The German Expression Influence on Contemporary US Films Discussion

Project Two aims to complicate our understanding of U.S. cinema by considering the influence of

a non–U.S. cinematic movement/tradition on a contemporary U.S. film. In this project, identify at

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least two ways the film borrows from the movement/tradition and at least two distinct ways it
resists the expectations we have of films from that movement or tradition. Choose one of the
following options for your paper:
• Soviet montage and Ron Fricke’s Samsara or Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream
• German Expression and Tim Burton’s Batman Returns or Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks
Home Alone at Night
• Surrealism and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive or Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New
York
• Italian Neorealism and Sean Baker’s The Florida Project or Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland
• French New Wave and Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight or Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation
• Chinese melodrama and Niki Caro’s Mulan or Lulu Wang’s The Farewell