Hlee

Best Actor
(1) River Phoenix
(2) Hugo Weaving

Actress
(1) Geena Davis
(2) Abigail Breslin

Best Supporting Actor/Actress
(1) Susan Sarandon
(2) Dennis hooper

Best Road Film from GWSS 3006 Series: Thelma and Louise
Why? Well expressed female desire of freedom in the contemporary society and successfully sublimated rough adventure mixed into humor yet the point of the movie remains serious.

Best Trans-Character in Trans-Cinema Road Film: Scott (Keanu Reeves)
Why? easy transition between street life/noble life and homosexuality/heterosexuality counts as a best trans-character. Quite of a shock to follow the story

Most Complicated character in a Road Film Narrative: Sandrine Bonnaire (Vagabond)
Why? I can never understand her personally... I know her life in the film carries a significance in emphasizing pitfall of excessive female desire for freedom and independence but the way that her life was portrayed in the film is too desperate I did not want to make any connection with the character.

Favorite and Most Memorable Vehicle in a Road Film:
(1) one from Easy Rider
(2) one from the Girl on a Motorcycle

Best Example of the Male Gaze in a Road Film: Girl on a Motorcycle

Worst Road Film screened in GWSS 3307: Vagabond
Why? I'm sorry, but I was actually disgusted watching the movie and I couldn't completely understand this film without second-hand commentaries... Failure of a female vagabond is to desperate and carried in a tiring manner that made me hard to stand throughout the running time..

Your favorite cop in the road movie genre (Name the Movie) Thelma and Louise

Best Soundtrack in a Road Film: My Own Private Idaho by Hans Zimmer

Best feminist film in the GWSS series: Thelma and Louise
Why? Strikingly well made movie although Hollywood breeze smells Feminist film as a process of identifying self is well represented from the film.

Best example of "Counter Cinema" in a Road Film Narrative: Easy Rider
Why? Setting given from mis-en-scene separates stability of the film and space and time are disconnected from each other. at the end of the movie the only thing that stands out is the the film itself and the significance of the produced theme.

Your definition of "Counter cinema" Apart from major scenes, counter cinema calls up experimental elements and questions the conventions of pre-existing films and try to overthrow them mix them into the movie, although the success or passionate reflection of the movie is not guaranteed.

Best Filmic Study of Gender on the Road: Girl on a Motorcycle
Why? Emphasized femininity and masculinity at the same time

Best Filmic Study of Race on the Road: Pow Wow highway
Why? experiences road in terms of race other than White male dominance

Best Filmic Study of Class on the Road: My Own Private Idaho
Why? transition of Scott between street life/noble life was strikingly easy and the movie entirely emphasized difference between classes.

Best Filmic Study of Queer Bodies on the Road: My Own Private Idaho
Why? Bare presentation of queer road might have been striking but it was a good study to experience the psychology of homosexuality in relation to Oedipus syndrome.

Best Definition of a Road Film from the Readings (excert from the readings, give page number and author): road as an "ideogram of human desire and last-ditch search for self" page 41 David Laderman's "What a trip: The road film and American Culture"

Group Two: Queer Rural-Phobia. In our two viewings of tran-cinema road film ("Priscilla" and "To Wong Foo'), the binary between rural and urban settings creates a way of reading homophobia and transphobia in the city and in the country. How are rural and country people areas represented in these films? Give one example. Do these films exemplify a queer bias against rural areas, a kind of rural-phobia? Do you think this is fair or unfair?

In "the adventure of Priscilla" and "To Wong Foo", distinction between the responses to homosexuality in urban and rural areas is clear. In both of the films, homosexuality is presented as an entertainment in regardless of whether the audience is homophobic or not. Thus the homosexuality as a form of entertainment does not necessarily require the audiences to truly accept homosexuality as an acceptable notion, however when homosexuality moves onto rural areas homophobic voices becomes louder and stronger. For example, in "Priscilla" once the trio stops by a rural area, they encounter a group of people yelling at them and face sarcasm towards homosexuality. However, in "To Wong Foo" this rural people are depicted as capable of finding the true nature of the things, which in fact ends up in mutual helping and understanding between the main characters and the rural people. I think these two films exemplify a queer bias against rural areas because the popularity of the drag queen performance is not as welcomed in rural areas as in urban areas. This kind of rural-phobia is not totally unreasonable because in rural areas conservative characteristic is stronger and access of the uncommon and outside of the norm is not easily seen.

GROUP TWO: According to Aitken, Lukinbeal, and Robertson, "The Adventures of Priscilla:Queen of the Desert" celebrates the fluidity of gay and trans identities and is at the very same time a very gender conservative movie - reinforcing white male supremacy and misogeny in the characters of Mitzie, Felicia and Bernadette. How do you see this working in "The Adventures of Priscilla:Queen of the Desert"? Select one scene and analyze. How does this affect you as the spectator?

In the scene where the trio--Mitzie, Felicia, and Bernadette--stops by a hotel pub, Bernadette simply insults Shirley, a tough white woman, degrading her lack of femininity. This scene shows that although the entire road in the film highlights challenging survival of homosexual individuals, in this one scene it seems like the tone has changed. Here Bernadette criticizes Shirley as if he was to judge on her as a normal male. The Fact that his comments makes the audience cracking out, this reflects that his comments work for the normal audiences, which is very unnecessary in advancing fluidity of gay and trans identities.

Group Two: Look up the lyrics to Rich James "Super Freak", the music played for Olives Miss Sunshine dance performance. How do these lyrics, Olive's dance, and Olive's affection for her grandfather configure a family romance subject to possibly unsettling interpretations? Do not repeat what students have written in prior log entries.
Rich James' "Super Freak" describes a girl who is trendy, tempting, sexually attractive and punky. Imagine a girl dancing and seducing, making someone wanting to "taste" her. With this picture only, I can't put this girl with Olive in the same scene. Perhaps this can be an objective view on Olive's dance on the beauty contest stage. However, the fact that Olive's dance can't be easily connected to the girl described in Rich James' song certainly emphasizes that Olive's dance was different from a seductive girl's. This implies that her dance successfully made connection with her affection for her grandfather. Whatever the people outside of her family thought of it, the completion of her show for her grandfather is indifferent from whether his perspective would fit to the norm of the society and whether Olive's dance will be suitable to the standard criteria of beauty queen contest. Here Olive's family relationship is romanticized that makes the argument of appropriateness of her dance completely out of scene: it is a reflection of Olive's family and Olive's affection for her grandfather.