1
00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:07,140
DAVID THORBURN: One of the ways
that the study of literature

2
00:00:07,140 --> 00:00:09,120
and the study of film
differs from the study

3
00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:12,360
of technical things, and
the reason I teach it,

4
00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:14,530
is that it belongs to
everyone, that it's

5
00:00:14,530 --> 00:00:16,190
valuable for everyone.

6
00:00:16,190 --> 00:00:18,810
Not everyone needs to know
about quantum mechanics.

7
00:00:18,810 --> 00:00:20,800
But I believe everyone should.

8
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:22,890
And if they don't, I feel
they're impoverished.

9
00:00:22,890 --> 00:00:26,310
Know how to read a good
story, enjoy plays,

10
00:00:26,310 --> 00:00:28,450
know how to enjoy the movies.

11
00:00:28,450 --> 00:00:30,450
So I feel that what
I'm giving my students

12
00:00:30,450 --> 00:00:33,022
is, in some sense, something
even more valuable to them

13
00:00:33,022 --> 00:00:34,730
because it will be
something that they'll

14
00:00:34,730 --> 00:00:37,271
have with them for their whole
lives and their whole careers.

15
00:00:37,271 --> 00:00:41,570
One of the things MIT
students often do not realize,

16
00:00:41,570 --> 00:00:43,160
is that a very
large number of them

17
00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:46,630
do not end up making
their living in the areas

18
00:00:46,630 --> 00:00:48,170
in which they majored.

19
00:00:48,170 --> 00:00:50,380
But all of them end up
wanting to go to the movies.

20
00:00:50,380 --> 00:00:52,300
All of them end up
with the capacity

21
00:00:52,300 --> 00:00:54,400
to read and enjoy literature.

22
00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:56,460
And I hope that coming
out of my classes,

23
00:00:56,460 --> 00:00:58,380
they'll do those
things with greater joy

24
00:00:58,380 --> 00:01:00,012
and with greater intelligence.

25
00:01:00,012 --> 00:01:01,470
One of the things
I hope all of you

26
00:01:01,470 --> 00:01:03,450
will have when you come
out of this course,

27
00:01:03,450 --> 00:01:06,430
is a much more confident sense
of how to look at movies,

28
00:01:06,430 --> 00:01:09,290
not to spoil your enjoyment
of kicking back and looking

29
00:01:09,290 --> 00:01:11,800
at a stupid Schwarzenegger
entertainment

30
00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,440
if you want to, not to make
you feel guilty about that,

31
00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:16,820
but to make you be able
to tell the difference

32
00:01:16,820 --> 00:01:20,260
between something like that and
what I'll call a work of art.

33
00:01:20,260 --> 00:01:24,520
Implicit in my film
course is an admiration

34
00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:26,800
for a certain kind
of achievement,

35
00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:29,130
and admiration for a
certain kind of artist,

36
00:01:29,130 --> 00:01:31,727
and artist like Jean
Renoir, the great filmmaker.

37
00:01:31,727 --> 00:01:34,060
If I were deprived of the
pleasure of seeing Boudu again

38
00:01:34,060 --> 00:01:36,330
for the rest of my
days, I would never

39
00:01:36,330 --> 00:01:40,420
forget that grass, that
dust, and their relationship

40
00:01:40,420 --> 00:01:42,460
to the liberty of a tramp.

41
00:01:42,460 --> 00:01:45,170
The point of this
exercise is to remind you

42
00:01:45,170 --> 00:01:47,770
of the immense
power, the potency,

43
00:01:47,770 --> 00:01:49,950
of even a single camera move.

44
00:01:49,950 --> 00:01:56,660
Think what that 180 degree pan
suggests as Bazin brilliantly

45
00:01:56,660 --> 00:01:57,910
argues for us.

46
00:01:57,910 --> 00:02:02,000
So the conclusion then is that
the visual style of a film,

47
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,690
or of certain films anyway,
can express a moral vision.

48
00:02:05,690 --> 00:02:08,470
And by moral vision, I
don't mean moralistic,

49
00:02:08,470 --> 00:02:11,270
what's didactic right
and wrong, but a vision

50
00:02:11,270 --> 00:02:13,700
of having to do with the
values and assumptions

51
00:02:13,700 --> 00:02:16,220
you make about the
nature of the world.

52
00:02:16,220 --> 00:02:19,750
There's a moral vision
implicit in the tentativeness,

53
00:02:19,750 --> 00:02:22,980
the hesitancy, the
retarding impulse

54
00:02:22,980 --> 00:02:28,530
to dwell and linger on
things in Renoir's camera,

55
00:02:28,530 --> 00:02:32,290
and in the basic habits
of poetic realism

56
00:02:32,290 --> 00:02:34,820
that you will see
brilliantly embodied

57
00:02:34,820 --> 00:02:38,130
in the film you're going to
watch tonight, Grand Illusion.

58
00:02:38,130 --> 00:02:43,810
Because I want to set up, as a
candidate for their admiration,

59
00:02:43,810 --> 00:02:48,760
and alternative to Wall
Street, an alternative

60
00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,500
to entrepreneurial genius.

61
00:02:51,500 --> 00:02:55,660
I admire Jean Renoir's genius,
Or Orson Welle's genius,

62
00:02:55,660 --> 00:03:00,140
or James Joyce's
genius universes

63
00:03:00,140 --> 00:03:04,390
more than I admire
what entrepreneurs-- I

64
00:03:04,390 --> 00:03:07,820
respect what entrepreneurs do.

65
00:03:07,820 --> 00:03:11,720
But I am in awe of
what great artists do,

66
00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:16,385
and of what great doctors do,
while we're on the subject.

67
00:03:16,385 --> 00:03:19,180
Which, I'm uneasy about
the extent to which even

68
00:03:19,180 --> 00:03:21,600
within MIT's
culture, we've become

69
00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:23,630
so preoccupied by
what we might call

70
00:03:23,630 --> 00:03:28,040
commercial or financial success,
instead of the kind of lasting

71
00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:32,540
success that great art, or
the practice of medicine,

72
00:03:32,540 --> 00:03:35,850
or the practice of
nursing, or dare I say it,

73
00:03:35,850 --> 00:03:40,832
the practice of teaching,
might also embody.