Posted: April 14th, 2015

actor Alan Arkin from The Actor Speaks by Janet Sonnenberg

1.    Read  the discussion with actor Alan Arkin from The  Actor Speaks by Janet Sonnenberg found in the course reader( in the attachment).
2.    Watch The Slums of Beverly Hills featuring Alan Arkin
3.    Write a 2-2 ½ page paper
You MUST include the following:
?Required for at least half of your paper:
How might that have affected his
approach, experience, and/or performance in the film? (Note: In some cases the
actor speaks specifically about certain scenes in the films on the list, and in some cases
the films from the list aren’t covered at all. Use a scene that IS NOT talked about
directly in the book. You need to make your own conclusions and hypotheses about these actors, their approaches and experiences.) You have to find some statements or experiences of Arkin in the reading I provide and write about how his experiences of acting relate to his performance in movie The Slums of Beverly Hills.

In this paper, it is not necessary to write about the instruction and conclusion.

Your paper may also include any one of the following suggested topics and questions,
though this is NOT required:
?What was/were the objective(s) of the character played by your actor? How might the
actor have approached this/these objective(s)? What obstacles were encountered by the character and what actions were taken?
?What major conflicts did the character encounter? (i.e. Man vs. Man, Nature, Self,
Society, Technology, Fate, etc.) Describe why this is the case. How might the actor
have approached these conflicts as a character?
?What decisions do you believe your actor made about his/her character in the film?
Were these choices effective? How so?
?If there was comedy in the film, was it physical, was it verbal, or both? Describe how
and/or why? Was it effective? Why or why not?
? Your analysis may also include any of the following elements we discussed in class:
protagonist, antagonist, hero, anti-hero, mentor, punch line, straight (wo)man, foil,
subtext, acting within a genre (comedy, drama, screwball, black comedy, spoof, etc.), etc.
Enforced guidelines:
–You are required to notate the pages in the book from which you’re referring to in a
simple parenthetical in the text.
–You are required to notate the time in the movie of the scenes you refer to (i.e. 20:00 or
20 mins, etc.).
–Refrain from writing about the plot of the film. The purpose of the paper is not to
describe the story in the film, but to demonstrate your understanding of the book and to
share your ideas on how the processes and experiences of the author may relate to your
chosen film. Excessive plot description will result in the lowering of your score.
–This is not a research paper. Material about the film you may find in other books or
on the internet may be interesting but will ultimately be inappropriate for the purposes of
this assignment and will lower your score.
Additional Notes:
— The report is to be 2 – 2 ½ pages in length, double-spaced.
–This double-spaced essay must have standard one inch margins with 12 pt font, Times New Roman.
–You don’t need to include any references.
–Please understand the difference between the terms “actor” and “character” when
writing your essay.