Cinema and the English Teacher

Abstract

The English teacher, I believe, is more fitted by his training than most members of the average staff-room, to teach classes in cinema appreciation, whether as an expansion of literary studies, or in lessons designed to prepare students for the H.S.C. General Paper. He is used to teaching literature, a related medium, and if he does his job properly, he is used to teaching discrimination. That discrimination in the art of the cinema should be taught, seems to me very important. Films are usually made for profit, and because of that there is a tendency for producers to encourage the production of films that pander to cheap fantasies. A Western audience watching a Western film has some limited ability to see these fantasies for what they are, but it is more difficult for a Malaysian audience watching the same film. Because developing countries are trying to emulate the West in some respects, it is easy for people in such countries to mistake the merely fashionable, the trivial, and the silly for things of real value emerging from the West. In free countries, only an education in discrimination can prevent this.