Mitchell To Star in Sequels Next Spring

The credits will roll on film critic Elvis Mitchell’s first foray into academia today as students hand in their final papers for Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) 173x, “History of American Film Criticism.”

But next spring, Elvis returns.

Mitchell, who recently left his post as one of three film critics at The New York Times, will teach one course each in the VES department and the Department of African and African American Studies in spring 2005, as he did this term. In addition to VES 173x, he taught Afro-American Studies 183, “The African-American Experience in Film: 1930-1970,” this year, serving as a visiting lecturer in both departments.

Chair of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Eric Rentschler, who has been a key player in the recent development of Harvard’s film studies program, said Mitchell would teach a new VES course, tentatively titled “Film and Sound,” focusing on the role of music and other sound elements in cinema.

Terri H. Oliver, the undergraduate and graduate coordinator in the Department of African and African American Studies, said Mitchell would teach Af-Am 183 again next spring.

Mitchell did not respond to repeated requests for comment this week.

Rentschler said he had offered Mitchell the VES position over dinner last Thursday on behalf of VES Chair Marjorie Garber, who is the Kenan professor of English.

Assistant Professor of VES and of English J.D. Connor ’92, who was also present at the dinner, said Mitchell had immediately reacted positively to the offer, made at posh Square restaurant Rialto.

“I don’t think you ask Elvis Mitchell to come back over Bartley’s,” Connor quipped. Connor, who was recently named VES’ assistant director of undergraduate studies for film studies, is also a Crimson editor.

Lawrence D. Bobo, acting chair of the Af-Am department, confirmed that Mitchell is expected back in that department next year.

Connor said the decision to consider inviting Mitchell back was made by members of Harvard’s film studies and VES faculty in the last two weeks.

Since the Committee on Undergraduate Education’s end-of-term course evaluations were not yet available, advance evaluation forms were distributed to students in VES 173x. Connor called the results “overwhelmingly positive.”

“People were very appreciative,” Rentschler said.

Contacted yesterday, students lauded Mitchell’s accessibility and ability to bring Hollywood professionals to the class.

“He seems to know film from the inside out,” Sarah M. Sclarsic ’06 wrote in an e-mail. “He’s got a unique perspective on film and an almost poetic style of commentary that is certainly something aspiring critics in the class can learn from.”

Daniel S. Fox ’04 said Mitchell’s “breadth of knowledge about film” and “dynamic,” “larger-than-life” personality had made the class memorable.

“The course was called ‘American Film Criticism,’ but in actuality we watched a movie and Elvis Mitchell talked about it for an hour,” Fox said. “There was always something exciting going on—you never knew what was going to happen, which was something unique for a Harvard class.”

Stephen A. Black ’07 was particularly impressed by Mitchell’s film-industry connections.

“He’s somebody who is on the forefront of what he does,” Black said, adding that Mitchell was still down-to-earth. “It didn’t really seem like he was a celebrity, it always seemed like he was just almost like another professor.”

Over the course of the semester, Mitchell brought a series of professionals from various sectors of the film industry to the class’s Thursday afternoon lectures, culminating in a visit from star Bill Murray at its final meeting last week.

Rentschler and Connor said they imagined that next spring’s course would be graced by similarly knowledgeable visitors from the world of sound design and editing.

“When you have a famous outsider teaching the course, you want that,” Connor said.

“Elvis knows the rock music industry about as well as he knows the film industry,” Rentschler said. Mitchell’s friendships with many A-list entertainers are well-known.

Some, though, raised concerns about how Mitchell had balanced his high-profile Times job with the demands of the ivory tower.

“There was concern about, let us say, the course’s free-flowing organization,” Rentschler said.

“The course itself had all the initial administrative probalems that one might expect from someone who is not by training an academic,” Connor said. “Elvis is spread very thin right now.”

Sclarsic had similar qualms.

“At the risk of tying my own noose, I have to admit that the course load could stand to be a bit heavier,” Sclarsic wrote. “Though books were assigned, specific readings weren’t (after the first week or so).”

But Sclarsic said this had not been a major problem in the course, saying her experience had been “very positive” in general.

“Although his lectures aren’t as structured as they could be, that’s nothing one wouldn’t expect from any other first-time lecturer,” she wrote.

Connor said he thought these potential problems had been ably handled by the course’s head teaching fellow, Gustavo S. Turner, calling him “part of the glue that held [the course] together.”

Turner was unable to comment last night.

Connor said he expected Turner to return to assist with Mitchell’s VES course next year.

“The second time around is always better,” Connor said.

And Rentschler said Mitchell was dedicated to fixing any flaws that had cropped up in an otherwise-successful term.

“The understanding we reached is Elvis...looked forward to ‘getting it right,’ as he kept saying,” Rentschler said.

Fox said that as far as he was concerned, the fact that Mitchell had to fit his Harvard classes into a busy schedule of film events in New York and Los Angeles was a plus.

“If anything, for me it adds to his cachet,” Fox said. “I’d rather I had more teachers who were flying back and forth than teachers who have nothing better to do than teach a course at Harvard.”

Fox said he felt Mitchell’s star power could only help the University.

“I’m very happy to have him back, because his name’s a big draw for the school and the VES department,” Fox said.

With Harvard poised to offer undergraduates a concentration option in film studies for the first time this fall, Connor and Rentschler echoed Fox’s sentiment.

“It never hurts a fledgling program to have courses about which there is campus-wide buzz,” Connor said. “It can only whet your appetite.”

And Rentschler said he hoped the open-enrollment VES course’s large size could make it serve as a “feeder” for the debuting film studies concentration option.

Rentschler said VES 173x had enrolled over 100 students this term, and that next spring’s course would likely also be open-enrollment.

Rentschler and Connor said Mitchell did not have to go through a lengthy bureaucratic reappointment process because VES already had an open spot for a visiting lecturer next year, as Connor said he thought Af-Am also had.

Af-Am administrators and faculty could not be reached for detailed comment this week.

—Staff writer Simon W. Vozick-Levinson can be reached at vozick@fas.harvard.edu.