The highlight of this class was the overall lightheartedness fun of learning about film in the city of Los Angeles. Whether it was the hilarious attendance questions that boosted my mood for the day, or the wonderful films we analyzed at the Frida theater, I really enjoyed myself in this class. I felt it was designed in the perfect way to learn the material while still having loads of fun. A specific highlight I had in the class was collaborating in a group project. After watching the movie Ingrid Goes West, it opened my eyes about how wrong Hollywoods effect on a person can go. This was always a theory of mine until this movie confirmed that it is a real issue. If it weren’t for this group project, I would not have seen this movie and watch my group-mates have this same realization.
Having lived in southern California for all my life, it wouldn’t make sense for me to have conceptions of Los Angeles challenged, but there was. Growing up with parents that immigrated from South Africa, I wasn’t exposed to the real culture of LA and was rather exposed to the usual touristy side to it. I think my parents specifically didn’t teach me that side of it because they experienced the back-end of it and were sucked into LA through the media and the way Hollywood portrays it. I feel fortunate to have taken this class because I was brought up with the perception that Hollywood is a place where everyone can become wealthy fast and inhibit a great moral compass and values. This was challenged with a variety of films we watched this semester such as Mulholland Drive and Sunset Boulevard as an example.
Lastly, my favorite text this year that we studied was by far the Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury. This was probably the shortest piece of text we studied this year but the description and symbolism behind it stood out to me the most. I think it says a lot about the “classic city” in America where human interaction is being replaced with technology, I feel this is unfortunately the case for Los Angeles in the future. However, my least favorite film this semester was most definitely Double Indemnity. I felt it was extremely slow with a ton of manipulation from Phyllis, it was a bit much for me. I do believe the female fatale is an important aspect of the noir theme, I just wasn’t sure if there was a better option to Double Indemnity. All in all, I really appreciated all the works in this class and happy with my choice of an FFC! Thank you so much, Professor Lopez!
Brad's Blog 