Leger Grindon

Leger Grindon is the author of Knockout: the Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011) http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1390, Hollywood Romantic Comedy: Conventions, History, Controversies (Malden, MA.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405182652.html and Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Fiction Film (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994).  Professor Grindon received his Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University in 1986. His research and teaching interests include film history, documentary film, Hollywood genres, and film criticism. For more details about his publications and professional activities, connect to his CV.

Professor Grindon’s essays and reviews have appeared in numerous critical anthologies as well as journals such as Film Quarterly, Cinema Journal, The Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Film History and The Velvet Light Trap. He served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Society of Cinema Studies from 1990-1992 and on the editorial board of Cinema Journal from 1999-2002.

In addition, he serves as a faculty associate with the men’s tennis team. Leger is an avid tennis player, enjoys cycling and still loves going to the movies. He is a husband and father and has been on the faculty at Middlebury College since 1987.

Interested in exploring film studies? Two books Professor Grindon recommends are:

Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies by Rober Sklar

Making Movies by Sidney Lumet

Favorite Films

(In order of release date)

Charlie Chaplin’s 12 Mutual short films made between 1916-17

October [1927, USSR, directed by Sergei Eisenstein],

The Man With a Movie Camera [1929, USSR, directed by Dziga Vertov],

M [1931, Germany, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre]

Trouble in Paradise [1932, directed by Ernst Lubitsch starring Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins].

The Rules of the Game [1939, France, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Renoir and Marcel Dalio]

Citizen Kane [1941, US, directed by Orson Welles, starring Welles and Joseph Cotton]

Three Hollywood Westerns directed by John Ford: Stagecoach [1939, starring John Wayne], My Darling Clementine [1946, starring Henry Fonda], The Searchers [1956, starring John Wayne]

Late Spring [1949, Japan, directed by Yasujiro Ozu starring Setsuko Hara and Chisu Ryu]

3 Italian films directed by Roberto Rossellini: Paisa [1946], Voyage to Italy [1953], The Rise to Power of Louis XIV [1966],

Sunset Blvd. [1950, US, directed by Billy Wilder starring William Holden],

The Seven Samurai [1954, Japan, directed by Akira Kurosawa],

Vertigo [1958, US, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak]

L’Avventura [1960, Italy directed by Michelangelo Antonioni starring Monica Vitti.

My Life to Live, aka Vivre Sa Vie [1962, France, directed by Jean Luc Godard starring Ana Karina]

8 1/2 [1963, Italy directed by Federico Fellini starring Marcello Mastroianni]

2001: A Space Odyssey [1968, US/UK, directed by Stanley Kubrick]

MORE RECENT FAVORITES [from the last decade or so]

The Piano [1993, New Zealand, directed by Jane Campion starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel]

Pulp Fiction [1994, US, directed by Quentin Tarantino starring John Travolta]

Fallen Angels [1995, Hong Kong, directed by Wong Kar-wai]

Sense and Sensibility [1995, UK, directed by Ang Lee starring Emma Thompson]

LA Confidential [1997, US, directed by Curtis Hanson starring Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey]

The Thin Red Line [1998, US, directed by Terrence Malick

Flowers of Shanghai [1998, Taiwan, directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien]

Topsy-Turvy [1999, UK, directed by Mike Leigh]

Yi-Yi [2000, Taiwan, directed by Edward Yang]

Mystic River [2003, US, directed by Clint Eastwood starring Sean Penn]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004, directed by Michel Gondry written by Charlie Kaufman, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet]

Before Sunset [2004, directed by Richard Linklater starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy]

I’m Not There [2007, directed by Todd Haynes starring Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger]

Courses Taught

Course Description

Global Film Histories I
This course will survey the development of the cinema from 1895 to 1960. Our study will emphasize film as an evolving art, while bearing in mind the influence of technology, economic institutions, and the political and social contexts in which the films were produced and received. Screenings will include representative and celebrated works from world cinema. 3 hrs. lect./3 hrs. screen

Terms Taught

Fall 2019

Requirements

ART, HIS

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Course Description

Documentary: Art of the Nonfiction Film
Documentary film combines nonfiction with an aesthetic aspiration. This course will explore the achievement in the documentary, raising issues about the influence of documentary upon political persuasion, historical memory, the status of film as evidence, and its utility as a means of investigation. Questions will be posed, such as: Can documentary achieve a distinctive understanding of a phenomenon? How does nonfiction address/guide the relationship between sound, image, and subject? The course will offer a historical perspective, as well as study contemporary works, with the aim of preparing students to both understand and produce documentary films. 3 hrs. lect./3 hrs. screen.

Terms Taught

Fall 2019

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Advanced Independent work in Film and Media Culture
Consult with a Film and Media Culture faculty member for guidelines.

Terms Taught

Fall 2019, Fall 2020

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