Films Studies: A cross-cultural experience
This is one of the times I’m glad I kept a diary. I was searching through my 1987 diary for any reference to Film Studies and found the following:
| Tues, 28 April 1987
My first taste of Film Studies. Quite an experience. Two films today – a short 4-minute avant-garde film followed by the full-length feature “Sansho Dayo” by Kenji Mizoguchi. I’d read up on both film and director. Was all prepared to take notes but too dark to make sense! I was actually writing in the dark and, when the lights came up, discovered that I’d started halfway down a fresh page! |
Two films to start off my first Film Studies course, and both of them not English and not American.
Even till today, I remember the Japanese film, its title, name of director and especially the opening scene, but had no memory of the other film until I read the diary entry above. Why? I think cuz I was very surprised to find a foreign film being shown in a course run by the Film Studies Department of the School of English & American Studies in a British university.
How much more cross-cultural can you get? Especially when this is being written by a Malaysian?
(to be cont’d)
