SSO School Fall Semester: Here's Looking at You, Kid

[movieman1957]

Anne:

I also worry about who is here and who has left. The truth is there are quite a few of us that still post on both sites. For me some of the people I like to talk to don't come here yet. I have invited a few to join. Some have and some say they don't feel they can devote the time to both sites. (This was clearly Kyle's feelings. His thread of posters may be a lot for both sites.)

The problem with this class may have been, at least for Ford, was it was done at TCM first. Several of us made comments there before it was set up here. That should be different when the next set starts.

I think we have a grand group here and I'm sure you think so too. They are interesting, smart well spoken and friendly when we disagree. I'm sure many are busy. One thing I hope is that we are never boring. I've always been hesitant about starting new threads for the same reason you mention. Often I find if I have a topic there has already been one so I want to be careful not to duplicate. Other times I know I have nothing to add or aren't familiar enough with the topic to be of any help but I sure do learn things.

We went through this last year as well and probably will again. We'll never attract as many as TCM but with our guests we have an additional draw. Hopefully, that and a run through our history will keep people coming.

Not to worry as it will all be fine.

[Dewey1960]

Another terrific film dealing with the dangerous ramifications of voyeurism is the unheralded 1954 noir film WITNESS TO MURDER. Barbara Stanwyck is awakened by a thunderstorm one night and through her window witnesses her neighbor (George Sanders!) from across the way strangle a woman to death. (I realize this makes her act of voyeurism unintentional, but doesn't that only make the situation darker?) Naturally nobody, especially the police, believes her and before long not only her credibility is at stake, but also her sanity and her very life.
Released the same year as the similarly themed REAR WINDOW, this film ably holds its own alongside Hitchcock's rightfully praised treatise. And here's a bonus: WITNESS TO MURDER was stunningly photographed by John Alton!
You've really uncorked a bottle of heady brew, Professor ChiO; I can't wait for the first day of class! Do you prefer big red apples or little green ones?

[MissGoddess]

I love Witness to Murder! This is the movie I wish they had included in the Stanwyck box set and was disappointed they left it out.

As for my own participation in this class, I will be une femme voyeuse and just learn from the voyeurs, because it's way out of my (shallow) depth.

[MissGoddess]

The John Ford thread has three times as many posts as this one, nearly all on topic,

Hi Bryce---since this "class" hasn't even started yet, I think it still remains to be seen about that. I believe Professor General ChiO's class will get beaucoup de participation, I mean, his "announcement" has already generated two pages of responses! He will be covering so many different films and directors vs. just one who has a more limited following and I look forward to seeing what develops even without my own gabby contributions.

[MissGoddess]

We're pretty vocal so maybe we seem like more. Looking back at the class it, was really just the same few participants. ChiO will be covering a wider (and shall I say, wilder, ha ha!) territory of filmakers so naturally it's not as limited as one director! Hitch alone will pull in a good many, I would think.

[MissGoddess]

The only point I was responding to was your saying that the Ford Class had more participation than this new one, which hasn't even started yet. And it sounds to me like you may have just done what you say you despise in others. I'm sorry you feel that way, but it doesn't bother me, to each his own.

I respect ChiO as do many others here and that's why I think his class will draw many, many interesting responses. I'll be following it with interest.

Ciao,

Mlle. Voyeuse

[vallo]

Most of us watch films because we are (in a way) voyeuristic. In watching films we: cry, laugh, are happy and sad, scared, glad and content, envious and mad. (Like real life). It’s all part of watching movies regardless of the genre. Watching certain films are like “peeping” into the lives of others. Without us “digging” into their lives,. What would be the point of watch films in the first place?

If I'm out of line I'll go to the corner with my Dunce-cap on...

Bill

[Lzcutter]

I wanted to chime in about the Ford Summer School Class.

It began as an idea at TCM City last spring when one of the posters in the Films and Filmmakers Forum listed a series of classes being taught at Facets this summer.

The original poster was going on vacation during that period and was sad to be missing the classes.

It was suggested that we could have a summer school class as an alternative since many of us do not live near the mid-west where Facets is located.

I figured since I was going to be laid up recovering from knee surgery, it would something to while away the recovery time with so I volunteered to "teach" the first class which was on John Ford.

I talked with Moira about bringing the curriculum over here so that the SSO fans could participate as well.

What I didn't anticipate was that I would have trouble with my recovery, making it difficult to sit at the computer for any length of time. Added to that my doctor's insistence that I take it easy, keep the knee iced and so forth made it difficult to keep the thread alive after its initial take-off here at the SSO.

The good news is that since getting 40cc of fluid drained off my knee last week, it is finally starting to properly heal.

Added to that the first-year anniversary of my dad's hospitalization that led to his death left fall has also sapped my energies as of late as well.

I don't prefer TCM City over this forum at all. Having been one of the organizers of this forum, I've tried to be dedicated to helping it grow any way I can. I still read and post over at TCM City because, despite the change in postings to more main-stream and less-centric film talk, there are a handful of posters over there that I like and it is a way to keep in touch with them (Kyle, of course, being the primary one but Filmlover and a few others as well).

I'd be glad to continue to "teach" classes here, perhaps beginning after Labor Day when more people are back from holidays, vacations and real-life stuff.

If interested, let me know!

[srowley75]

If anyone is interested, here's a link to the Mulvey essay I referenced earlier, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema":

https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/displ ... ive+Cinema

Caution: it is a bit randy, so steel yourself if you choose to imbibe.

-Stephen

[jdb1]

Most of us watch films because we are (in a way) voyeuristic. In watching films we: cry, laugh, are happy and sad, scared, glad and content, envious and mad. (Like real life). It’s all part of watching movies regardless of the genre. Watching certain films are like “peeping” into the lives of others. Without us “digging” into their lives,. What would be the point of watch films in the first place?

If I'm out of line I'll go to the corner with my Dunce-cap on...

Bill

I think you've hit the nail on the head, Bill. The very act of watching the lives of others acted out in films is something of a voyeuristic act, a phenomenon that is underscored repeatedly in Peeping Tom. But it's human nature to be interested in how the lives are others are lived, and we can't help comparing those lives to our own. It's not much different from reading a novel or a biography, only somewhat less graphic.

And I have two more cents to contribute:

First, I was very interested in the John Ford seminar, but I didn't contribute much because, as I said there, I haven't seen a lot of Ford's movies. I haven't seen many of the currently proposed seminar's listing either, but I have seen some of them, and I have opinions, which I may or may not voice. Many times here someone else says what I was thinking, and I don't always chime in if I have nothing to add.

The other cent is -- I look in on the TCM boards from time to time, and I really feel no compelling impulse to contribute any more. All the people there who are really interesting are also here, and I prefer to live here, where the air is clear and people know how to be literate, civil and sane. I feel I have friends here; I never felt much of that sentiment at TCM. Also, I appreciate the fact that people here get my jokes, and have jokes of their own, and if I, or anyone else, wants to be silly sometimes, no one takes offense. I think a lot of us feel that way, and there was a very good reason we decided to call this site "Oasis."

[ChiO]

OK -- let's take a deep breath.

The participants will participate, the non-participants won't, and the lurkers will lurk (and maybe become participants?) -- and, one hopes, each group will be happy with the decision. I would love everyone to be in the "participant" group, but no thread solicits everyone's participation so there's no hurt feelings here. I'll be happy just if I don't have to respond to my own posts.

As the "original poster" alluded to by DeanCutter, I was hoping to have a fun, mature and learning experience with this "class" since I missed the start of the Ford class and didn't want to barge into the middle. As one who is constantly trying to come to grips with Ford, just reading some of the posts was helpful. MissG, in fact, perhaps unintentionally, really helped me understand why I like Mann's Westerns more than Ford's and, as a result, helped me understand my own skewed sense of film values -- which I'm hoping will make me more open to various film experiences (Could Altman be next? Nah.).

It is the chance for such an exchange of ideas that keeps me around and want to interact with this group. And I'm hoping this thread -- once it starts in earnest on topic -- will be a good, thoughtful (and maybe even occasionally academic) exchange.

There -- now everyone make nice before I start sitting anyone in the corner.

EDIT: While typing the above, one post was edited and couple more came in. Bill & Judith are already where I hoped we'd be in a few weeks. Is there an emeritus position available? Feeling useless already.