Introduction

                                   Welcome to Stuart Fernie’s Blog

Please scroll down or find on the right links to articles, pages of reflections on films and books, and occasional pieces of short fiction.

Articles include advice and questions to assist in the writing of essays about films, thoughts on "Midnight Express", Jason Bourne, Advocating Arts and Humanities, "Heaven's Gate", "Civil War", "The Ghost and Mrs Muir", "Ad Astra", Duality in 19th century literature, "Living", "Hell in the Pacific", "Point Blank", "Vera Cruz", "Dr Strange in the Multiverse", my interpretation of "Il faut cultiver notre jardin", "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources", "Drive my car", "The Batman", the place of acting in society, thoughts about religion and fate, "The Banshees of Inisherin", "Full Metal Jacket", "The Bishop's Wife", "Moliere", "Les Fleurs du Mal", "Soylent Green", "Bad Day at Black Rock", "The First Great Train Robbery", The Dreyfus Affair, "Persona", "The Seventh Seal", "A Clockwork Orange", "Night Moves", "Lonely are the Brave", "In the heat of the night", "The League of Gentlemen" (1960), thoughts on the nature of film noir, "Star Trek", "Seven Days in May", "Dead Poets Society", "Good Will Hunting", "Callan", "The Hill", "Cool Hand Luke", "The Hustler", "Road to Perdition", "The Verdict", "Three Colour Trilogy", "Jojo Rabbit", "Jeremiah Johnson", "Collateral", "Joker", "Barry Lyndon", "The Bridge at Remagen", "Le Mans '66 (Ford v Ferrari)", Charles Foster Kane ("Citizen Kane"), "The Deer Hunter", "Highlander", "No Country for Old Men", "Gattaca", "The Adventures of Robin Hood"(1938), "Apocalypse Now", "Spartacus", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Long Good Friday", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", "The Third Man", "Finding Forrester", "The Outlaw Josey Wales", "Untouchable" (2011),"Unforgiven", "The Manchurian Candidate", "The Wild Bunch", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Papillon" (1973), "Public Eye", "Existentialism in society today", "Seven Samurai", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Don Quixote", "We're No Angels", "The African Queen", "Babette's Feast", "War for the Planet of the Apes", "Dunkirk", “Dances With Wolves”, “Inherit The Wind” and “The Prisoner”. 

A link to my YouTube channel with video presentations of a number of my pages.

After I retired from teaching, I thought I’d write my memoirs, “What have I done?”, and present them online. Please find links to these memoirs, some French support pages and reflections on "Les Miserables" below.

I can be contacted through the comments sections or at stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk

Other blogs available:

French Support Pages

Discussion of “Les Misérables”

Tales of teaching – memoirs of a former French teacher

All intellectual property rights reserved

Advice and questions to help in the analysis or discussion of films and in the production of essays

 

 

Advice and questions to help in the analysis or discussion of films,

and in producing an essay

 

During my thirty-five years in teaching, I helped a number of pupils prepare essays, principally on films but occasionally on plays and books, usually by asking questions that would elicit reflection and help build their essays.

I thought young students setting out on essay-writing might find the following advice and questions of some help in responding to a film and in constructing an essay about it.

 

Useful definitions

Principal and secondary characters

Very roughly, principal characters may drive change and plot while secondary characters are affected by plot or add to our understanding of principal characters, theme and plot.

Themes

Themes are underlying universal concepts or ideas that may have relevance to readers’ own lives, e.g. love, compassion, freedom, justice, morality, responsibility.

 

Advice

In writing a general discussion of a film, one possible framework is:

Overview   Give a brief outline of what the film is about, mentioning storyline and substance.

Characters    } Discuss the principal characters and their traits while linking them

Themes        } to themes you may have identified.

Conclusion  Give your considered assessment of how successful the film is.

 

Consider how the film (and its characters) make you feel and try to explain why.

 

In writing your essay, try to be relevant, reasoned and concise.

 

Overview

Can you encapsulate what the film is about without reference to detail?

Did the producers have a purpose in mind when they made the film?

Can you identify any themes?

Is attention drawn to a particular character or issue?

Is there clarity in the ending or is it ambivalent?

 

Characters

Can you differentiate between principal and secondary characters?

What do you make of the characters? Are they sympathetic, unpleasant, comical or do they have a mixture of traits?

Is there a conflict between characters? If so, what is the source of the conflict?

Do the characters change in the course of the film? Do they evolve, remain largely the same or deteriorate?

Are ideas expressed by any of the characters, and how are they expressed?

What can you deduce about the characters from their words and actions?

Are there consequences of verbal exchanges or actions?

Do characters challenge others, conventions or traditional thought?

Does one character influence others?

Is there a collision between points of view?

 

Themes

Do any of the characters support a particular position or stance?

Does the author/screenwriter seem to favour a particular point of view?

What themes can you identify, and are they presented positively or negatively?

Are characters being used to illustrate certain themes? If so, how?

Does the film challenge conventional views or stances?

 

Conclusion

Did you find the story and characters engaging? Why or why not?

Was the ending satisfying? Why or why not?

Did the production flow or were there inconsistencies?

Were you struck by the style of the making of the film? Did this contribute positively or negatively?

Was the storyline strong throughout or was the film padded?

Did the production have integrity or was it self-indulgent?

Can you identify particular strengths or weaknesses (pace, rhythm, performance, direction, script, music, production values, photography, length)?

What do you feel about the film? Did you find it entertaining, engaging, thought-provoking, amusing, confusing, intriguing, touching, clear-headed?

 

If you have been asked to write on particular aspects of the film, consider definitions of the terms used in the question and think of ways in which the storyline, characters and themes meet the criteria set in the question.

At least some of the questions above may assist you in this task.

You should assume the reader of your essay knows nothing about the topic so you need to convince the reader of your views by constructing a reasoned and clear essay in support of your observations.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found these notes of some benefit.

 

Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)

 

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