A Keanu Reeves film festival and lecture series?
Whoa.
Before a modest crowd in 110 Willamette, assistant professor of comparative literature and romance languages Leah Middlebrook lectured on the motivations and ability of the actor in the Shakespeare comedy “Much Ado About Nothing.”
And yes, it’s the same actor who struggled to save innocent passengers on a speeding bus, who saved an enslaved human race from oppressive robots and who traveled through time to play chess with Death and air guitar with Socrates.
Wednesday night’s showing of the film “Much Ado About Nothing” marked another of the series’ lectures in the Keanu Reeves Film Festival sponsored by the University’s Comparative Literature Program.
Middlebrook described Reeves’ Shakespeare comedy as full of “premature capitulations and foregone conclusions, and conclusions and conclusions and conclusions. One of the first things I imagine you’ll observe about the film is that it ends a lot.”
She explained that Shakespeare comedies have to end with a marriage and that in “Much Ado About Nothing” director Kenneth Branagh tested out different cinematic techniques to make it seem like the movie was ending several times before the actual ending.
Middlebrook showed a clip from Gus Van Sant’s 1991 film “My Own Private Idaho” to draw a parallel to Reeves’ work in “Much Ado About Nothing.”
“The trick about this particular speech, this particular soliloquy, is that it’s absolutely obvious that by the end of that soliloquy, when Keanu Reeves delivers it, he has no idea what he’s talking about.”
“When he says ‘I will repay a debt,’ he has no idea what that debt is. He doesn’t actually understand the Shakespeare,” Middlebrook continued. However, she said that it works because of Reeves’ physical stature, he is able to square his shoulders and give the speech.
Middlebrook said that Reeves’ failure to understand his character works in ‘My Own Private Idaho” but doesn’t in “Much Ado About Nothing”.
“This is the Keanu film series. And I like Keanu as a phenomenon, not necessarily as an actor,” she said.
The film is about a group of men and women who start off segregated by gender. The men shower together and the women sleep together and dress each other, Middlebrook said.
Middlebrook said the audience should look out for one man-on-man massage scene in particular that shows Reeves as a sex object and not as a capable actor.
“Two words: leather pants,” she said. “Two more words: corn oil.”
She continued that at a certain moment in the film, the energy shifts and the character Benedick says “the world must be peopled.” This is when everyone snaps out of their happy childhood state and starts moving toward marriage, Middlebrook said.
So why the festival?
After the film, second-year Ph.D. student Michael McCann, who works in the Comparative Literature Program, explained how the Keanu Reeves Film Festival came together. Comparative literature GTF Jennie Hammond first proposed the festival in a comparative literature faculty meeting.
“We really expected that the faculty would have a good laugh,” said McCann. “But instead they embraced it and began debating over which movies they would talk about.”
“It was the highlight of the faculty meeting and it’s been the highlight of the term,” added Middlebrook. “We’ve had a pretty good turnout, all things considered. And the talks actually have been fantastic.”
It is meant to be educationally stimulating while simultaneously informal and relaxed.
“It’s the professors’ goal to provide a kind of environment that attracts people that are as playfully curious as they are serious about scholarship,” McCann said .
“These are theoretically rigorous presentations; we make them engaging and kind of funny,” said Middlebrook. “I think what we’re all modeling is that you can be very smart and very critical, and very informed and analytical and still be fun to talk to.”
“The kinds of things we teach in our comp lit classes, the kind of analyses we teach and the vocabularies we teach, are actually useful in your daily life. You don’t just have to use them when you read Shakespeare,” Middlebrook said. “You can use them when you go to the movies; you don’t just have to write about them in papers. You can actually liven up a cocktail party or a kegger by talking about what it actually means to grease up a Shakespearean character. There are funny ways to handle smart ideas.”
Both Middlebrook and McCann said another important reason to hold these film lectures is to get the comparative literature community to come together. It’s good to have interaction outside the classroom and set aside time to hang out, Middlebrook said.
“We really want to grow our majors and make our major a community so that students aren’t just taking classes with us; they’re hanging out with us and hanging out with each other. We try to make it an experience as much as possible where students get to know each other because we want them to really cohere as a group,” Middlebrook said.
UO makes Keanu Reeves’ movies an entertaining educational experience
Daily Emerald
April 8, 2007
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