The choice of films really depends on what you want to use the film for.
If you want to examine contemporary perceptions of social conditions, you
could use one of the many the Grierson or British documentary films, such
as the Drifters, that are now available on video. Or try something with
Charlie Chaplin or by Alfred Hitchcock, like Sabotage or 39 Steps. These
figures allow you to ask what it means when they go to Hollywood. Was
there an "Americanization" of British culture? Or you could show
commercially popular films of the period, or films with imperial themes.
One that might fit both could be The Four Feathers. If you want
reconstructions of the Merchant-Ivory type, try Chariots of Fire, Passage
to India, Room with a View, etc. Each of these hits on a different set of
themes and could complement a different set of readings.
A good collection of essays on how historians use film is John E.
O'Connor, ed., _Image as Artifact: Historical Analysis of Film and
Television_ (1990). I recommend it for raising interesting questions
about how to use film in either research or teaching.
Peter Hansen
phansen@wpi.edu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Sincerely,
Sharon D. Michalove
Assistant to the Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of History, UIUC
309 Gregory Hall, 810 South Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801
217-333-4145 mlove@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
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/\_/\ Observe a cat entering a room for the first time: it searches
( o o ) and smells about . . . it trusts nothing until it has
==_Y_== examined and made acquaintance with everything.
`-' Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
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