She's Alive! Alive!

Reel One: The class discovers James Whale's classic (and one of the rare sequels that knocks the original out of the water) Bride of Frankenstein. Humor, pathos, villainy, the "Other" as more human than the humans, even a pitchfork-wielding mob - is there anything this movie doesn't have? We had a good discussion following the screening (helped, no doubt, by the fact that Bride is only 75 minutes long) and we marveled at the fact that this is one of the strange movies in which the title character isn't on screen all that much (under 10 minutes, actually). Bride may be about her, but it's not really her story. To round out the experience, we watched a brief clip (with the Gene Hackman hermit - check it out here) of the parody Young Frankenstein.

All in all, a good night. The class is beginning to click and is watching with more critical eyes than they may have had at the start of everything. Case in point - a very nice discussion about the prevalence of triangles in the film - both the physical shape (Gothic! Everything points up!) and character grouping, which is constantly shifting as the film's tension ratchets upward (see? More with the pointing).

Reel Two: Some Canadian continues to rally her friends to re-watch Buffy and write about the episodes. This week, things are getting good with the inclusion of "Halloween" as we learn that Giles isn't all tweed-and-tea and Buffy's fervent wish to "just be a normal girl" is granted (sort of) with results that edge towards the disastrous.

Next week - in class, we look at how film reflects fears by viewing Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Buffy's life gets more complicated by discovering that adults don't have all the answers and, in fact, raise plenty of the questions. And also raise demons.