Skipping over all the whitefont (really, I need to get out to a real movie theater one of these days) to ask the buffista movie hivemind for some fast ideas.

I've just been asked if I want to teach a new film class this Spring and I need to respond ASAP. I could use the extra cash, but new classes are always extra work. An additional catch is that this would be in the freshmen seminar program, which focuses primarily on the non-Western world. They are a bit desperate, however, so I was thinking I could use my base in European and Hollywood film to do something on "literature and cinema" that would focus on genre across cultures.

Some possibilities:
Myth: Orfeu Negro, Orphée
Western: YTD Hollywood Western, Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars
Crime/Noir: The Postman Always Rings Twice, Ossessione

And I think I would study musicals as a distinctly cinematic form, that would allow me to bring Bollywood (and Jacques Demy) in.

I would also love to do a Western literary classic that has been interpreted by different cultures. Has there been a good African/Asian/Latin American adaptation of Shakespeare? Othello, maybe? Then I could also do A Double Life, which I love.

Is this a good idea? If so, anyone have suggestions for the above, or for different categories? Anime? Horror?

ETA: line breaks, as per usual

Don't forget about Kurosawa's Ran, which is King Lear with samarais. Also, his Throne of Blood, which is Macbeth.

Those are the two that leap to my mind, too. One of my friends at Cal Arts taught a similar class recently. I'll see if he still has his syllabus up.

Sorry, I misremembered. His was on the Other in cinema, although he did include Pather Panchali, which might be a good choice. When he was asking movie geeks about the class, someone suggested Battle Royale as a great example of current Japanese ultra-violent cinema that has much more of a heart than, say, Miike.

Oh! Even though the filmmaker was Italian and some of the actors French, most of the characters in The Battle of Algiers are Muslim, African, and highly sympathetic, even when they start killing innocent people.

I think you could probably make a case for "Kung Fu Hustle" as a modern-day interpretation of classic noir in an Asian culture. Maybe show it alongside a similarly themed noir to draw those elements from it.

Emmett has decided he needs to see all the original horror movies.

He's probably old enough that you can throw in some of the classic Hammer versions too, and spark some comparison/contrast discussions. Probably still too early for the 70s soft-core lesbian vampire Hammer era, though.

Megan, there's an Nigerian playwright, Wole Soyinka, who's adapted Shakespeare plays, but I don't know if any of them were ever filmed.

Probably still too early for the 70s soft-core lesbian vampire Hammer era, though.

Well, they are showing Vampyros Lesbos on cable right now.

Ooh! I noticed Shaun of the Dead is on the SciFi channel tonight!