Monday, 29 April 2013

Lesson 7 - Revising the Unit - Revision Guide -

What should you cover in your revision & what should you know about Vertigo before the exam to be fully prepared...Look at the Prezi below and follow the path to help guide you...


Sunday, 28 April 2013

Lesson 7 - Revising the Unit - Summary of class reading, further reading & reading lists

Texts and critical responses to Vertigo studied in Class

Below is a chart of the critical texts you have read or content you have covered in class  in your study of Hitchcock's Vertigo.  As part of your revision, remind yourself of the author, the name of the text and a summary of 'issues' they discuss. It's unlikely you will remember all of the authors here so identify those whose ideas or writing you see as key in helping you to understand and enjoy the film.







The Truffaut Interview - essential reading for ALL things Hitchcock


Hitchcock by Truffaut by candifilmstudies





List of sources recommended by WJEC










Lesson 7 - Revising the Vertigo Unit - Useful Links

Last year's revision blog that contains booklists, example exam essay answers, youtube clips etc...

CANDI 2012 Vertigo revision blog


Film Studies for Free - Post on Hitchcock's Vertigo - University of Sussex


Lesson 7 - Revising the Vertigo Unit - Key sequences, Key Issues & Debates, Key Perspectives

To prepare for the exam you should revise the key sequences, key issues set out by the critical reception to the film and the key critical perspectives that further aid our understanding of Vertigo.

Below are some analysis grids to help you analyse the key sequences in relation to the key issues and the critical approaches we looked at in class.


Lesson 7 - Revising the Vertigo Unit - Past Exam Questions, Example Exam Essay Answer and Paragraph Plans / templates

Past Exam Questions










WJEC Fm 8 Jun 2011 Exam Paper by candifilmstudies



Past Exam Answer Essay

Example Answer to question 21 Jun 2010 paper (above)






Past Exam Questions - Paragraph Plan Templates



Use these templates in your revision to help you plan your answer to the question. Each paragraph should focus on a different theme or element in relation to the question that will help you to structure and develop your argument in response.

The example plans to the specimen exam paper (the first one) were devised by an A2 Film Studies set in 2011. This is just ONE way in which you could respond to the question. 

You need to be realistic with your planning - for example - the example response for question 17 would be hard to complete in the 45 minutes you have to answer the question for this section - you might be more successful focusing on one or two of the critical approaches studied in this unit.


Lesson 6 - Critical Perspectives - Applying a Marxist Framework - Reading

Wexman - The Critic as Consumer; Film Quaterly, vol 39, No 3 - Spring 1986



Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Lesson 5 - Critical Perspectives - Applying a Feminist Critique / Masculinity in Crisis




READING: Pluskovich - A Second Gaze at Hitchcock's Women

In this article, the author identifies that whilst in earlier Hitchcock films, women are often represented in  mostly stereotypically negative ways, in his later films, notably Vertigo and The Birds, the representation of women is much more complex than it initially appears.





Below is a summary of Modleski's views in her book - The Women who Know Too Much (see critics reading list in revision post for sources etc...) Modleski critique's some of Mulvey's ideas regarding the Male Gaze and Scopophilia and offers her own perspective of Hithcock's treatment of women in his film:





Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze

Below is Laura Mulvey's article on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In this article she discusses her idea of the Male Gaze in the way women are represented in Film and also discusses the terms Scopophilia and Fetishization in relation to how the female characters are constructed and represented by male directors. You will find a summary of these ideas in the reading above (it follows the summary of Modleski's ideas in The Women who Knew Too Much).










Vertigo and the Rescue Fantasy: Some ideas...


1) Zizek - Fantasy Realised




2) Berman, The Collapse of the Rescue Fantasy





3) Hitchcock discussing male fantasy & the transformation sequence with Truffaut - warning - it's a little vulgar!





Lesson 4 - Themes, Motifs & Symbols - Student Work














Lesson 4 - Themes, Motifs and Symbols