Lawrence Engel

The school is lucky to have Larry. He is one of the few teachers in his field that actually knows what he is doing, and that it works in the REAL WORLD. He is a producer, cinematographer, director, and screenwriter all in one. If you look him up on IMDB he has a real repertoire unlike the other people in the film department who are floating around in academic-la-la-land. Larry may be a bit harsh, he might talk too much and too loud, he might be really busy outside of class (he has a job outside of Columbia) but he is the real deal. He always makes time for his students and always replies to e-mail asap. He cares immenseley about his students and about well-made movies in general.

Prof. Engel did a great job designing this course. It gives a broad overview of the history of documentary, from the Lumiere Brothers to Errol Morris. Every film was extremely education or enjoyable, and most of the selections were both. Class discussion wasn't the course's strong point, but Larry's lectures were insightful and usually very relevant to the current state of documentary. Class-time was nicely balanced between screenings and discussion, and the films themselves represented an incredibly broad range of topics and styles.

I came to Columbia University with the intention of majoring in film. Alas, I took the Intro to Film course taught by Larry Engel. Dare I say this was the worst experience of my life. He rambles for hours, especially when he has a new made-for-TV movie in the works. He has the ability to ruin the most touching and affecting scenes with his stream-of-consciousness commentary. Additionally, Larry hates everything. He is one of those igonorant intellectualls who believes that old is good. This is coming from a man who claims to never go to the movies anymore. He will lull you to sleep with his stories and self-aggrandizing anecdotes. Stay Away. Stay Far Away. Not only his teaching style is bad, you will learn nothing about the history of the movies, and his lectures on the meaning of films are completely vague and superficial. If you want to get anything out of the class you must do the reading. And there is a lot of it. He teaches movies as if it were math. You will actually have to graph scenes of movies, and analyze them in an essay. Depending on your TA, the discussion sections vary in quality. HATE is the only word that can describe my feeling. If you are interested in Film Studies, take the course offered through the English department at Barnard.

1 short film/project per week. There are assigned readings but I don't think anybody actually read them. I never touched them but I probably should have. The final project is fun, and you finish the semester with a couple short films to show to your roomates.

Incredible? I wanted to die. This class was 4 hours of hell. Coffee wasn't enough to ward off a headache. Prof. Engel is a genuinely nice, low-key guy, but is definitely more of a filmmaker than a teacher. There were no lectures unless you count a couple of hours when he threw an outline of his mentor's book on the overhead and read it to us without really explaining it. And the day when he tried to get us into a discussion about propaganda but succeeded only in coaxing out some ridiculously inane, uninsighful comments. The insights he called out during films were usually "low angle," "high angle," or "continuity cut." He never brought up current documentaries (to be fair, I don't think many people in the class actually saw or had any interest in current documentaries, unless you count Fahrenheit 9/11, which they constantly brought up as if that made them well-versed) and he didn't give us any insight into where he thought documentaries were going in the future. The level of discussion/"lecture" was completely superficial and I felt stupid even sitting there. I'm not a film major so I don't know if this is what all film classes are like, but it was not challenging at all. Save yourself some time and rent some Wiseman and Maysles. Sitting through this class is just pointless.

Some like him, others don't. He tends to ramble a lot. Slightly arrogant. He assigns an extreme amount of reading, but by the end of the semester, he even stops reading it. Midterm and Final are both take home. Much of how much you like this course depends on your TA.

Not a fan of this class. I took this class hoping for, well, an introduction to the study and theory of film. Instead, I got a bunch of film snobbery wedged between movies that were extremely hit or miss (and occasionally a 3 hr 45 min nap). These movies are not all appropriate to an intro class, but we watch them because Larry wants our generation to see them (he tells you this on the first day of class). I want to be a film major, and I couldn't stand the other film majors in the class. Larry caters to the 3% that already know everything you're supposed to learn, and calls on the same 4 kids as they snicker over the absurdity anachronistic mis en scene! hahaa! The class is just really impersonal and NOT a good introduction to the film dept. Discussion sections are hit or miss, but mine was actually awesome, thanks to Daniel Falcone (loved him!).

What an amazing class. Professor Engel, by far, taught the best class I had all year. Provided, I am a film major, but I think my love for the class stands far beyond my love of film. Essentially, Larry is extremely passionate about cinema and it shows during the screenings. Although he does talk over the films, he chooses times with very little action and usually adds quite a bit to the impact of the film. From day one, Larry hopes that he'll change the way you see film and I can faithfully say that by the last class, he certainly accomplishes that goal. As other reviewers have stated, it's the TAs and not Prof. Engel that grades your work, so getting a bad TA can be deadly - then again that can happen in your other classes as well. If you're not interested in majoring in film, then just Pass-Fail the class - if you are, then just be sure to follow up with your TA and let him or her know about your interest in cinema. Going to class every day was a pleasure unmatched by the rest of my schedule.

Larry Engel is a professor with great potential who somehow insists on being boring. He doesn't really "teach" so much as he projects movies and draws out a cliche' or two before and after the films, drawn straight out of the readings. However, in the one or two instances when he does analyze a scene he has his moments of brilliance - unfortunately, these moments were rare. The class is not hard, the reading is vastly doable, and sitting in a room every week watching movies (most of which are great, except for his odd choice of the bride of frankenstein) can barely be considered a torture. Even if you are taking the class for kicks and do not intend to be a film major, you can easily both have fun and get an A. The man has an obsession with Alain Resnais. When I took his class, he used three Alain Resnais movies as the "main movie" for the French New Wave class, the Experimentalist/Avantguard film class and the Documentary Class. While Resnais is a highly eminent director, his work can hardly be considered "emblematic" for each of those three movements/traditions ... so at the end of the semester, do yourself a favour and watch more films to get a broader picture of the New Wave and Experimentalist film. Basically: Fun Class because of the Material, but a Passive and Mediocre Professor

I agree with most of the positive reviews below. I want to add that I took this course to fulfill a general requirement and I am in no way a film major and knew nothing about film prior to the course, and I loved it. You can pick and choose what to take away from this course. For my midterm and finals I was able to analyze the films as literature, or socially or politically, and I didn't need to learn much about camera angles or lighting or the Deconstructor or any of that weird stuff that only Film majors like. (Though I could have learned this stuff if I had wanted to, simply by not zoning out when he talked about it during class.) Don't be scared away from this course if you're not a Film major! Beware, though, of falling asleep during the movies. They're all very good and interesting, but it's a dark room, and if you're already tired... let's just say you should bring a caffienated beverage to class...