Theme Song: "Living Dead Girl" - Rob Zombie
Once again, I finally get to put the 2 and a half years of Film study to good use in another class, Temma's Dream Of The Artificial Wo/man: Golems & Cyborgs from Adam to Blade Runner. I've signed up to do a group presentation on German Expressionism, the style employed in Gustav Meyrink's novel, The Golem, and Paul Wiene's iconic film, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. When I saw Caligari back in '05, I immediately fell in love with this insane style of filmmaking that forefronts voyeurism and Freudian imagery, uses distorted backdrops to reflect people's mental states (the story's told through the eyes of a madman), and makes everything look blatantly fake like a comic book. No wonder this genre is becoming en vogue nowadays with films like Sin City and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and practically EVERY film by Tim Burton (another one of my favorite directors).
After meeting briefly after class for the first time, our seemingly random group (which at first, I'll admit, I see as a bad omen) exchanges introductions and we start working independently. Luckily for us all, Allison eagerly steps up to the plate and organizes our first meeting in the library, three weeks before we're scheduled to present. We get to the library, and amazingly, EVERYBODY is adding lots of good ideas to the conversation. Plus, the girls even suggest that we do something artsy-fartsy for our presentation like perform a skit. I LOVE IT! I'm shocked because in practically every other group I've been in, there are two people who actually want to go all out and be creative, while everybody else looks at us like we're batshit crazy and says, "Uhhh, how about... NO, Scott?" LOL, I'm soooo glad that's not the case this time!
Since we're all busy-busy outside of class, we manage to throw together our EPIC presentation via email. Colleen sends clips, Allison and Sara send poetry, Katie sends art, I send songs and make film history packets. Needless to say, we're waaay ahead of schedule. Eventually, we decide to get together on a SATURDAY afternoon (if that's not commitment, I don't know what is) and construct an Expressionist backdrop out of cardboard boxes.
We congregate in Plank Basement and huddle inside the "Spray Painting Room" where we're all inhaling its toxic mist. Yay. BTW, it's hilarious to watch Katie and her excitement to be working with paint--She's ALLLL about the silver spray paint! :-) And I must point out that even though she's dying of the Plague, Sara still comes to the meeting with soup in one hand and a laptop in the other as she diligently puts together a fabulous PowerPoint presentation; she takes a lot of Management courses so she can do these things in her sleep. Meanwhile, I paint, take some photos, and start designing the presentation DVD (which will contain most of the clips we'll be using from films like Tim Burton's Vincent and the Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari remake, as well as the music videos for Rob Zombie's "Living Dead Girl" and "Otherside" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Of course, the day before our presentation, we do a dry-run of the entire thing, and figure out what we want to talk about and what we should omit, because frankly, we've done soooo much research that we have actually TWICE the amount of stuff we need to cover in 70 minutes. Thursday finally rolls around and for the first time ever, I'm performing the poetry reading, since according to the ladies, I have "stage presence." Right. ;-) Anywho, we lay down clumps of Allison's fake snow (she's a hardcore Crafts girl) in a circle, turn down the lights, and play Mussorgsky's Night On Bald Mountain on the iPod. I walk to the back of the room, crouch down, spring up, land in a handstand, and walk teen feet ON MY HANDS and successfully land in the snowy circle (on the 1st try, no less). Once again: EPIC. After making a smooth landing, I recite an excerpt from a poem that Sara found a few weeks ago, Twilight by Alfred Lichtenstein:
A Fat Boy is playing with a pond.
The wind has gotten caught in a tree.
The sky looks dissolute and pale,
As though it had run out of make-up.
Bent crooked on long crutches
And chattering, two cripples are creeping across the field.
A blond poet is perhaps going mad.
A pony trips over a lady.
A fat man is sticking to a window.
A young lad wants to visit a supple woman.
A gray clown is putting on his boots.
A baby carriage screams and dogs are cursing.
Most dramatic beginning I've ever seen for a group presentation! Great Work! ...Great use of visual aids... I enjoyed the bringing us up to date with all the popular culture examples... Seamless... Altogether a thorough, lively, engaging, and imaginative presentation.
--Professor Berg's rave review
As expected, Temma loves our flair for the theatrics as well as our ability to teach the class about German expressionism and to work effectively as a team. The student reviews are ALL positive--well, all but one, but I recognize his handwriting and it doesn't surprise me at all. But on a happier note, I've gotta say, this is, by far, the most fun I've ever had doing a group presentation, because EVERYONE was 100% committed to the task and no one was afraid to take risks and think outside of the box. To Allison, Sara, Colleen, and Katie, THANK YOU for such a fun experience; it was a pleasure working with all of you! :-D GO GERMaN EXPReSSIoNiSM!!
No comments:
Post a Comment