Your essay should include the following elements:
1. Overview: Introduces that film to an audience who has not seen the film, including why you
would argue that it can be considered “international,” discussing where it was made, those
involved in its production (director, actors, etc.), providing a brief introduction to the film’s plot,
other interesting facts about the film’s production, and an overview of the cinema of the
country/geographical area of its origin. You are required to use B&T for this and to cite the text in
the Works Cited.
2. Ideology: Provides an ideological reading of the film stated clearly in a sentence/thesis statement
that begins with “I would argue….” (For example: “I would argue that Black Girl suggests that in
the postcolonial era European dominance is no longer instituted by military force, instead it holds
power as a way of thinking, an ideology that the main character, Diouana, discovers can only
come to a tragic end.”
4) Style: Explains how the film’s style (how its narrative, mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing,
and/or sound) borrows from at least two (2) other styles, forms, and/or concepts that we have
studied this term (Expressionism, Impressionism, Constructivism, Poetic Realism, neorealism,
surrealism, art cinema, postwar modernism, new waves, political modernism, Third Cinema, etc.))
supported by specific evidence from the film that connects to your argument as to the film’s