Texts: "Existentialism is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sarte, "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camu

Films: "Ikiru" directed by Akira Kurosawa, "Groundhog Day" directed by Harold Ramis

Description: Within this episode, we explore a basic overview of existentialism and apply aspects developed by Sartre and Camu to the film Groundhog Day. Sartre states that existence precedes essence. In Groundhog Day, the main character, Phil, is seen by his peers as mean and sarcastic until he actually fixes his act and helps people. Sartre also identified the term "bad faith" as when you are not using your free will to actually do what you want. Phil represents a life in bad faith as he miserably works at his job only to get by even though it's not what he wants to be doing. The repeating of the sa ...