What seems different in terms of how Americanness is depicted in the characters in The Third Man?

Screen Chinatown (on page 1)

How does Jake represent what we expect in a sleuth? How might he be viewed as a hero? As a force for order?
How does the casting of Jack Nicholson in Jake’s part complicate the expectation that a detective will represent straight-forward law and order? What are we to make of the following scene?

But it seems clear we have a candidate for femme fatale in Evelyn Mulwray. How do we view her? Is she a sympathetic character? How does her clothes and manners help suggest elements of her psychology? How does Evelyn help define Jake? How does her presence help us think about gender roles in the film?
And our villain: how does Noah Cross represent an unusual villain? How does John Huston’s performance help develop those unsettling angles?

In terms of themes, what might we list as major themes in the film? Is this a detective story with a satisfying ending–is order restored? Or can we ever get away from a corrupted world depicted in the film?
And how might how we understand the film hinge on what happens in Chinatown (see clip below)?
Finally, film form. How does the film visually convey a sense of mystery? Can you even have a visually mysterious in a color film in sunny southern California? Where do we see the film use the cinematic techniques of fim noir? Might this be one of the reasons why it is set in the 1930s?

Screen The Maltese Falcon and The Third Man (on Page 2)

The Maltese Falcon (make sure you screen the 1941 version).

With The Maltese Falcon, how does Spade represent the American version of detection? how does he complicate that division? And how does Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal embody a particular type of masculinity? How does that fit with the American detective story? How is Spade’s masculinity defined against that of other male characters in the film (Joel Cairo, Kaspar Gutman, Miles Archer, etc)? What about the women characters (Brigid, Iva, Effie, etc)–how are they defined against Sam? In what ways might they contrast with one another? Do they seem fully realized?

What seems different in terms of how Americanness is depicted in the characters in The Third Man? How is Holly (what a name for a male detective!) a different sort of American detective? How is Harry Lime a different sort of villain? How are these Americans defined against the British? Against the other assorted European character lurking in postwar Vienna? How does Anna compare to the female characters in The Maltese Falcon?

Thematically, how would you relate the pre-war San Francisco to post-war Vienna as depicted in these films? What sorts of societies do each represent? Do the acts of detection change those worlds? Could they be changed? What can we establish regarding the mystery genre (remember our friend Rick Altman!) from these two films? How do these films rework Auden’s opposition between English and American mysteries?
Where do we see film noir in both these films? What are distinctive cinematic techniques and visuals that we can recognize in each film?

Hitchcock discussion( on page 3)
Screen Vertigo and Rear Window (1954 version);

Auteur:
What might be the MacGuffin (something characters pursue and deeply care about but that ultimate doesn’t really matter to plot) in Rear Window? In Vertigo?
What are some of the bravura techniques we might identify in each film? How might they help us approach the characters/themes/emotional atmospheres in each film?

Looking:
What are some of the major instances of looking/being looked at that we can identify in each film and why do they matter? How might they be connected to establishing how we identify with a character? Associate power (or lack of power) with that person? Help us think about the gender politics in Rear Window? In Vertigo? Do you think the films play just copy the Hollywood playbook in associating men with the power of looking and women with being objects that are looked at? Or are they critical of that convention?

Techniques:
What shots and techniques stand out in the film? How might they help us understand the characters? The major themes?

Mysteries:
How does Rear Window rework the mystery genre? Vertigo?

Answer the following on page Four

When bad people (and people who have done bad things) make great films:
Some of you no doubt have noticed that we have watched films where now infamous filmmakers, actors, producers, etc have played a central part in getting our movie made: Roman Polanski, Kevin Spacey, Brian Singer, I would be shocked if Harvey Weinstein didn’t play a role somewhere for one of our almost 20 films, etc. This is not a court of law and also not the place to pass around painful stories. But I would be remiss if I didn’t raise this as an issue: what do we do with a film when one of its central contributors has done something awful–or credibly been accused of doing something awful?
I don’t have an easy answer for this: I really admire all the films we are watching–or at least find them interesting. Yet who wants to spend money that will in part go back to the icky person? And yet many people make a film–should they all be punished because of one person? But aren’t we better served by having these issues made public, helping publicize abuses and (we hope) moving to ensure such things don’t happen anymore? But plenty of great art has been made by bad people: Ezra Pound made radio broadcasts for Mussolini, Caravaggio murdered someone, etc, etc–do we throw out what they’ve made? But the victims here are still alive, still suffering!
You can see how it’s extremely complicated. And I myself certainly feel conflicted: I obviously assigned the films but I feel very uneasy about it and have to acknowledge there is a problem worth talking about. So, my perhaps less-than-ideal answer is to create a space for us to talk about it.
What do you guys think? How should we view (or should we even watch) films (or any form of art, for that matter) from people who have done (or been credibly accused of) things we find deeply unsettling?

Last Completed Projects