Lesson 8

Objective:

Students will watch a clip from Big Fish, which will provide them with a more contemporary view of Surrealism. They will be able to compare a more a modern surrealistic film with the classical surrealistic films that they have been watching.  They will also use this film as well as all of the other works they have been studying in the class, to consider whether or not they believe Surrealism is the path to reality, and helps us to find beyond our socially constructed conscious.

 

Procedure:

Show the last two scenes from Tim Burton’s Big Fish.  The first scene is “The River Story” and the second scene is “The Funeral.”  These two scenes demonstrate how a dying man has lived through his dreams and stories for so long that they have become his only reality.   Like the other films we have watched, these scenes portray time as a meaningless, socially constructed element that has no truth beyond our need to structure and organize our life as well as create limitations for ourselves. This clip is about eleven minutes long.

 

After the movie has ended pass out the following worksheet that contains a short excerpt from the Manifesto of Surrealism.  Ask a student to read the quote aloud. Then ask the students to describe how this quote describes the father in the film.  How is the father “honest to a fault?”   

 

Finally, ask students to take a stance. Using the passage and what they have learned throughout this unit, ask students to decide whether or not they feel that the father was a “madman.” The students that believe that the father was completely insane should stand on the right side of the room. The students who feel that the father was not crazy, but rather a “victim of his imagination,” should stand in the middle of the room. The students who believe that his father had found more truth in his life then most of us who live bound by the rules of society should stand on the left side of the room. Let students take turns explaining why they chose to take that position.  

 

Homework: Remind students that they should have their final projects ready for the following class.