Philip Roth’s The Dying Animal is a story narrated by David Kepesh, a fictional professor we first met in 1972′s The Breast, and again five years later in The Professor of Desire. Now, Kepesh is self-loathing, fiercely bitter, and seventy years old, recalling an all-consuming affair he once had with a student, Consuela Castillo.
“Elegy,” the movie adaptation, was directed by Isabel Coixet and written by Nicholas Meyer (worth noting here, Meyer also adapted Roth's The Human Stain in 2003), and starred Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson, and Peter Sarsgaard.
“Elegy” got us thinking about other student teacher relationships brought to life on the big screen. Read on for a list of our favorite relationships that tested the boundaries of what counts as an after-school extracurricular activity, and let us know which we missed in the comment section below.
Oleanna by David Mamet
In Oleanna, a play by David Mamet he later adapted for the screen in a film starring William H. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt, the student-teacher affair is more ambiguous, but no less provocative and controversial. William H. Macy plays John, a self-involved college professor on the verge of his tenure. Carol, a student (played by Eisenstadt), approaches him for guidance in a class she is failing and ends up accusing her professor of sexual harassment. Whether or not it’s true is entirely unclear. Signified in the trailer below, whatever side you take, you’re wrong.
“Notes on a Scandal,” based on Zoë Heller’s novel What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal
Sheba Hart, portrayed by Cate Blanchett in Richard Eyre’s 2006 film, is an art teacher who has just started a new job at a school in London. She’s married with children, but deeply unsatisfied with her domestic life, tied to the much older Richard Hart (Bill Nighy). So she sets her sights on someone younger: the fifteen-year-old Steven Connolly. While they manage to conceal their affair for a good while, without a scathing indictment and life-changing reveal we wouldn’t have a scandal.
“A Beautiful Mind,” based on a novel by Sylvia Nasar
“A Beautiful Mind” is a biopic based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. Nash is inordinately capable (he’s one of the most gifted mathematical minds of his generation) and equally introverted and internal. His talent is only marred by his schizophrenia, but before he’s overcome by the illness, Nash falls in love with — and later marries — a student, Alicia Larde (played by Jennifer Connelly).
“A Single Man,” based on novel by Christopher Isherwood
“A Single Man,” directed by fashion designer and aesthete Tom Ford, follows a very full day in the life of college professor George Falconer (Colin Firth). Numbed by the death of his longtime lover Jim, George listlessly comes into contact with a student, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), at which point the bounds of a professional student-teacher relationship are tested, and then abandoned.
No comments:
Post a Comment