Films Screened this Week

Because we screen excerpts in class, I am providing links to films that are publicly available.  Click on the hyperlinks to watch the screenings listed on this week’s Terms-Films List. The quality of the films here are what is available online however if you have a film service (ie Netflix or Hulu, consider watching there). Please email me at scheng@citytech.cuny.edu if you find any broken links.

Buster Keaton

Our Hospitality (1923) First 34 minutes

Sherlock Jr (1924) – excerpts

The General (1927) – please watch entire film

Charlie Chaplin

City Lights (1931) (also on Hulu) – entire film or excerpts
Chaplin’s City Lights is worth watching in full but if you are short on time, watch the following:
•0-27 min to note the Tramp’s meeting with the flower girl, the Tramp’s friendship with the Millionaire to the night club scene and his next meeting with the flower girl. Also note the two newspaper boys in the beginning, they reappear at later points in the film.
•1:01-end to watch the Tramp give the blind flower girl money to fix her eyes and say goodbye, the Tramp’s imprisonment and release, the flower girl’s shop and the moment of recognition.

Modern Times (1936) (also on Hulu) – excerpts
•0-18 min: note what Chaplin compares the sheep with, “Big Brother”-type boss, the feeding machine and the Tramp’s breakdown.
•35-47 min : The Tramp meets the Gamin, the Tramp’s arrest, the escape, dream sequence, the Tramp gets a job, rollerskating sequence.
•1:13-end: The Tramp and Gamin work in a restaurant as a waiter and dancer: note duck scene, first time Chaplin’s voice is heard on film.

Great Dictator (1940) (also on Hulu) – excerpts
Globe scene

DW Griffith, Birth of a Nation (1915) (also on Hulu) – excerpts
DW Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) is a terribly racist film that was the most popular movie in 1915 because of its epic scale. Over 3 hours long with grandiose settings, elaborate outdoors battle scenes, and soaring soundtrack, Griffith’s Birth of the Nation eclipsed all other films.

• 0-8 min: Note the intertitles, the credits with mulatto characters identified, and the introduction of the Stoneman and Cameron families —Elsie Stoneman is played by early screen star Lilian Gish)
•53 min-1:02: The main battle scene with the “Little Colonel” Cameron to one of the film’s most iconic images of the Little Colonel’s charge (note the tracking shot of battle charge)
•1:25-1:30: Assassination scene. Note the iris shot, and mixture of medium and long shots.
•3:01-3:10: Triumph of the clansmen. Note the fast pace, the parallel editing between the clansmen and the cabin, the tracking shots.