Understanding Sontag: Cinephilia
This handout introduces Sontag’s arguments on cinema and cinephilia in “A Century of Cinema” and explores their relevance today.
FILM LESSON 2: HANDOUT 2
½-1 class period (30-60 min)
- Art and Culture
Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
- History and Social Studies
Themes > Culture
Themes > Globalization
Themes > History of Science and Technology
- Literature and Language Arts
Genre > Essay
Place > American
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Compare and contrast
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Discussion
- Evaluating arguments
- Historical analysis
- Interpretation
- Literary analysis
- Media analysis
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Textual analysis
- Visual art analysis
- ELA Reading: 1-4, 7, 10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2
- ELA Language: 4, 6
- HSS Reading: 1-4, 7-10
- Assign the full text of Sontag’s “A Century of Cinema” from Where the Stress Falls (or “The Decay of Cinema”), or additional texts about film by Sontag in advance in place of handout excerpt (see our Film Unit Research handout for suggestions).
- Reflection and concluding questions may also be assigned as short essays or response papers.