Note: this is not an assignment; it's just some tips on how to write about literature and films. I realize that this will be review for most of you, but it's always nice to have a refresher.

The Anatomy of Film text has several chapters that will give you tips and ideas and examples to help you if you've not done this sort of analysis before. Pay special attention to Chapter 8 (especially the section on Film Adaptation), Chapter 9 (there are analyses of half of dozen films here), Chapter 10 (to get a taste of several types of film/literary criticism/analysis), and Appendix 2 (with analyses of two works including a sample student essay).

The first, and many feel most difficult, task is to find something to write about. You are writing an analysis, not merely a plot summary or a description of characters. That means you need to look at some significant idea or issue or theme or technique (I'd not recommend looking at technical elements of style unless you've got some solid background in analyzing fiction) of the work. Since we are juggling both film and literature, much of your work will be comparison/contrast. Nevertheless, you will need to develop a thesis, which means you will need some point to argue and support.

A thesis USUALLY is developed as an answer to a series of questions you ask about the work (or works). After reading Julion Cortazar's short story "Blow-Up" (you can view an online version here if you are interested) and watching Michelangeolo Antonioni's film version, you might wonder:

  1. Why would a noted Italian filmmaker, borrowing from an Argentinian writer move the setting of the story to Swinging London of the 1960's?

  2. Is changing the main character from a photographer/writer/translator to just a fashion photographer significant?

  3. The title, "Blow-up" literally refers to blowing up the photographic image, but does it have any other significance?

etc. Look for answers to your questions; look for patterns in the works; you may want to do some research (if you use research material, be sure to document it in your finished paper); eventually you should find some single area you can explore in a paper. Your thesis might be, for example,

Although Julio Cortazar's short story "Blow-Up" revolves around a translator/photographer in Argentina and Michelangelo Antonioni's film version focuses on a London fashion photographer, both works deal with the inability of the artist to capture reality, and both suggest that what we think of as real is actually shaped by our limited and inexact interpretation of scattered bits of information.

Yes, this is a pretty heady topic, and it fits right in with Lecture 2 and Discussion 2; it would also make a great topic for your first essay (you are welcome to use it if you wish). Next you will want to find evidence in the text that supports this thesis. I hope you take good notes when you read and watch the works :)

After you build up a healthy list of examples which support your thesis, you'll craft your essay using the observation-quotation-explanation method; in essence, you will make some statements (your observations), back them up with examples (documented quotations from the text), and discuss how they develop your thesis (explain them in relation to the point of the paragraph or to the point of your essay as a whole). Here's an example:

The opening of Julio Cortazar's short story "Blow-Up" shows a photographer and Chilean-French translator agonizing over how to tell his story. The abstract writing style shows how jumbled his thoughts are as he's struggling to express himself: "It'll never be known how this has to be told, in the first person or in the second, using the third person plural or continually inventing modes that will serve for nothing. If one might say: I will see the moon rose, or: we hurt me at the back of my eyes, and especially: you the blonde woman was the clouds that race before my your his our yours their faces. What the hell" (Cortazar 213). Images and sentences here are confused, and the narrator realizes that communicating his truths are limited by the tools he uses. He refers specifically to his Remington typewriter and his Contax 1.1.2 camera. Both can capture impressions, bits, but neither can tell the whole story suggesting that the various forms humans use to communicate are limited and inadequate.

Note: in the above section, the quotation is followed by a parenthetical citation; in this case the quotation is from page 213 of a short story anthology that would be listed on a Works Cited page).

Here's another example which illustrates the observation/quotation/comment pattern, but this time it's a little different. You certainly can quote directly from a screenplay or replay bits of a DVD to get the wording exact, but, generally, when you are pulling examples from films, you will typically describe scenes rather than quote; otherwise, the pattern is the same:

Thomas is arranging his inexperienced models against a white backdrop. The models are draped in the finest cutting-edge high fashions; their hair and make-up have been carefully arranged, and the final view through the camera shows the effortless, elegant shots that grace the pages of Paris Match and Vogue, but the reality not seen through the lens is very different. He yells at one girl to spit out her gum; gowns need to be pinched back with utilitarian clothes pins; the room, a warehouse, is cluttered with tripods, light stands, and a range of clunky equipment. It's an uninspired work environment, not the pretty fashion setting magazine readers will see.

Mainly, you want to stay away from simple biography and plot summary. You are trying to look for ideas and issues and techniques in the works you read and movies you view. The days of book reports are long past.

More Writing Ideas: (reinforcing the sidebar above) Although it's not shown in MLA format and is shorter than our essays (which are a minimum of four full pages in standard MLA format), there is a sample student essay on "Violence in A Clockwork Orange" in Appendix 2 of our Anatomy of Film text.