Lesson 6

 

Objective:

Students will watch the final case for murder in Orson Welles’ “Three Cases of Murder.” While watching the movie they should focus on what this clip exemplifies in terms of surrealism and dreams. Afterwards they will be asked to apply some of Breton’s basic ideas concerning the importance of dreams in our lives.

 

Procedure:

After students sit down assign them each a number 1-3. According to their number each of them will be responsible for viewing this film through the specific critical lens that they are given.  They should take notes as they are viewing the film. The critical lenses will be taken from The Manifesto of Surrealism, which was the passage they were asked to read for homework.  The critical lenses are as follows:

 

1. “The mind of the man who dreams is fully satisfied by what happens to him. The agonizing question of possibility is no longer pertinent. Kill, fly faster, love to your heart's content. And if you should die, are you not certain of reawaking among the dead? Let yourself be carried along, events will not tolerate your interference. You are nameless. The ease of everything is priceless.”

 

 

2. And if things were different, what might it be capable of? I would like to provide it with the key to this corridor.

 

3. “…why should I not grant to dreams what I occasionally refuse reality, that is, this value of certainty in itself which, in its own time, is not open to my repudiation? Why should I not expect from the sign of the dream more than I expect from a degree of consciousness which is daily more acute? Can't the dream also be used in solving the fundamental questions of life? Are these questions the same in one case as in the other and, in the dream, do these questions already exist?”

 

Afterwards, students who viewed the movie through the same critical lenses will have ten minutes to sit together and discuss the meaning of the quote in relation to the purpose and meaning of dreams in the film clip.

 

Homework:

Students will be asked to write a short essay, (250-500 words) in which they use they explain they write about the use of dreams in the film, as they perceived it through the specific critical lens they were given.  In the essay, the student should include their interpretation of Breton’s quotation, as well as direct references and interpretation of dream sequences in the film clip they watched. They will have two nights to write the essay.

 

Assessment:

Students will be assessed based on their ability to interpret the quotation they used from Breton’s text, and to use specific examples from the text to support their specific interpretation. They should be able to make connections between the text and the film by comparing/contrasting the ways in which dreams are portrayed in a surreal manner.