According to the description provided in Writing about Movies, on pages 8–11, write…
Use one of the films listed in my Letterboxd list linked for each module:
Here is the example I did using the film The Cheat (1915). This film is not in the Letterboxd lists above, but this should provide you an idea of a film that we studied for the Invention of Cinema module.
The Cheat (1915) is a film about Edith Hardy, a Long Island socialite and the wife of Richard Hardy. As the treasurer of a local Red Cross fundraiser, Edith cannot bear to wear a gown to a fundraiser for a second time. To pay for a new gown, she “borrows” $10,000 from the treasury and invests in a get-rich-quick scheme. The investment quickly fails, and the money is gone. Her friend Haka Arakau offers her a loan to replace the stolen money in exchange for sexual favors.
The Cheat (1915) offers a sexist view of high society and its trappings. Edith is unsympathetically portrayed as materialistic and immature. Meanwhile, Richard is portrayed as a prudent investor who refuses to let Edith’s demands for money and a luxurious lifestyle break his focus on his investments. Richard also shows uncommon chivalry when he falsely confesses to shooting Arakau and is prepared to sacrifice his freedom for his wife’s virtue.
The film also portrays foreigners as exotic and invasive. From the beginning, the film portrays Haka Arakau as a threat to the Hardy’s marriage, where Edith and Haka spend an afternoon riding in his roadster. When he loans Edith money, it comes with an unspeakable condition. And when Edith offers to buy her way out of the compact, he refuses and marks her with his heated brand. This is a barbaric act that shows how eastern and western cultures are incompatible: “never the twain shall meet,” as we read in one intertitle.