Singing Love Stories: Romantic Film Adaptations
Course Description:
This course explores the various aspects of Hollywood films mainly focusing on musicals and their original stories such as Romeo and Juliet and The King and I. While there are many different modes of telling stories, including literature, film is an interdisciplinary medium which embodies different ways of articulating stories. To understand the various modes of storytelling we will be asking a series of questions throughout this semester: How are stories told? How do different mediums complicate the narratives? How does film industry sell a particular story? In this course, we will discuss the basics of reading narratives including written and visual texts, and approach the question of how the musical genre utilizes when telling stories through an integration of song and dance. Throughout the semester, we will work on media literacy, training to analyze textual narratives seen through film in comparison to literature. By the end of the semester, students should have a general grasp of articulating visual observations into critical analysis.
Tentative Assignments:
- Participation / Attendance
- Assignments
- Film Journal
- Quizzes
- Creative Writing Assignment
- Presentation
- Essay
- Final Exam
Possible Texts:
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet.
Westside Story (1961)
Grim, Jacob and Wilhelm. Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Landon, Margaret. Anna and the King of Siam
The King and I (1956)
Lee, C. Y.. The Flower Drum Song
The Flower Drum Song (1961)