Stuart: Julia, look at this!

Julia: What is it Stuart?

Stuart: It's a pamphlet from the Sophia University Community College -- they're having a class -- about ME!

Julia: Why, how nice! You must be proud.

Stuart: Proud! I'm scared to death they'll make fun of me!

Julia: Oh, Stuart, you know that is just "stinkin' thinkin'." I'm sure once they get to know you they'll love you.

Updates

June 5, 2002

The classroom page is updated with my thoughts about our recent classes.

As for the day of infamy, when Sophia gassed its own employees and students, something Saddam Hussein is often accused of, the office is considering allowing us a make up day. They were shocked to find out that the students wanted class time, not a refund. Bureaucrats!

(by the way, I updated the page on June 5, as above, but just now found out the server didn't get updated until now. Oops!)

Next Semester
I have mentioned to several of you that I wanted to do The Passion of Joan of Arc as our next movie, but on second thought I think we'll do A Christmas Story in the October class.

Also, I would like to use an AV room for Joan, but it seems hard to find them now. The rooms are all reserved in the regular semester, and in September (for Community College's one month class before the fall semester) the AV rooms are only available in the daytime. Maybe I will strike for revenge by trying to reserve the nice room in the library for all of our classes...

About A Christmas Story
Jean Shepherd wrote the screenplay for his movie A Christmas Story, and it is based on two books he wrote (Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, and Other Disasters and In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash). In addition to its Christmas theme, A Christmas Story is a focused on a person's reminiscences of growing up in America. It will be a good story to contrast with Stuart's "Look Back in Anger" take on his childhood. For example, Ralph's father is lovably gruff, while Stuart's father is just gruff.

Welcome to Class!

To learn more about the class, read the material or follow the links below.

The Classroom Page

The Affirmation Page

The Annotations Page

The Movie Page

The Songs Page

About the class in general
I am very glad to be able to teach the movies class at Sophia Community College. One aim of the class is to introduce movies that are not well-known; in addition we learn how to "read a film" and discuss the cultural and literary implications of the text and film.

I plan to spend a short time each class on the book, either fielding questions from the students or pointing out a particulary impressive section. Most of the classtime will be spent watching and discussing the movie. We'll watch about 10 minutes each week, and we will have classwide/small group discussion on almost every scene.

About Stuart Saves His Family
People who saw Stuart without expectations found it to be a warm-hearted, rather serious, comedy. But since the movie was based on a character from the satirical show Saturday Night Live! some people expected it to be a hilarious movie in the tradition of The Blues Brothers or Wayne's World (which were about the only really funny movies based in SNL characters).

I think most people, including my friends, had absolutely no interest in the movie since they knew Stuart's character enough to realize the movie would not be "hilarious" and they also thought "Stuart is OK for a few minutes, but for a whole movie? Forget it!"

Since you will see the movie while reading / discussing the book it is based on (I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!) I trust that you will have no confused expectations. You'll appreciate the way that the movie brings Stuart to life and will understand how Stuart is a real person, not just a slogan-spouting member of too many self-help groups.

The main reason I chose this movie is because it shows American family life in a realistic way, which is extremely uncommon for movies.

By the way, the movies I consider for class are 1) based on a good book, 2) well-done technically and dramatically, 3) able to support a diverse array of conversation topics. See the past classes and future classes for my thoughts on the movies/classes we have had.

About the class - more specifically

Stuart Saves His Family, starring Al Franken and Laura San Giancomo (pictured above) was released in 1995 and based on Al Franken's book I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! which itself was based on the character he had been developing for years on the TV show Saturday Night Live!.

Stuart lives in Chicago and works as a waiter and has a self-help show on public access TV. On his show he talks about destructive attitudes that people have and tries to help them "think positive".

Suddenly Stuart's life takes several turns for the worse. His show is cancelled, his favorite aunt dies (she was the only person in his family that gave him any affection while he was growing up) and his family is in desperate need of help. He does not have a good relationship with his family, but feels that he has to help them solve their very deep-set problems. So, Stuart goes back home to Minneapolis for the funeral and finds himself enmeshed in family issues.

So what is so funny? To be sure, there is much gentle humor in the depiction of Stuart's reactions to being at home, but in many ways this comedy is true to the classic definition of "averted tragedy".

So what is so great about the movie? I like it because it is an honest look at American family life, it shows Stuart grow as a person, and it has a very subtle, very moving ending. The movie is so real and so well done that you will find yourself thinking of it at odd times from day to day.

Stuart Smalley's book is no longer in print.
But that's OK, it sold a lot of copies when it was in print (for ten years!)

 

Text

The book I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! (on the left) is the text for the class. It is no longer in print, so I have ordered several copies from a store that sells used books. At this writing (May 3) the books should be arriving any day.

By the way, the book _is_ hilarious. Much of it is self-referential (in terms of "referring to itself as a book") as Stuart writes about the trials and tribulations of writing a book. You see, he is supposed to be writing a book based on the advice he gives on his public access TV show, but since his show has since been cancelled he feels like quite a fraud and is not able to write with confidence about "positive thinking". The rest of the book is self-referential (in terms of "refers to Stuart") as it is supposed to be a self-help book, but it turns out to be completely about Stuart and his problems.

The miracle is, for all the self-reference and despite the fact that Stuart is not a licensed therapist, the book is loaded with good advice and turns out to be an uplifting story of a person finding himself.

By the way,

By the way, these days I am watching many black-and-white movies. They look fantastic on DVD and on a computer monitor. I haven't watched anything on TV in so long... when on holiday a couple of weeks ago I watched some shows on American TV, strange to say that was refreshing. But the news these days is so bad, and so badly presented, that I get all my news in black-and-white (i.e., from newspapers) as well.

Anyway, recently I have seen:

  • The Third Man

  • Charade

  • Marty

  • The Bishop's Wife

  • Arsenic and Old Lace

  • Kiss Me Deadly

  • The Apartment

  • North by Northwest

  • Irma La Douce

and many many more! All in the name of research... If you can guess which actor I am currently obsessed with, let me know your idea!

Movies Class
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