Death, Endings, and Song and Dance
Week Fourteen: Women Make Film Episode 14
Tuesday, December 1
Night Fourteen: Death, Endings, and Song and Dance
Two Airings on TCM: 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Episode 14 concludes the documentary with conclusions. Chapter 38 examines death as the biggest subject, the most universal subject, explored by filmmakers. Chapter 39 focuses on endings, how to conclude a story on film. Finally, chapter 40 breaks into song and dance highlighting musical numbers as the most constructed scenes in cinema. Episode 14 ends our road trip, our Women Make Film journey through which “we have seen the world.”
Complementary Film Schedule
Airing on TCM, times given in Eastern Time
9:15 PM – Crossing Delancey (1988) directed by Joan Micklin Silver
12:15 AM – O Ebrio (1946) directed by Gilda de Abreu
2:30 AM – The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) directed by Penelope Spheeris
4:15 AM – Smithereens (1982) directed by Susan Seidelman
6:00 AM – The Lure (2015) directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska
7:45 AM – La Cigarette (1919) directed by Germaine Dulac
8:45 AM – Very Annie Mary (2001) directed by Sara Sugarman
Academy Assignment
For individual pondering and sharing via the site comments. Watch one of this week’s films taking into consideration the Women Make Film chapter content on politics, gear change and comedy. Questions to consider, based on the film you watched:
- How was death explored in the film?
- What needed to end in the film to tell the story?
- How was song used to enhance the story or the impact of the ending?
- Bonus: How did the Women Make Film death, endings, and song and dance chapter material influence how you watched this film?