So the first movie in the Douglas Fairbanks series at Silent Movie Mondays was pretty great—late ‘teens bohemian fashion and a spacious Greenwich Village “studio” festooned with Vassar flags, a nightmare sequence in which the dreamer hops about on the ceiling while menacing foodstuffs (spring onions, mincemeat pie) cavort below, a gigantic flood in which a miniature church detaches from its moorings and floats away… Dennis James, accompanying on the Paramount’s organ, was excellent, as usual, though his playful “sound effects” were tempered in favor of a tribute score by a midcentury silent film pianist and composer. Not so great, however, was the introduction by one Jennifer Bean, of the Comp Lit department at the UW. I spent her entire bubbly, contentless discussion feeling sorry for her students. Then I googled her. Wow, Rate My Professors.com has gotten vicious since I was in school:

Jennifer Bean does not know how to shut-up. She will talk and talk and will not get to the point for about 3-5 minutes. I feel bad for our guest speakers.It seemed fine in the beginning but two weeks later and I do not want to be there. You can tell that she enjoys what she does but she is annoying with how she talks, and plays with her hair.

She has no business lecturing. She rambled on and on nonstop in nearly every lecture I attended. I was not once able to fully commit myself to listening to her rants. I have never been in a class with more people sleeping. Sign up if you have insomnia and wanna watch some movies in between naps.

She is crazy. She rambles for the full two hours – and you learn nothing. She is constantly yanking her hair. And loves sitting on tables giving the class a prime crotch shot. Her lectures are useless and infuriating, though it is an easy A.

Damn. Now I feel sorry for Jennifer Bean. Sort of.

Luckily, the next Silent Movie Monday (it skips a week—next up is Robin Hood on June 16) will be introduced by Michelle Liu, also of the UW. Her students “are so in love with Michelle.” She is also “great” and “awesome.” Hooray for Robin Hood!