{"id":3353,"date":"2012-06-21T14:14:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T20:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3353"},"modified":"2012-06-21T14:14:55","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T20:14:55","slug":"good-times-bad-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3353","title":{"rendered":"Good Times Bad Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The \u201cB\u201d in the term, B-movie does not stand for \u201cbad.\u201d But it could.<\/p>\n

B-movies were a by-product of the block booking system, when Hollywood required theaters to purchase a secondary feature if those theaters wanted to present the A-movie. Over time, the term has come to be associated with any low-quality film with substandard production values.<\/p>\n

Although universally panned, many B-movies have qualities that sometimes lift them to the level of genius. And that curious journey that takes them from abysmal to admirable is followed in one of UB\u2019s summer course offerings.<\/p>\n

Sarah JM Kolberg\u2019s class in B-movies (DSM 455) is offered online. It attracts not only UB students, but others from around the country: Last year, a student from China enrolled. The group may not share a common geography, yet everyone in the class, including its instructor, has enthusiasm for the genre and embraces the campiness of the Bs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always an insomniac,\u201d says Kolberg, an adjunct instructor in the Department of Media Study and a PhD candidate in visual studies at UB. \u201cSleepless nights led me to late-night television and B-movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to her academic credentials, Kolberg is on the production team of \u201cOff Beat Cinema,\u201d a nationally syndicated program that is produced locally by WKBW Channel 7. For 19 years, to the delight of its viewers, the show has presented some of the worst movies ever made.<\/p>\n

Kolberg says she was always drawn to these cheesy films, amused by their artifice. But she soon realized that there was more to B-movies than surface fluff populated by monsters, aliens and outlaws.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I continued watching these films, I began to look at them theoretically,\u201d she says. \u201cThat investigation is what this class tries to unpack.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class, in fact, is built on a theoretical base. In addition to analyzing films such as \u201cEarth vs. The Spider\u201d and \u201cThe Brain that Wouldn\u2019t Die,\u201d students also read selections from Sigmund Freud and Susan Sontag.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my students come to the class because they love B-movies but have never looked at them from an intellectual perspective,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Low-budget Hollywood might seem an unlikely place to discover any cultural significance. But many of the B-movies, particularly the science-fiction films, were well-attuned to societal anxieties associated with the day\u2019s scientific advancements.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at all the films that arose around nuclear-technology concerns\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe big bug movies of the 1950s,\u201d says Kolberg. \u201cThese were all tied into Promethean themes of things run amok because humanity was tampering with things that it shouldn\u2019t have been tampering with.\u201d<\/p>\n

B-movies may not have generated a significant cash flow for studios, but they were easy money. Few resources were dedicated to these productions, which were characterized by their hastily written scripts, recycled sets and tight budgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these films were made in seven days,\u201d notes Kolberg. \u201cThe most commonly cited example of this\u2014and of a great film that was made in only six days\u2014is Edgar Ulmer\u2019s noir classic \u2018Detour.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s assumed that Ulmer rested on the seventh day, yet idle moments were rare for B-movie directors, whose creativity often was inspired by the economic constraints of their genre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe apartment in Orson Welles\u2019 \u2018The Magnificent Ambersons\u2019 is the same set used in \u2018Cat People,\u2019\u201d Kolberg explains. \u201cBut that fact is not immediately evident to viewers because of how the scenes were shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other pioneering B-movie techniques include the use of stock footage, a practice still used today\u2014even in blockbuster films.<\/p>\n

The films, however, provide lessons beyond the resourcefulness of their directors, according to Kolberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are rich in their metaphoric and symbolic exploration. And they present in simultaneous complex and simple ways some of the deepest concerns we have as humans,\u201d she says. \u201cThe metaphoric representation of \u2018the other,\u2019 the monster or the immigrant, we don\u2019t yet know. All of these issues play together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once students learn how to interpret these symbolic representations, Kolberg says, they can apply the techniques to any movie.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Robot Monster\u2019 features a guy in a gorilla suit wearing a diving bell. There is no attempt to cover the fact that it\u2019s a cheesy costume,\u201d says Kolberg. \u201cBut a big-budget, modern-day thriller such as \u2018Alien\u2019 is a film that contains the same themes and issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy students will definitely come away with a better appreciation of B-moves, a better appreciation of filmmaking and how a movie that seems to be frivolous can also be deeply symbolic and open for thoughtful exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spaces still remain for students interested in taking Kolberg\u2019s class. Popcorn, she says, is optional, but strongly recommended