Ginger and Rosa

After watching a movie with your children or students, we encourage parents and teachers to look for education opportunities to teach with movies. Here are a few discussion topics that can help with lesson plans or teaching in the home.

Ginger’s innocence is set side by side against her sense of responsibility for saving the entire world. How is her naivety and youth portrayed? What events contribute to her loss of innocence? Which characters worry about global issues and which are more concerned with personal matters? Is anybody actively trying to solve the problems at home? What responsibility, if any, do parents have to help protect their offspring’s childhood?

Roland espouses the idea of autonomous thought and conscientious objection. How does he use that as an excuse to avoid all responsibility in his marriage, his role as a father, his social behavior and his sexual conquests? Do you agree with his comment about surrendering to the siren call of true love or does it sound like another excuse for his bad behavior? How long do you think his relationships with his young lovers will last?

Why do Mark and Mark encourage Ginger to be a girl for a little while longer instead of worrying about adult problems? Does her home situation allow her to do that? What role do her godfathers play in her life?

Learn more about the societal pressures of the early 1960 here:

The Cold War

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Sexual Revolution