Table of contents for No. 94 in Screen Education

1 Jordan Peele, quoted in Max Weinstein, ‘“Society Is the Monster”: Jordan Peele on Racism as Horror, Writers’ Block and More at 2017 Film Independent Forum’, MovieMaker, 31 October 2017, <https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/ moviemaking/directing/society-is-the-monster-film-independent-forum-2017-jordan-peele/>, accessed 29 March 2019. 2 ibid. 3 Jordan Peele, quoted in ‘Jordan Peele on Exploring the “Deep Horror of Racism” in Get Out’, CBS News, 15 November 2017, <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jordan-peele-get-out-movie/>,accessed 29 March 2019. 4 Jordan Peele, quoted in Mike Fleming Jr, ‘Get Out Director Jordan Peele: Scaring Up Racial Dialogue by Fusing Genre with Polemic’, Deadline Hollywood, 17 November 2017, <https:// deadline.com/2017/11/get-out-jordan-peele-oscars-interview-news-1202208902/>, accessed 29 March 2019. 5 Jordan Peele, quoted in Cara Buckley, ‘“I’d Never Seen My Fears as an African-American Man Onscreen”’, The New York Times, 6 December 2017, <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/ 06/movies/jordan-peele-get-out-african-american-biracial.html>, accessed 29 March 2019. 6 Jordan Peele,…

1 Lee Carruthers, Doing Time: Temporality, Hermeneutics, and Contemporary Cinema, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 2016, pp. 59–60. 2 François Ozon, quoted in Erica Abeel, ‘Francois Ozon on Swimming Pool: Fantasy, Reality, Creation’, IndieWire, 1 July 2003, available at Erica Abeel official website, <http:// ericaabeel.com/film_pieces.html#3>, accessed 4 April 2019. 3 Peter Bradshaw, ‘5×2’, The Guardian, 18 March 2005, <https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_ Review/Guardian_Film_of_the_week/0,,1440160,00.html>,accessed 1 July 2018; see also Carruthers, op. cit., p. 60. 4 David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson & Jeff Smith, Film Art: An Introduction, 11th edn, McGraw-Hill Education, New York, 2017, p. 72. 5 ibid., p. 73. 6 Kate Matthews, ‘Logic and Narrative in Spirited Away’, Screen Education, no. 43, Spring 2006, p. 136. 7 Bordwell, Thompson & Smith, op. cit., p. 75. 8 Rick Altman, Film/Genre, British Film…

There is a war going on right now in popular culture. Radicalised, partisan factions of various fandoms are using their internet megaphones in what they perceive as a life-or-death struggle to save the souls of their beloved franchises. A trailer for the all-female Ghostbusters (Paul Feig, 2016) became the most-disliked movie promo on YouTube,1 while orchestrated campaigns saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, 2017), which featured an unusually diverse cast for the franchise, suffer improbably low user ratings on the Internet Movie Database and Rotten Tomatoes.2 Most recently, Rotten Tomatoes had to change its review algorithms after Captain Marvel (Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, 2019), the first Marvel Comics film to be led by a female hero, was bombarded with negative reviews by users before the film had…

1 Wong Kar Wai, quoted in James Mottram, ‘Wong Kar-Wai Interview: The Revered Film Director on Returning to His First Love – Kung Fu’, The Independent, 6 December 2014, <https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/ features/wong-kar-wai-interview-the-revered-film-director-on-returning-to-his-first-love-kung-fu-9905855.html>, accessed 18 April 2019. 2 Wong Kar Wai, quoted in Han Ong, ‘Wong Kar-wai’, BOMB, issue 62, 1 January 1998, <https://bombmagazine.org/ articles/wong-kar-wai-1/>, accessed 18 April 2019. 3 Wong Kar Wai, quoted in Todd Gilchrist, ‘Exclusive Interview: Wong Kar Wai’, IGN, 10 October 2008, p. 2, <https://au.ign.com/articles/2008/10/10/exclusive-interview -wong-kar-wai?page=2>, accessed 18 April 2019. 4 Wong, quoted in Ong, op. cit. 5 ibid. 6 ibid. 7 Wong Kar Wai, quoted in ‘Christopher Doyle & Wong Kar Wai’, Interview, 24 November 2008, <https://www. interviewmagazine.com/film/christopher-doyle-and-wong-kar-wai>, accessed 18 April 2019. 8 Wong, quoted in Ong, op. cit. 9 ibid. 10 ibid. 11 Tony Leung Chiu…

1 See ‘Vegan Protesters Halt Traffic, Block Abattoirs in National Protests’, The New Daily, 8 April 2019, <https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/04/08/vegan-protests-chaos/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 2 See Latika Bourke, ‘PM Lashes “Un-Australian” Vegan Protesters’, The Canberra Times, 8 April 2019, <https:// www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6007213/pm-lashes-unhttps://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6007213/pm-lashes-un-australian-vegan-protesters/-australian-vegan-protesters/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 3 ‘Rules for the Accessibility Checker’, Microsoft Office Support website, <https://support.office.com/en-us/article/rules-for-the-accessibility-checker-651e08f2-0fc3-4e10-aaca-74b4a67101c1>, accessed 24 April 2019. 4 Gemma Matheson, ‘The Difference Between Open and Closed Captions’, Access Innovation Media blog, <https://blog.ai-media.tv/blog/the-difference-between-open-and-closed-captions>, accessed 24 April 2019. 5 Northwest Health Foundation, ‘Confronting Our Ableism’, Striving for Disability Equity, 17 May 2016, <https://medium.com/striving-for-disability-equity/confronting-our-ableism-5afbe437040e>, accessed 24 April 2019. 6 See ‘Terminology for Deafness’, Aussie Deaf Kids website, <https://www.aussiedeafkids.org.au/terminology-for-deafness. html>, accessed 24 April 2019. 7 Lydia Callis, ‘Stop Making Excuses and Start Captioning Your Videos’, HuffPost, 21 April 2015, <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stop-making-excuses-and-start-captioning-your-videos_b_7108396>, accessed 24 April…

1 Richard Gid Powers, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, The Journal of American History, vol. 100, no. 1, June 2013, p. 303. 2 See Brent Lang & Matt Donnelly, ‘As Annapurna Stumbles, Billionaire Larry Ellison Exerts Control’, Variety, 10 October 2018, <https://variety.com/2018/film/news/annapurna-larry -ellison-megan-ellison-vice-1202975648/>, accessed 20 March 2019. 3 Mark Boal, in the featurette Geared Up, Zero Dark Thirty DVD, Icon Films, 2013, available at <https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=YYQ_ux2IQgE>, accessed 20 March 2019. 4 See the featurette The Compound, Zero Dark Thirty DVD, op. cit., available at <https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Lu1L697HYSY>, accessed 20 March 2019. 5 Jeremy Hindle, in ibid. 6 Kathryn Bigelow, in the featurette No Small Feat, Zero Dark Thirty DVD, op. cit., available at <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SyuV2HQaCnM>, accessed 20 March 2019. 7 ibid. 8 David Fresko, ‘Aesthetics of Politics: Zero Dark Thirty’, InVisible Culture: An…

1 Four, arguably, if you include the 1932 Cukor film What Price Hollywood?, which, although not sharing the title, has the same basic plot outline, and, arguably, was a strong influence on Wellman’s A Star Is Born. 2 Terri White, ‘We’re Far from the Backlash Now’, Empire (Australasia), 3 December 2018, p. 24. 3 See, for example, Anea Bogue, ‘Why Beyoncé’s “Mrs. Carter Tour” Is Bad for Women’, HuffPost, 8 March 2013, <https:// www.huffingtonpost.ca/anea-bogue/why-beyonces-mrs-carter -tour_b_2839509.html>, accessed 24 January 2019. 4 In the 1937 film, his real name is Albert Henkel, while in the 1954 film it is Ernest Gubbins. 5 Ryan Gilbey, ‘Lady Gaga Shines in A Star Is Born, but the Script Doesn’t Care About Her Character’, New Statesman, 3 October 2018, <https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/ film/2018/10/lady-gaga-shines-star-born-script-doesn-t-care-about-her-character>, accessed 24 January 2019.…

Hereditary (2018) – the debut feature from American screenwriter and director Ari Aster – isn’t just a horror film. It’s a psychological family drama, in which grief, anger, fear and deeply troubled personal relationships play out through supernatu-: , , , blurring of the real with the imaginary and, ultimately, demonic possession. As the name suggests, the film is a dark exploration of the ties that bind us, both natural and nurtured: to what extent do we have control over our own lives, as opposed to being inevitably influenced from beyond the grave? At the film’s heart are the Graham family, who live in a large, isolated house in Utah surrounded by forest. The protagonist, Annie (Toni Collette), is an artist, obsessed with creating figurative miniature sculptures that replicate her…

Skyscraper (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2018) isn’t the most original Hollywood action film. Unapologetically crafted from the constituent parts of The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin, 1974) and Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) and fronted by the defining action hero of our time, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the film has little interest in offering anything new. For a piece of entertainment, that isn’t necessarily a problem; in fact, this ranks as one of the better entries in Johnson’s dense filmography (in large part thanks to its use of Johnson as a charismatic leading man rather than a comedian). And, despite its filmic familiarity, Skyscraper has plenty to offer science teachers looking to enliven their classrooms. It’s not only the film. Since its inception, Cinema Science has largely been motivated by cultural prominence,…

1 Eileen Jones, personal exchange with author. 2 See Ron Rosenbaum & Susan Edmiston, ‘Dead Ringers’, Esquire, 1 March 1976, <https://classic.esquire.com/ article/1976/3/1/dead-ringers>, accessed 24 April 2019. 3 Martin Dale, ‘Jeremy Irons on Dead Ringers, Batman v Superman, Love Scenes in Damage’, Variety, 11 December 2014, <https://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/jeremy -irons-on-dead-ringers-batman-vs-superman-love-scenes -in-damage-1201378157/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 4 ‘Jeremy Irons Wins Best Actor: 1991 Oscars’, YouTube, 24 April 2008, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXFl6IKpyI>,accessed 24 April 2019. 5 Roger Ebert, ‘The Brood’, RogerEbert.com, 5 June 1979, <https:// www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-brood-1979>, accessed 24 April 2019. 6 Roger Ebert, ‘Dead Ringers’, RogerEbert.com, 23 September 1988, <https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dead-ringers -1988>, accessed 24 April 2019. 7 Rita Kempley, ‘Dead Ringers’, The Washington Post, 23 September 1988, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/deadringersrkempley_a0c9ec.htm>, accessed 24 April 2019. 8 See Kevin Mcgue, ‘Dead Ringers’, A Life at the Movies, 7 October 2010, <http://www.alifeatthemovies.com/dead…

1 Charles Bramesco, ‘How the Ghostbusters Remake Became the Most-disliked Trailer on YouTube’, Vanity Fair, 1 May 2016, <https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/05/ ghostbusters-trailer-most-disliked-youtube>, accessed 15 April 2019. 2 Todd VanDerWerff, ‘The “Backlash” Against Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Explained’, Vox, 19 December 2017, <https://www. vox.com/culture/2017/12/18/16791844/star-wars-last-jedi-backlash-controversy>, accessed 15 April 2019. 3 See Alex Abad-Santos, ‘How Captain Marvel and Brie Larson Beat the Internet’s Sexist Trolls’, Vox, 11 March 2019, <https:// www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/8/18254584/captain-marvel -boycott-controversy>, accessed 15 April 2019. 4 ‘Gamergate’ was a movement among mostly male video-gamers, which was ostensibly designed as a backlash against a perceived imposition of political correctness on the gaming industry, but more often manifested as misogynistic troll attacks on female gamers, videogame designers and journalists. For more on the subject, see Caitlin Dewey, ‘The Only Guide to Gamergate You Will Ever…

1 Most Advanced Diploma students have previously completed a year of introductory training at Swinburne through the Diploma of Screen and Media – Film and Television. 2 Franx Ann, email interview with author, 23 February 2019. 3 Maisy Sutcliffe, email interview with author, 28 February 2019. 4 Aaron Morey, email interview with author, 11 March 2019. 5 ‘I Got My Start at TAFE’, Stop TAFE Cuts campaign website, <http://stoptafecuts.com.au/i-got-my-start-tafe>, accessed 2 April 2019. 6 Ann, op. cit. 7 Alex Barker, email interview with author, 10 March 2019.…

‘The personal life is dead in Russia. History has killed it.’ This line is spoken by commander Pasha Antipov (Tom Courtenay) to Dr Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) after the latter, a poet, has been captured. This could be true; Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) tells an epic tale of political across a country. a film that is very much about ‘the personal life’ – that is, how to live one’s own while struggling through war and revolution. In this case, the conflict in question is the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, and the abovementioned line – in reference to poetry and intimacy – is key to the film, if not its main preoccupation. Doctor Zhivago belongs to a diverse subgenre of epics that set a love story against a historical…

In the annals of Hollywood, 1939 was a year of spectacular achievement. A recent article in The Washington Post cites it as one of the seven candidates for ‘the best year in movie history’1 – notable titles include Stagecoach (John Ford), the film that clinched the status of the western; the fantasy The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming); William Wyler’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights; and Frank Capra’s comedy Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. None, however, provoked such wild anticipation or ensuing adulation as Fleming’s Gone with the Wind. Released in 1936, the book of the same name – the only novel by Atlanta-born journalist and author Margaret Mitchell published in her lifetime – had won two coveted awards: the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel in 1936, and the…

'Do they know I’m black?’ That’s what Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) asks his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), early on in the first act of Jordan Peele’s hugely successful debut film, Get Out (2017). He’s black, she’s white, and they’re about to embark on that classic new-relationship milestone: meeting the parents. This narrative set-up isn’t new – think of the landmark 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer) – but Peele takes a familiar story to unfamiliar places, his film a slow-burn horror movie interrogating race and racism in contemporary America. It’s a film, says Peele, where ‘society is the monster’.1 Though it was released – and, eventually, won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay – in Donald Trump’s America, Peele penned Get Out as a response to Barack Obama’s…

1 Steve Rose, ‘Re-possessed: Exploring Hereditary and Hollywood’s Love of the Haunted House’, The Guardian, 9 June 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/ jun/09/re-possessed-exploring-hereditary-and-hollywoods-love-of-the-haunted-house>, accessed 24 April 2019. 2 David Edelstein, ‘Toni Collette Gets the Worst Inheritance Ever in Hereditary’, Vulture, 5 June 2018, <https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/toni-collette-in-hereditary-movie-review.html>,accessed 24 April 2019. 3 Rose, op. cit. 4 ibid. 5 Dan Jolin, ‘Hereditary Review’, Empire, 12 June 2018, <https:// www.empireonline.com/movies/hereditary/review/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 6 Ari Aster, quoted in Jenelle Riley, ‘Hereditary Filmmaker Ari Aster Answers Burning Questions’, Variety, 11 June 2018, <https://variety.com/2018/film/awards/hereditary-ari-aster -answers-burning-questions-1202841448/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 7 Peter Travers, ‘Hereditary Review: Family Horror Tale Is the Scariest Movie of 2018’, Rolling Stone, 5 June 2018, <https:// www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/hereditary -review-family-horror-tale-is-the-scariest-movie-of-2018 -630182/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 8 Gerhard Richter, quoted in ‘Gerhard Richter Says Art Is the Highest Form of…

1 Mathew Olson, ‘This Skyscraper Poster Has People Asking: Could Dwayne Johnson Make That Jump?’, Digg, 5 February 2018, <http://digg.com/2018/skyscraper -poster-dwayne-johnson-rock-impossible-jump>, accessed 27 March 2019. 2 Post dated 3 February 2018 by Twitter user @jpsmythe, <https://twitter.com/jpsmythe/status/9595619696186 20416>, accessed 27 March 2019. 3 Post dated 6 February 2018 on The Mother of All Nerds Facebook page, <https://www.facebook.com/ TheMotherofAllNerdsPage/posts/2022752124652506>,accessed 27 March 2019. 4 Post dated 4 February 2018 by Twitter user @ChristianBedwel, <https://twitter.com/ChristianBedwel/status/95984888944 3606529>, accessed 27 March 2019. 5 Post dated 8 February 2018 by Twitter user @LeighYoungArt, <https://twitter.com/LeighYoungArt/status/961241473390 993410>, accessed 27 March 2019. 6 Post dated 4 February 2018 by Twitter user @ChristianBedwel, op. cit. 7 Christian Yates, ‘The Maths Behind the Fastest Person on Earth (and No It’s Not Usain Bolt)’, The Conversation, 12 August 2016, <https://theconversation.com/the-maths -behind-the-fastest-person-on-earth-and-no-its-not-usain -bolt-63732>, accessed…

5×2 is an appropriate text for senior secondary students, and may relate to learning outcomes in Media Arts and French, as well as the Respectful Relationships learning area. It is recommended that teachers watch the film beforehand to gauge its appropriateness for use as a classroom resource. Schools are also advised that 5×2 is classified MA 15+, and that it contains sex scenes and a scene of sexual violence. The film has a running time of ninety minutes, and is in French. It is available on DVD with English subtitles internationally through Image Entertainment, and has previously been distributed in Australia by Dendy. François Ozon’s 5×2 (2004) gives away its structure in its title: through five sections, the film explores a couple’s failed marriage. These five moments in the shared…

1 See Frank T Vertosick Jr, ‘Lobotomy’s Back’, Discover, 1 October 1997, <http://discovermagazine.com/1997/oct/ lobotomysback1240>, accessed 6 April 2019. 2 Matthew Wade, ‘Victoria’s Health Watchdog to Ban Anyone Practicing “Gay Conversion Therapy”’, Star Observer, 3 February 2017, <http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/ national-news/victoria-news/watchdog-ban-conversion-therapy/155356>, accessed 6 April 2019. 3 Shalailah Medhora, ‘“Ludicrous Practice” of Gay Conversion Therapy to Be Scrutinised’, Triple J Hack, ABC, 21 September 2017, <https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/gay -conversion-therapy-to-be/8969414>, accessed 6 April 2019. 4 Adam Carey, ‘Victoria to Ban Gay Conversion Therapy’, The Age, 3 February 2019, <https://www.theage.com.au/national/ victoria/victoria-to-ban-gay-conversion-therapy-20190203-p50vdn.html>, accessed 6 April 2019. 5 Jenny Noyes, ‘NSW Government “on the Same Page” as Victoria on Gay Conversion Therapy’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 2019, <https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw -government-on-the-same-page-as-victoria-on-gay-conversion -therapy-20190223-p50zu6.html>, accessed 6 April 2019. 6 Karen Cusack, quoted in Carey, op. cit. 7 Caitlin Ryan et al., ‘Parent-initiated…

Wong Kar Wai is one of cinema’s greatest romantics. His films are intuitive, freeform works that aren’t screenwritten but invented and improvised as they go. When production starts, no-one except Wong knows where things will head, and, , even surprises . pictures the same tendencies: his fragmented narratives filled with thwarted desire and broken hearts, full of lonely, lovelorn dreamers, pining away nights in neon-lit Hong Kong, confessing their deepest feelings only to a complicit audience via voiceover. Wong understands that memorable cinematic romance doesn’t come from people getting together, but remaining apart – no love burning so bright, and burrowing so deep, as unrequited love. From his striking second feature, Days of Being Wild (1990), through his international breakouts Chungking Express (1994) and Fallen Angels (1995); his queer classic…

1 ‘Peak Smartphone: A Question of Usage or Addiction’, in Deloitte, Mobile Consumer Survey 2018: Behaviour Unlimited, 2019, <https://www2.deloitte.com/au/mobile-consumer -survey>, accessed 23 April 2019. 2 Frank Newport, ‘Most U.S. Smartphone Owners Check Phone at Least Hourly’, Gallup News, 9 July 2015, <https://news. gallup.com/poll/184046/smartphone-owners-check-phone-least-hourly.aspx>, accessed 23 April 2019. 3 Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, ‘Australians Take Smartphones to Bed, the Toilet, and Many “Cannot Live” Without Them’, News. com.au, 27 June 2016, <https://www.news.com.au/technology/ australians-take-smartphones-to-bed-the-toilet-and-many -cannot-live-without-them/news-story/736d5e48ade1b5435fcc 0872ae3411b1 >, accessed 23 April 2019. 4 Mark Langshaw, ‘The History of Mobile Gaming’, Digital Spy, 10 April 2011, <https://www.digitalspy.com/videogames/ a313439/feature-the-history-of-mobile-gaming/>, accessed 23 April 2019. 5 Mark Walton, ‘iPhone at 10: How Apple Changed Gaming for the Better and for the Worse’, Ars Technica, 27 June 2017, <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/06/iphone-changed -gaming/>, accessed 23 April 2019. 6 ‘iPhone SDK – Touch Fighter’, YouTube,…

1 Omar Sharif, introductory supplement, Doctor Zhivago, DVD, Warner Bros., 2010. 2 Judith Shatnoff, ‘The Warmer Comrade’, Film Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 1, Autumn 1966, p. 28. 3 Melanie Williams, David Lean, Manchester University Press, Manchester & New York, 2014, p. 176. 4 Shatnoff, op. cit., p. 28. 5 Stephen Farber, ‘The Spectacle Film: 1967’, Film Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 4, Summer 1967, p. 12. 6 Williams, op. cit., p. 3. 7 This was an award for which it was not in competition with The Sound of Music; the latter won the award for best adapted score. 8 Andrew Ford, The Sound of Pictures: Listening to the Movies, from Hitchcock to High Fidelity, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2010, p. ii. 9 Kevin Brownlow, David Lean: A Biography, Wyatt, New York, 1996,…

1 ‘What Was the Best Year in Movie History?’, The Washington Post, 28 December 2018, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/style/wp/2018/12/28/feature/what-was-the-best-year-in-movie-history/>, accessed 3 April 2019. 2 See Ellen F Brown & John Wiley Jr, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood, Taylor Trade Publishing, Plymouth, UK, 2011, pp. 149–50. 3 From Dowson’s poem ‘Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae’ – the relevant line is: ‘I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind’. 4 Margaret Mitchell, quoted in Judy Cameron & Paul J Christman, The Art of Gone with the Wind: The Making of a Legend, W.H. Allen & Co., London, 1989, p. 27. 5 David O Selznick, quoted in Ronald Haver, David O. Selznick’s Hollywood, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1980, p. 240. 6 Margaret…