Procedures:

1. Provide students following out-of class reading:

Kolker, Robert. "Film as Cultural Practice." Film, Form, and Culture. Boston: McGraw Hill College, 1999. 60-97. (Any good film text may be substituted. Topics covered in Kolker’s text, pages 60-97, include Popular Culture, Definition of Culture, How Popular Culture Becomes Mass Culture, Theories of Culture, Cultural Studies, Cultural Criticism Applied to Cinematic Texts.)

2. Allow for in-depth class discussion and analysis of Kolker’s "Film as Cultural Practice."

Sample Questions (substitute appropriate questions for different text):

A.) Kolker’s provides the following definition of culture: ". . . culture can be seen as the text of our lives, the ultimately coherent pattern of beliefs, acts, responses that we produce and comprehend every day (61-61). What is your reaction to Kolker’s definition? Explain.

B.) Kolker states: "Now, our culture–or that part of our culture that makes divisions between high and low, serious and popular art–defines culture much more narrowly than we just have. It defines as culture those serious works make by independent imaginations that are complex, difficult to understand, and acceptable only to the few who have, want, or like ‘culture.’ In other words, culture segments and segregates itself" (62). He explains that high culture includes such imaginative works as paintings in museums, symphonies played in concert halls, etc. Those things that do not fit this definition fall into the category of low or popular culture, which includes things like movies, television, rock music, romantic novels, newspapers, etc.–all of which are commodities. Within these narrowly defined types (often based on things like class, education, race, and gender), groups split into subcultures based on their particular interests. Do you agree that cultures (high and low) segment and segregate themselves? Can you provide examples? Explain.

C.) Do you agree with Kolker that "In order for popular culture to become mass culture, storage and distribution methods had to be developed" (64)? In other words, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, and television became venues for and worked together in the distribution of popular culture, that without these technological advances, popular culture might well have faded away. Explain.

(D.) Will Kolker’s belief that "for popular culture to become mass culture, storage and distribution methods had to be developed" hold true if you accept the premise that terms applied to humans as identifiers (such as hillbilly or redneck, etc.) are/can be part of culture, popular and mass (64)? Do you personally think that terms applied to humans as identifiers since before storage and distribution methods were developed are aspects of the same type of culture that Kolker writes of, that they can be seen as aspects of popular or mass culture? Explain.

3. Introduce movie The Ballad of the Sad Café by providing credits. Distribute handout "Credits for The Ballad of the Sad Café (1991)"

4. Screen movie for students

5. Discuss the term hillbilly and all it implies. If the following "types" do not come up in discussion, introduce them: fool, monster, woman (not heard, cross-dresser/mannish misfit.) For a more thorough explanation see Williamson, J. W. Hillbillyland: What the Movies Did to the Mountains & What the Mountains Did to the Movies. Chapel Hill: North Carolina UP, 1995.

6. After screening movie, have students work in groups to analyze and discuss the following:

(A.) Appalachian values as revealed in the movie

(B.) Hillbilly types

(C.) Filming techniques (including camera shots, lighting, music) that impact the audiences’s response to the film–add to or detract from the film

Possible Responses:

(A.)  Appalachian values as revealed in the movie

• Religion:  outdoor sermon, prayers before meals, almost sad spirituality 

• Individualism:  all characters exhibit trait, especially Miss Amelia

• Self-Reliance:  again, most characters (with the occasional exception of Cousin Lymon, whose self-reliance is revealed in his devious actions), and again especially Miss Amelia

• Pride:  community when store turned into café, Miss Amelia (as evidenced by her red dress), community in Miss Amelia's moonshine making, curing skills, fighting ability

• Neighborliness and Hospitality (including strong community bonds):  feel and behave as one in emotional situations such as sadness and happiness, share concerns (gossip) and events (meeting Marvin, watching Miss Amelia practice for fight, the actual fight, Miss Amelia's and the community members' final destruction

• Familism:  families frequent café together, even care for one of own that is outcast (Marvin)

• Love of Place:  community loves café (feels new and alive, no longer dead) 

• Storytelling:  Miss Amelia tells stories to cousin Lymon and writes others; community members gossip and speculate about Miss Amelia, Lymon and Marvin Macy; Lymon tells tall tales

•  

(B.) Hillbilly types

• Fool and Monster Character Combined: Cousin Lymon–grotesque fool, cunning, plays jokester/clown, trickster, performs magic, wiggles ears, tells truth (Tell those women to come on in here. "They’ll hurt their noses."), snoops in Miss Amelia’s things, childish infatuation with gangsters and Marvin (who he plays the biggest fool for); sinister aspect mostly for Marvin’s benefit or because of some strange influence Marvin has over him (love?), instigator–makes fun of Miss Amelia’s kidney stones, makes fun of Miss Amelia behind her back (mocking and making rude gestures), pushes Miss Amelia to fight Marvin, flies down from top shelves like a demon to give advantage to Marvin, helps destroy and burn café and moonshine still

• Monster: Marvin Macy after his return from prison–cruel (often hits or pushes Cousin Lymon, certainly treats him with disdain, even when Cousin Lymon is less sinister in behavior), physically upsets table in café, physically and emotionally upsets people in café, always goading Miss Amelia, takes watch (from time he was married to Miss Amelia) from Cousin Lymon and throws it away, receives cruel enjoyment out of staying in Miss Amelia’s house, helps destroy and burn café and moonshine still

• Woman (not heard, cross-dresser, mannish misfit): Until the end of the film, it is the other women who are not heard. When Miss Amelia’s freedom and spirit are completely taken by Cousin Lymon’s betrayal, then Miss Amelia is also unheard. (However, during the high spiritedness of the café days, the women do have some voice.) Miss Amelia is the cross-dresser, mannish misfit who plays mother to Cousin Lymon’s childish behavior (stuffing his face, wanting light on, door open, bragging about doing more than Miss Amelia knows about, sneaking around). She also plays the role of lover to Cousin Lymon.

(C.) Filming techniques

There are many film techniques that contribute to the movie as a whole. A few examples include

• The establishing and closing shots (circular), track shots, of the open cotton fields and the road where the chain gang is working on the dusty, hot road as they sing a mournful song helps establish mood–desolate, lonely, sad.

• The music played during the first time Miss Amelia travels to her moonshine still and during part of the fight scene evoke mystery, magic, loneliness, sadness.

• When Cousin Lymon enters, the music is mystical, reflecting the stupor and fantasy-like vision of the drunken men after a day’s work and Miss Amelia’s moonshine, and later qualities we observe in the hunchback.

• The extreme close-up shots of the people as they talk about what Miss Amelia might have done with the broke-back emphasize horror, fear, and even acceptance.

• It is very effective to have a dust blizzard precede the big fight (desolation to come).

• Lighting is often diffused, occasionally dark, again emphasizing mood.

Additional questions for class or group discussion

(A.) The term hillbilly, and all it implies, has come to identify Appalachians. It has become part of popular culture. Is it now, in some areas of the world, part of our mass culture? Has the mass culture adopted the term hillbilly (or some similar term) to identify people on the "poor rural fringes of the economy who [do] not seem to be accompanying everyone else into the dawning of the thoroughly modern twentieth century" or does it simply continue to identify people from the Appalachia region (Williamson 37)?

(B.) Has this aspect, the identification of a rural "something" or "someone" in terms typically used in the media to identify people of the Appalachian region, always been present throughout rural regions across the world?

(C.) Kolker discusses several theories of culture in Film, Form and Culture. One theory is that offered by Walter Benjamin. As Kolker summarizes, Benjamin believes that "the growth of popular culture [is] something to be understood not as an oppressive reality, but as a potentially liberating one. . . . Everyone could come into contact with works of the imagination and everyone would be free to make of the auraless work what she could. Curiously, the loss of aura could lead to a greater intimacy with the work. The ritual and awe that surround the work of original genius [aura] might be replaced by the intimate interpretation of each viewer" (Kolker 70)? Do you agree with Walter Benjamin’s premise? Explain. How does this premise fit into the idea of the hillbilly-type character as a member of the world rather than a member only of Appalachia? Or does it? Is the idea of a worldwide hillbilly- type persona a liberating idea?

7. Have students write a three-page essay (documentation, typed or word-processed) discussing some aspect of their findings. Students should be prepared to present a summary of their paper in class. Note to Teacher: You may wish to provide in-class time for peer revising and editing.

Enrichment Activity:

Choose a film we have not studied and evaluate it as has been modeled in class. Write a three-page essay (documentation, typed or word-processed) discussing your findings. Be prepared to present a summary of your paper in class, along with an excerpt from the film that will highlight your findings/conclusions. Note to Teacher: You may wish to provide in-class time for peer revising and editing.

Evaluation/Assessment:

• Active participation in class and group discussions and activities

• Completion of three-page evaluative essay on The Ballad of the Sad Café

• Completion of three-page evaluative essay on movie of student’s choice

Additional AppLit Resources: 

Index of AppLit Pages by Genre:  Film

Index of AppLit Pages by Genre:  Fiction for Adults