RE: RARA-AVIS: Touch of Evil

From: billha@ionet.net
Date: 30 Sep 2001


Ideas?
>
> FWIW I teach English in a French lyc饬 and most of my students are
> 16-18 year old tech-oriented boys.

Phil,

You might want to bring in the conflict of cultures in this bordertown crime story. Through Heston's screen wife (Janet Leigh?) and the falsely accused laborer, and the use of two languages, you get stereotypes and stereotypes reversed or undercut. I'm reminded a bit of The Third Man (English vs Austrian/ German).

The other thing you really should do is call attention to the noir film techniques, the use of imagery, light and shadow, to show how film has its own figurative language. (Start by asking whether the film "feels" in places like a haunted house movie.) Even Welles hugeness works in this respect.

Let us hear how your teens react.

Bill Hagen

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