Jules News

1. Place your film: intertextuality and historical context.

Kiss Me Kate was made at MGM in 1953 - the immediate postwar period.

Directed by George Sidney

• Well known director of musical comedies, other light-hearted fare.

• Cole Porter musical

Why Kiss Me Kate in 1953?

• Confusion in identities between couples long separated by the war.

• Postwar spike in the divorce rate, growing social acceptance of divorce.

• Idealization of marriage - beginning of the Ward and June era.

Made in 3D

• Hollywood unease at the arrival of TV.
• Experimentation, spectacular exploitation of new technologies typical of Hollywood

2. Read your film as a "formal system".

Everything you see in a film was done deliberately.

• Film content - characters, story, plot

• Materials - scenes, settings, actions, props, costumes, music

• Filmic techniques - lighting, camera position, camera angle, sound effects, editing

• Genre conventions - setting, mood, format, style, pace

3. Analyze your film according to your interest.

What is the content of the film really about for you?

• Competitive behavior and irrationality of women to be "tamed".

• Misbehavior and moral weakness of men to be forgiven.

• Final resolution, and containment of hetero sexuality, in marriage.

Do the formal elements of the film serve its content and meaning?

• Settings and costumes
• Lighting and camera angles
• Pace
• Musical score