Greece and Rome in the Movies CC 2023

 I'm Sophia and I haven't had much experience with film classes, but am excited to learn more. I put this colloquium on my list because I have interest in Rome/Greece and thought it would be fun to dive in deeper through movies. I got to visit Greece in 2022 and so learning even more about the history is going to be cool. I like mystery and scary movies but also enjoy a good romcom or comedy. I also love to watch true crime. The only type of thing I don't love are action movies because usually the plots don't grab my attention enough. 

 My name is Basil and my pronouns are they/them. I do enjoy film, though I have never engaged with it in an academic context. I want to learn the more technical aspects of film and learn to analyze it better. I took a classical history class my freshman year of high school, and I thought it was really interesting, so I decided to test my memory of Roman history and take this course. Plus, movies are cool.  I love horror movies, particularly psychological horror and slashers. My recent favorite is Beau Is Afraid, and my all-time favorites are The Thing, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Hereditary. I also really enjoy Wes Anderson movies and most anything animated.  I dislike action movies, but superhero movies (kind of) get a pass, especially Spiderman, and I also don't like movie musicals. 

Hi! I'm Avery and I  chose this course because I read a lot of Rick Riordan's books as a middle schooler. I've always loved Greek and Roman mythology and since I liked the mythology I figured I would enjoy movies set in Ancient Rome and Greece. I didn't realize until I read the introduction of Classics on Screen just how historically inaccurate those movies are. I think I'll still have fun watching and dissecting them though. The only movie I've seen on our list is Disney's Hercules.

 I am Michael Kachanyuk and I'm from Salem, Oregon. I have a short history of learning film in a class called "Film as Lit" and I know some basic history about Rome and Greece from my own research. I found this class to be interesting as it's about Roman and Greek settings. I don't have a specific favorite movie genre as I enjoy watching any good movie but I guess Action/Thriller are my favorite genre. My least favorite are most likely Drama/Musicals.

  my names Ezra, I watch a lotta movies, I guess I like sifi/fantasy the most but I'll watch most genres. this class also interested me because I took Latin in high school and know a bit about the classical world. I'm really excited for all the movies we'll watch!

 Hey, my name's Kai Makino-Dilloway (he/him or they/them) and I really want to work in filmmaking. Specifically screenwriting just because I like to write, but I'm also interested in directing (or at least how it works). I really like horror and thriller movies, but I also like comedies and action movies. I don't hate any specific genre of movies, but I don't like Christopher Nolan movies because I had to watch Dunkirk in class and it was unnecessarily confusing and also Harry Styles being there took me out of it. 

 What made you select this course as one of your up to six choices for College Colloquium? For example, do you have a special interest or prior expertise in film or in the Greeks and Romans? Have you actually seen some of the movies we'll discuss this semester? I myself watched many of these movies as a child on German TV. Back then, I just enjoyed the spectacle and epic scale of these movies. Later, as I studied Latin and Greek and learned more and more about the actual ancient world, I got a bit disenchanted with them because I now notice how inaccurate the movies' representation of history usually is. On the other hand, though, these movies weren't meant to be documentaries, but to offer entertainment. In that respect, they definitely succeed, as I hope you'll find too.

  Hi everyone, This blog is meant to facilitate our classroom discussions. Here you can, for example, post your impressions of the movies we watched or publish short comments on the readings that were assigned for homework. You will also be able to respond to other people's contributions. I will invite all of you to become contributors to this blog. In order to do so and be able to post yourself, please accept these invitations when they are emailed to you. See you again tomorrow, Prof. Knorr To give you a first impression, here are posters of all the great movies we'll watch and analyze.