The treatment of young characters and childhood in Cinema Paradsio and The Kid

Submit an original, theoretically sound, and engaging essay that addresses at least one or two
films listed on the supplemental filmography and one film screened in class and their treatment of young
characters and childhood. Student may consider style, genre, narrative, and form, as well as the nature of
performances in the films, and the films’ contexts. The student is expected to develop his/her own thesis
drawing from the course readings, screenings, and lectures. —— Films to Use: Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid and
the Italian Film Cinema Paradiso (1988) — Texts to consider (you don’t have to use all of these but you have to
use some of these): Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film — Vicky Lebeau, Childhood and
Cinema — Karin Calvert, “Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood” in The Children’s
Culture Reader — Dimitris Elefthoriotis, “Early Cinema as Child: Historical Metaphor and European Cinephilia in
Lumière & Company” Screen 46.3 (Autumn 2005): 315-328. [recommended]