Week Seven: Existentialism, Love and the Roots of the Hipster Musical

Catherine Deneuve amidst the umbrellas

Watching Assignment: Please watch Pitch Perfect (2012). 

In Class: We will be watching The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) directed by Jacques Demy. After the film we will be discussing musicals, their position in pop culture and their current resurgence in movies like Pitch Perfect and Frozen.

Writing Assignment: Due this week is your discussion of the contemporary hipster. This can be a discussion of the hipster as a sub-culture, hipness as an aesthetic, or even just a discussion of something you think we should be hip to.  The discussion should include your categorization (define whatever you are discussing) a collection (examples of the phenomena you are discussing) and an appreciation (what is cool or interesting about the specific examples you have chosen).

The point of this writing is to advance your skills as a content mediator and commentator on contemporary culture. The best way to approach your discussion of this topic is to start with something you find interesting and important to your own life and work, some element of contemporary culture that sustains you and that we might not consider or know that much about. You are directing our attention to it.

Next Week's Writing Assignment: Comment on a Disney film or other production. Use the same structure as last week. Categorize, collect, appreciate. Give some context, both personal and cultural to your comment. What is the importance of the work you are discussing? What is the effect of the work? Where is it positioned in respect to other works in its category?  

Reading and Watching assignment for next week: Please watch Saving Mr. Banks (2013) dir. John Lee Hancock and Mary Poppins (1964). Read the selected texts on the course resource page.