The perfect American film...for French students
Ok reader(s)... Perhaps I'm about to find out just how many of you there are.
I'm looking for suggestions. I'd like to show a film that offers an authentic and valuabel insight into American culture in a way that might be interesting to French high schoolers. I don't have any other criteria per se...any decade, any subject, any genre. It doesn't have to be an adaption of a literary work though if it is that might open further avenues for teaching the film before and after viewing. What can you suggest?
K
I'm looking for suggestions. I'd like to show a film that offers an authentic and valuabel insight into American culture in a way that might be interesting to French high schoolers. I don't have any other criteria per se...any decade, any subject, any genre. It doesn't have to be an adaption of a literary work though if it is that might open further avenues for teaching the film before and after viewing. What can you suggest?
K
posted by K at 9:33 AM
10 Comments:
Hm... the movies I thought of ("Can't Hardly Wait" and "Dazed and Confused") are full of drug and sex references- probably off-limits. Are you looking for the 'American teen' point of view? Or more general? I'll keep thinking.
It depends what perspective you want (family, adult, teenager...). I think "The Breakfast Club" is great--all different kinds of students, stuck at school together, all the issues teenagers face, they learn how similar they really are in the end...(you've seen it, right?). I had been thinking about showing that one with some of my students..."American Beauty" is another good one--very different take, though...
I came in to throw "Breakfast Club" at you, but see someone has already voted for it.
"Dead Poets Society"? for teens/literature
"Hoop Dreams"?
So far I'm intrigued...just to update the suggestions, Shane proposed the John Wayne flick "The Shootist".
What a Question!
My problem is that in a favorite movie I mostly remember the parts that ring true. Here are a few that capture some essential Americana for me -- but may have some nonsense in them, too.
Erin Brockovich
Napolean Dynamite
Forrest Gump
In the Heat of the Night
A River Runs Through It
Sling Blade
Cider House Rules
You know what is actually a pretty great movie? One that captures American family life (at least in the early 80s) better than any movie?
E.T.
That's right. We watched this awhile ago and I was amazed at how real the family interactions felt. I wonder if teenagers nowadays have even seen that movie...
i agree with breakfast club... or stand by me, its set in oregon... oh, and who doesnt love e.t.?
ferris bueller's day off,
never been kissed,
almost famous,
school of rock?
Red Dawn. Ha! Just kidding. Mean Girls, which seems like an accurate depiction of teen life today. And it's written by the excellent Tina Fey. There's also Thirteen, which also seems accurate but is both scary and depressing. A good one in a historical context (it's set in the Great Depression) is King of the Hill. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Melissa suggests Elephant...only somewhat current, non-foreign movie w/teens in it she can think of.
The library staff has narrowed the list down to the following:
Ferris Bueller
Never Been Kissed
School of Rock
The Breakfast Club
Napoleon Dynamite
Forrest Gump
The Wizard of Oz
There you go!
-Lori M
and
Evylyn B
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