Teaching Film Reception Studies: Modelling “Not Knowing” as a Fruitful Position

DJOYMI BAKER: Central to teaching my film genre course is an acknowledgement that film genres do not merely exist within films themselves, but rather the idea of a film genre also circulates through marketing (such as trailers and posters) and reception (such as reviews and audience responses).

While audience research is beyond the scope of an undergraduate film studies course, analysing marketing materials and reviews is certainly achievable. Examining the way a film was reviewed upon its initial release can reveal a host of historically-specific ideas around film genre, and the cultural context in which they operate.

Reviews for older films can also throw up some interesting obsolete expressions, abbreviations or cultural references. I use this example to advocate modelling “not knowing” to our students as being a positive part of curiosity that sparks inquiry around reception, rather than “not knowing” as being something negative that disempowers students.

In a week on film-noir we watch Charles Vidor’s 1946 film Gilda, starring the glorious Rita Hayworth, who is the focus of many of the reviews of the time. Students are provided with seven different newspaper reviews of the film, which they read in pairs or small groups. The instructions are to circle any words that seem to provide the film with a genre label, as the film was released in March 1946, while the term “film noir” was not coined by Nino Frank until August 1946. Students were also to circle anything else that struck them as interesting or confusing to discuss with the class.

The Variety review of Gilda began like this:

“Practically all the s.a. habiliments of the femme fatale have been mustered for Gilda, and when things get trite and frequently far-fetched, somehow, at the drop of a shoulder strap, there is always Rita Hayworth to excite the filmgoer” (1945).

When I first read this review, I had no idea what “s.a. habiliments” might mean. A quick Google revealed habiliments to be an old-fashioned word for clothes (with apologies to Shakespeare scholars, given he used this term in several of his plays). Working out “s.a.” was trickier, but given the context I realised it referred to sex appeal (or more specifically in this sentence, ‘sexually appealing clothes’).

None of my student initially shared their difficulties with outdated expressions such as these in the film reviews – or at least they might have discussed this within their reading group, but did not disclose it to the whole class. As Peters, Le Cornu and Collins note, “It takes confidence for learners to admit that there are gaps in their knowledge, or understanding… Learners may feel vulnerable about admitting their ignorance to others” (2003, p. 3).

So instead, I told them that I originally had no idea what it meant. I was curious about what the reviewer was getting at, particularly as it was the opening line. I had to look it up, and then figure the rest out. After this revelation, students then shared other terms or references they’d been puzzled or surprised by. In other words, they relaxed about their lack of understanding. My position as teacher is usually one of knowing, of expertise, but in this case revealing “not knowing” was more productive of an open and engaging discussion about film reception.

In the context of the course, this strategy helped to draw students’ attention to the way that film reception and criticism is historically contingent, and how genre labels change over time. But more broadly, this method helped students see that they should not feel intimidated if they do not initially comprehend the course materials.

“Not knowing” is not something we would usually share with our colleagues, or at least not in those terms. Yet so much of what we do is actually about not knowing something and attempting to shift this position through our research. The difference is we have our prior knowledge of our discipline to scaffold that process. Students often do not, which makes admitting not knowing a more vulnerable position for them. As such, modelling “not knowing” as teachers can be about empowering students to take a positive approach to curiosity and discovery. As one student remarked in the feedback survey, “I don’t feel stupid when I don’t understand.”

References

Frank, N 1946, “Un Nouveau Genre ‘Policièr’, L’Aventure Criminelle’, L’Écran Francis, Vol. 61: 8-9, 14.

Peters, J, Le Cornu R and Collin, J 2003, “Towards a Constructivist Teaching and Learning,” A Report on Research Conducted in Conjunction with the Learning to Learn Project, November, https://www.education.sa.gov.au/docs/curriculum/tfel/towards_constructivist_teaching_and_learning.pdf

Variety Staff, 1945, “Gilda”, Variety, 31 December, https://variety.com/1945/film/reviews/gilda-1200414757/