Defending the Film:
The Philadelphia Story was a broadway smash. The movie is rated by the IFC as one of the top one hundred films, and as such, a valuable piece to the aesthetic mosaic of America. While the culture that is depicted in the movie may seem dated to many, the ideas in the movie are still very relevant in the America that our children are growing up in today. The film touches on our cultures rampant obsession with the priviledged class. Students may believe the reporters from Spy Magazine to be harmless, but they will find that they are the paparazzi of yesterday. They are the forefathers of an image that is now a foundation of popular entertainment, the over reaching media, the shameless photographer. Students may find Traci and Dexter to be abusive with their power and influence, but all they have to do is check MTV for Paris Hilton's new reality show to see the modern day equivalent of the powerful socialite.
The tension between classes, the intellectual Mike versus the indulgent but spelling-challenged Lord family. The alcoholic Dexter, a man who has struggled with inner demons and external violence. When students actually see through the black and white veil that blocks these characters they will see them as very familiar figures. The crux of the matter though is to see how they were portrayed. I challenge my students to see a cutlural view of these characters as the film portrays them. By describing their reactions to these characters and the context they are a part of, my students become better writers. By acknowledging the differences in the America of the 40's and of the new millienium my students become better civic communicators. It is precisely by realizing how different the movie is but how similar the characters are that will teach my students to acknowledge their own ways of reading a film as a piece of literature as they become more skilled in their personal literal methods.
FILM UNIT
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY STANDARDS: NCTE Standards: 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12 ISTE NETS Standards: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 KEYWORDS: Film review, theme, feedback, cultural context OBJECTIVES: Students will: § View The Philadelphia Story closely. § Analyze characters through gender, economic, and historical perspectives. § Build an understanding of cinema as a text. § Make predictions about the movie based on written and visual texts. § Write an original online review on Amazon.com about their experience with the film. UNIT DESCRIPTION: This lesson should teach students to view on screen characterization as a method of understanding the historical context of a film. It will provide a historical perspective of 1940’s America as it introduces the students to film as a literary text. It will incorporate the internet as an outlet for each student’s unique perspective of the film. Students will be given the opportunity to apply their literary analysis skills to the film medium. Students will also be introduced to several social themes- gender roles, alcoholism, economic stratification- that could prove as introductions to critical lenses. Each day the class will be discussing part of the film they have just seen. Moreover, students will write short responses to the part of the film they will be watching each day. Students will use collaboration and revision as they work towards their final project, an online review of the film. The students will be expressing their impressions of the characters and the events of the film. By paying close attention to these aspects of cinema, the students will be performing a close reading of the film as a piece of literature. Their collaborative analysis of their daily writing will help them to respond meaningfully to peers written and spoken texts in the future. For assessment purposes students will initial their feedback on one another’s papers. By this action I will be able to assess how much input gave one another during the synthesis of ideas leading to the final project. Students will also keep their daily reaction papers as a log of their revision and reactions to The Philadelphia Story. These revised logs will provide the groundwork for the final project of the week, an online review. By posting an online review at the end of the week, students writing skills will be sharpened as their comfort with the web is increased. Students often watch movies far more than they read books. This lesson will encourage them to apply analytical literary strategies to the viewing skills they have been honing since their first Disney film. TECHNOLOGY: Online PC or Mac Internet
DVD player or streaming video SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES: Resources for Teachers: English Language Arts Units for Grades 9-12 (Shamburg, 2008) A source for technology related unit plans. The Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com Great background information. Film Reference: http://www.filmreference.com/ Great source of cinematic context of film
DAY 1: The class will be introduced to the manner in which this movie was marketed and the time period that it took place during. Due to the difference in period, the relationship between Dexter and Traci is portrayed differently on screen than it would be today. In this lesson, the students will be given a first impression of the film that they will be viewing. After the students have entered class and been settled direct their attention to the blackboard or Smart Board where the movies 1940’s advertising taglines will be written down: Uncle Leo’s bedtime for you older tots! The things they do among the playful rich—Oh Boy!
Broadway’s howling year-run comedy hit of the snooty society beauty slipped and fell—IN LOVE! Handouts 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 should be handed out to the students. Students should go over the pictures presented on the handouts and consider them in relation to the tag lines on the front board. A teacher prompted discussion will begin about what impression these visual and written texts give the students about the movie. Ask students to consider: · What do the students think of the film after reading these phrases from the original movie release of December, 1940? · Do these advertising methods remind them of anything from current culture? The instructor should then have the class watch the first two minutes of the movie depicting Haven and Traci’s final confrontation. After viewing this scene the class is to offer their reactions. Again be careful to have them consider the following: § Would this scene work in a film today? § What is the mood of the scene? Be careful to steer the class discussion to consider the ideas of domestic abuse in light of the mood of the scene. The importance of this class discussion is for students to see the different cultural context that movies were filmed in during the 1940’s. For homework students should write a brief piece about what they would like to see happen in the movie. For the final ten minutes of class allow the movie to run so that the students can get an introduction to the characters and the plot line. This will help them to write their Plot Hypothesis. DAYS 2-4 The next three classes will follow similar structure. Day 2 will begin with students pairing up and discussing what their Plot Hypotheses were about. The pairs will exchange papers and assess one another’s writing. Partners are encouraged to give both positive and negative feedback to one another in order to strengthen their partners’ perspective. The point of this period of the class is to give students opportunities to engage in reflection about what they witnessed and how it affected them. The Plot Hypothesis helps students develop their understanding of the conventions of film. By stating what they think will happen in the film and having another either disagree or agree with them, they are strengthening the strategies they bring to their literacy skill set. They are going over the processes they apply to texts and comparing them with the processes of another. The rest of the class will be spent watching 20-25 minutes of the film. The homework on Days 2 and Days 3 will be for the students to write a reaction paper about the segment of the film that they watched that day. Hence on Days 3 and 4 the students will pair up with different students than the previous days and discuss their respective impressions of the film. The Plot Hypothesis and the discussion on Day 2 focused on strengthening the strategies of reading and the students’ ability to make predictions. The latter writings and discussions will provide students the ability to work within the cultural context that the movie provides. Students’ analysis will position them as observers of a time and America that is very different than their own. By writing about their reactions to this America they will be able to see culture as a process rather than an end. By seeing different cultural beliefs than their own students will be more apt to challenge the images and texts they have around them in the future. DAY 5 Students will continue the pattern of the previous days. They will pair up for the final time of the week and discuss their reaction paper to the movie. After this period of give and take the students will watch the final twenty minutes of the film. Handout 1.4 will be handed to the students. This handout details the requirements of their final project of the unit. They will post a review of the movie on Amazon.com. By going over their expectations and reactions to the film’s themes and plot lines, the students should have a basic idea of what they would like to say. The purpose of their previous discussion and writing was to begin the process of refining their online review. By shaping, revising and changing their ideas in response to their partners’ feedback, they will become confident and effective writers and communicators. ASSESSMENT: Students will be graded on handing in the four assignments from the week as well as having their online review posted by Monday on Amazon. The papers should have written feedback from the paired discussion through the week. The review should reflect the flow of ideas that was started with the reaction papers through the week. Any opinions stated in the review will be graded on support from the film or comparisons to modern day cinema. Random unsupported opinions will be detrimental to the grade. Rubric:
HANDOUT 1.1: First Impressions: Introduction to The Philadelphia Story TAGLINES: Uncle Leo’s bedtime for you older tots! The things they do among the playful rich—Oh Boy! Broadway’s howling year-run comedy hit of the snooty society beauty slipped and fell—IN LOVE! What do these tag lines make you think of the movie? Explain. What do you think will happen in this movie?
PLOT: Tracy Samantha Lord Haven (Hepburn) is a wealthy Main Line Philadelphia socialite who had divorced C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) and is about to marry nouveau riche "Man of the People" George Kittredge (John Howard). The situation is complicated when she is blackmailed by publisher Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell) into granting exclusive coverage of the wedding to tabloid reporter Macaulay "Mike" Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey). In exchange, Spy magazine agrees to refrain from exposing the antics of Tracy's philandering father, Seth (John Halliday). As the wedding nears, Tracy finds herself torn between her fiancé, her ex-husband and the reporter. The challenging personalities of Mike and Dexter force the stolid Kittredge into the background. The night before the wedding, Tracy gets drunk for only the second time in her life and takes an impromptu, innocent swim with Mike. When George sees Mike carrying an intoxicated Tracy into the house afterwards (both of them wearing only bathrobes), he thinks the worst, that his bride-to-be has disgraced herself. The next day, he tells her that he was shocked and feels entitled to an explanation before going ahead with the wedding. Tracy takes exception to his lack of faith in her and breaks off the engagement. Then she realizes that all the guests have arrived and are waiting for the ceremony to begin. Mike volunteers to marry her (much to Liz's distress), but Tracy graciously declines. At this point, Dexter makes his successful bid for her hand. THEMES Be aware of the following themes as you watch the movie. Keep in mind how the movie’s perspective towards these themes may be very different if it were made today. GENDER ROLES: What do women expect out of their husbands and fathers? Do men expect the same from their wives and mothers? How do they show one another approval or disapproval?
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: What does the working class expect of the upper class? What motivates individuals more, personal happiness or notoriety and riches?
Handout 1.2 Handout 1.3
Handout 1.4
ONLINE REVIEW: You must go to Amazon.com and look up The Philadelphia Story. Please sign in and proceed to supply a review of this movie. Your review will graded on the following concepts:
As you are writing the review consider the themes of the movie, the culture it represented and the effectiveness of the film. For example you may not agree with the manner that the film displayed marriage, but consider what the director may have wanted to portray and how effective his use of camera angles, script and props were in demonstrating it. |
