COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course aims to provide a general introduction to the study of film with a focus on developing critical skills and investigating diverse approaches to analysis. Through readings and screenings of a broad range of narrative films, the class will further serve as a brief survey of film history and an overview of classic and contemporary modes of film theory & criticism. You will be exposed to a variety of films produced in the U.S. and other countries from the very beginnings of the medium in the late 19th century, through the “silent era” of the 1910s-20s and the “golden age” of Hollywood in the 1930s-50s, up to the present. This course is designed to help you acquire a firm grounding in the methods and core material of film history and criticism and to help you become familiar with some of the most significant topics in film studies. Each film corresponds to a specific topic: pre-narrative cinema; techniques of storytelling in narrative film; German Expressionism and Soviet montage cinema; mise-en-scène; major movements in post-WWII European cinema; feminist film theory; the New Hollywood; New Black Cinema; and the rise of digital filmmaking. By the end of this course, you will become a more critical and creative viewer of the artistic medium of cinema, knowledgeable in the history of the most popular art form of the 20th and 21st centuries, and you will possess the analytical skills to understand and interpret visual forms of expression. You will also be well equipped for future courses should you choose to declare a Film Studies minor. The GenEd goals of this course are as follows:
General Education Student Learning Outcomes
1. Students analyze how ideas are represented, interpreted or valued in various expressions of human culture.
2. Students examine relevant primary source materials as understood by the discipline and interpret the material in writing assignments.
These outcomes will be assessed using the midterm paper
REQUIRED READING TEXTS
Cook, David. A History of Narrative Film, 5th edition
Additional required readings in OAKS
REQUIRED FILMS
Films are to be viewed on your own ahead of time in preparation for quizzes & discussion. DVDs of each film are on reserve at the circulation desk at Addlestone Library. In addition, other streaming platofrms are available as indicated below.
In addition to all short films and clips, the following are available as streaming video in Lobby A and B of the WordPress online syllabus:
Our Hospitality (dir. Buster Keaton/John Blystone, 1923); The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (dir. Robert Wiene, 1920); Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925); Les Mistons (dir. François Truffaut, 1957)
The following are available as streaming video through Kanopy on the College library online catalogue: A Man Escaped (dir. Robert Bresson, 1956); Bicycle Thieves (dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1948); Shoot the Piano Player (dir. François Truffaut, 1960)
The rest are available streaming in OAKS:
Citizen Kane (dir. Orson Welles, 1941); Vertigo (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1956); Jaws (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1975); Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989); Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2010)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
—Attendance & Participation: 20%
—Quizzes: 20%
—Midterm paper (due in OAKS February 15 by 11:59pm): 30%
—Final exam (ENGL 212.03: May 1, 1-3pm; ENGL 212.04: April 27, 1-3pm) 30%