When it comes to his job prospects, Mitchell doesn’t exactly pull a muscle trying to be modest—while at the Times, he tells me, he was offered positions as the editor of Billboard magazine and the head of comedy development for ABC.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky,” he says. “I’ve had more job offers than anyone I know.”

HITTING THE BOOKS

Like many other students during Mitchell’s lectures last year, I would often be cast adrift by a string of cryptic references just to be hooked again with an engaging cinematic argument.

He especially enjoyed using the word “Brechtian,” and I still don’t understand what it means.

Predictably, Mitchell’s aura of controversy, lexical and otherwise, has spread somewhat to his VES class.

 Last year’s class was nearly devoid of assigned reading. While there were some suggested books, neither section nor lecture spent much time on the topic of criticism; instead, the films themselves were the focus. I certainly heard some grumblings by the more avid film buffs about the courses “gut-ness.”

In addition, the films on the syllabus were sometimes subject to change. Granted, those changes were often made to accommodate, say, a prerelease showing of Kill Bill, Vol. II or a Bill Murray flick to coincide with the actor’s surprise visit to the class.

This year’s syllabus reflects a more organized approach to the class, with preplanned themes for each week ranging from “The Western and the Mythologizing of Misogyny” to “Food as Sex in Cinema.”

Allan W. Shearer the course’s current head TF, acknowledges that “this is actually the first film class for many people,” but that Mitchell’s unique perspective has the potential to enlighten both newbies and buffs.

“We should always remember that films are made by people, they’re not abstractions delivered in a black box, and Elvis has the experience and ability to make those details clear and evident and interesting,” he says.

For some students, Mitchell’s fast-and-loose lecture style keeps the class exciting.

“I think his lecture style is great, it’s kind of irreverent and fun...I think what he’s trying to say always comes across really easily,” says Ansel S. Witthaus ‘06.

 Others, however, needed some practice to decipher Mitchell’s tendency to lace his lectures with esoteric pop-culture terminology.

 “For the first couple of lectures I was a little lost with the references but after that I got used to it,” says Inyang M. Akpan ‘07.