Here again, though, film is still stuck within the constraints of a subject it only tangentially meets. Sound and vision are not part of your usual reading and writing heavy English curriculum.
Students at this level can pick from ten films; Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful, Niki Caro’s Whale Rider, Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham, Garth Jennings’ Son of Rambow, Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, Richard Linklater’s School of Rock, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Jim Sheridan’s In America, Stephen Spielberg’s E.T. and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild. An interesting group of films varying wildly in terms of critical appreciation.
Film’s place as part of English is a controversial decision and one that can be alleviated by the choice of film included. With this in mind I asked a few of the Irish film Twitterati what films they would include on the list. The films mentioned varied from the purposely popular The Dark Knight (Darren Mooney’s choice) to classics like Stagecoach (Donald Clarke’s choice). Paths of Glory (Hugh Linehan), Pleasantville (Liam Burke), Bicycle Thieves (John Maguire) and Zodiac (Niall Murphy) were other notable suggestions.
Video trollies are gone but so is film as a distraction. Films, whether streamed, downloaded or on DVDs, are finally being seen as an artform suitable for study. Hopefully this is only the start and Film can stretch out of the restrictive and confusing place within the English curriculum and into other subjects where the full art form can be discussed, debated and appreciated.
CinÉireann / December 2017 15
In America
Spirited Away
The Dark Knight