Film & Media Studies -- Courses

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA STUDIES

Cross-listed ENG 118, AH 102

This course provides a broad overview and introduction to media. We will cover histories of different types of media (internet, radio, audio recordings, television, cable, film, journalism, magazines, advertising, public relations, etc.) as well as various theories and approaches to studying media. No prior knowledge is necessary, but a real interest and willingness to explore a variety of media will come in handy. Occasional outside screenings will be required (but if you cannot attend the scheduled screenings, you may watch the films on your own time through the Multimedia Center reserves). Students will be evaluated based on assigned writing, class room discussion leading, participation, short quizzes, midterm exam and final exam.

INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF FILM

Cross-listed ENG 117, AH 136

As an introduction to the art of film, this course will present the concepts of film form, film aesthetics, and film style, while remaining attentive to the various ways in which cinema also involves an interaction with audiences and larger social structures.

INTRODUCTORY VIDEO & SOUND

Cross-listed SA 161

This course introduces the basic aesthetic and technical elements of video production. Emphasis is on the creative use and understanding of the video medium while learning to use the video camera, video editing processes and the fundamental procedures of planning video projects. Video techniques will be studied through screenings, group discussions, readings, practice sessions and presentations of original video projects made during the course. Studio art supplies fee: $50. Enrollment limited to 10. Permission of instructor required. Not open to seniors.

CONCEPTS IN ITRODUCTORY VIDEO AND SOUND ART: EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO PRODUCTION

Cross-listed SA 162, ENG 162

This course introduces the basic aesthetic and technical elements of video production with an emphasis on experimental (non-narrative) aesthetic. The course will include technical workshops, screenings, readings, and presentations. Students will learn video production and nonlinear editing, techniques in lighting and sound recording, as well as more experimental film and video production processes. Enrollment is limited to 10 students. Film and Media Studies supplies fee $50.

CONCEPTS IN INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL PRODUCTION: TECHNIQUES IN ANIMATION

Cross-listed SA 192

This introductory course explores a variety of traditional and experimental animation concepts and techniques. Readings and screenings provide a theoretical and historical overview of the medium. Class exercises and studio time will introduce approaches to animation production such as lightning sketches, flipbooks, stop-motion, claymation, model-building, cell animation, as well as digital and interactive techniques. While drawing, sculpture and time-based production courses are a good introduction to this course, they are not required. Studio art supplies fee: $50. Not open to seniors. Permission of instructor required.

BARBIE, TECHNOLOGY AND REPRESENTATION

Cross-listed SA 161

Barbie will be our point of reference for examining gender representations and media production. The human desire to transcend bodily limitations and engage with representations of ourselves will be investigated through concepts of homunculi, puppets, dolls, automata, robots, cyborgs, bots and virtual humans. Photo-realistic, photographic, animated, and digitally produced artistic works that subvert mainstream representations of gender through bodily metamorphosis and manipulating media will also be explored.

OPERA AND FILM

Cross-listed MUR 132

This course examines opera on film and opera in film. We will study various approaches taken by film directors who have transferred opera from the stage to the screen. The most celebrated filmic adaptations of opera will serve as our case studies: Ingmar Bergman's Magic Flute (Mozart), Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata (Verdi), G.W. Pabst's Three Penny Opera (Weill), and Syberberg's Parsifal (Wagner). We will also investigate how operatic excerpts have been used in film. We will learn about how a deeper understanding of opera can help us better appreciate how certain directors have attempted to underscore character traits, plot development and key themes in films such as Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola), Moonstruck (Norman Jewison), Match Point (Woody Allen), Closer (Mike Nichols), and others. No prerequisites.

THE SOCIAL USES OF MEDIA: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIA IN GLOBAL & LOCAL CONTEXTS

Cross-listed AH 230, ANT 225/425

This course introduces students to the study of media from an anthropological perspective. We will examine constructions of media as objects of social scientific analysis, as both textual artifacts and social practice. Questions that guide the course are, What is "the media"? How have recent transformations in global capital and communications technology altered how we consume, analyze and produce media? What can the study of media tell us about social life and the imagination? We will seek to understand the media's role in producing national and transnational public spheres, focusing on a range of media formations, from multinational corporate structures to indigenous and diasporic productions, to question media's power to shape subjectivities and conceptions of cultural difference. We will examine print journalism, television, film, radio, advertising, and visual art in both local and global contexts. Students will be encouraged to incorporate media analysis and media production in their own ethnographic projects.

CINEMA AND REVOLUTION: THE WEST GERMAN AVANT-GARDE

Cross-listed GER283/483, CLT212I/412I

Dissent, violence, terror. This course will explore the relationship between film and revolution in West German cinema from 1965 to the present. In the course, we will consider cinema's potential as a revolutionary medium, while also focusing on how revolution is thematized and constructed in both fiction and documentary films. The course will engage with issues such as coming to terms with the fascist past, recreating the cinema as a revolutionary artistic form, feminism as a revolutionary perspective, the domestic sphere as a revolutionary space and the cooptation of the cinema's revolutionary potential through mass consumption. Each film will be explored in relation to its socio-historical context, providing students with an overview of German film and culture of the period.

FILM HISTORY: EARLY CINEMA

Cross-listed AH 252, ENG 255/455

An introduction to the history, technology, and cultural significance of motion pictures of the "pre-sound" era, with screenings of 35mm prints accompanied by live music in the Dryden Theatre. Special attention will be paid to the major pioneers, Dickson, Porter, Lumière, Méliès, and Griffith, but the course will include a variety of internationally produced films selected from the world famous archival film collection of the George Eastman House. Discussion sessions will cover the origins and development of the motion picture industry and its leading genres up to the general introduction of movies with pre-recorded music, sound and dialog, beginning in 1927. Broad issues relating to the transformation of American and world popular entertainment forms and traditions, in relation to the established performing arts of the period, will also be covered. Relevant connections to preserving the world's film heritage will be highlighted and the film restoration facilities of the Motion Picture Department will be visited in the course of the semester. Students will be expected to take a mid-term exam and write one paper. Enrollment limited to 20.

FILM HISTORY: 1929-1959

Cross-listed ENG 256/456, CLT 218, AH 253

This course provides a transnational survey of film history, examining the technical and formal aspects of the medium in its production and exhibition. As we explore the development of cinema during this period, we will address a number of aesthetic and technological issues. For example, how did the development of sound technology affect film form? How did it affect Cross-cultural cinematic exchange? What is the significance of genre across various film traditions? What did the studio system contribute to Hollywood's success in the international market? How did immigrant and exiled film personnel shape the industries they joined? Weekly screenings and film journals required.

FILM HISTORY: 1959-PRESENT

Cross-listed ENG256B/456, AH253

This course will explore the developments in world cinema - industrial, technological, social and political - in the second half of the sound period (1959 to the present). What brought about the collapse of the Hollywood studio system? What's new about the French New Wave? What do we mean by "Third Cinema"? How do different national cinemas influence each other? Requirements: mandatory weekly screenings, participation in class discussions, weekly film journals, and three take-home exams.

GERMAN DIRECTORS: R. W. FASSBINDER

Cross-listed GER 289/CLT 212D/412D

This course concentrates on the works of one of two German film makers who have contributed substantially to the art of film. The course will combine close readings with cultural history and theoretical analysis. All films will be subtitled. Students may repeat the course as the directors studied will differ each time. This semester the course will concentrate on one of the most prolific and influential directors of the new Wave, Rainer Werner Fassbinder ('45-'82). From '66 until his death in '82 Fassbinder produced over 40 films. They contain intense melodrama, precise camera work, vivid colors, and the biggest stars of the era. His films also confront questions of racism, anti-Semitism, gender, and sexuality with an enduring critical perspective.

THE HOLOCAUST AND AFTER

Cross-listed GER 247, CLT 202B/432, WST 278, REL 225

The events that came to be known as "the Holocaust" after 1945 created a problem of representation. The enormity of the crime silences us, challenges our ability to represent, while at the same time it urgently demands a witness. We will explore the different ways in which writers, visual artists, filmmakers, historians and thinkers—both survivors and later generations—have sought to come to terms with the complexities of this history. We will use a modular system by which students with a particular interest (e.g. Visual Arts, Women's Studies) will pursue a specific set of issues in their area for a portion of the semester. There will be a film component to this class and a film showing time will be set up during the first week of class.

HOLLYWOOD BEHIND THE WALL: AN INTRODUCTION TO EAST GERMAN CINEMA

Cross-listed GER 284/484, CLT 212M/412M

The East German film studio, DEFA, was the second largest studio system in the former Eastern bloc, and produced more than 650 films between the years 1946 and 1990. This course will explore major developments in the East German cinema during the four decades of its existence. The course will engage with issues such as coming to terms with the fascist past, popular filmmaking and art cinema, cinema as a pedagogical tool, artistic dissent and state censorship, socialist ideologies of gender, and the politics of documentary. Each film will be explored in relation to its socio-historical context, providing students with an overview of East Germany and its culture.

THE URBAN IMAGINATION

Cross-listed GER 252

In the early twentieth century, our conceptualization of the city had a significant impact on how we understood our interactions with others and the notion of the individual. In this course we will look at a wide variety of texts including newspaper articles, essays, films and fiction to explore the following questions: What is the relationship between technology and man? How does the individual navigate the space of the city? What role do class and gender play in our ability to move through the city? What is the relationship between modernity and urban life?

MEN OF MARBLE, WOMEN OF STEEL

Cross-listed GER 285/485, WST 292, CLT 217/417

This course will provide students with a general introduction to the history, artistry and politics of East European film. We will begin by considering the place of East European film in the context of contemporary film studies and the industry structure of state socialist filmmaking. We will then explore individual films from a regional (not national) perspective, considering how they confront issues such as the burden of history and ethics, the tensions between modernity and tradition, the struggle between creativity and censorship, as well as the "reluctant feminism" of state socialism and representations of gender and sexuality.

POPULAR FILM GENRES: THE HORROR FILM

Cross-listed ENG 259/459

This course examines major critical issues surrounding the horror genre, through close study of Clasical Hollywood, post-Classical, and international horror films, and readings in critcal theory. Issues to be explored include boundary transgression and bodily abjection in the construction of the horror monster; gender, pregnancy, and the monstrous feminine; social Otherness (race, class, sexuality) as monstrosity; the figure of the serial killer and the shift from classic to modern horror; the grotesque and the blending of comedy and horror in the zombie film; international horror (especially Japan) and cross-cultural influences with Hollywood.

POPULAR FILM GENRES: DETECTIVE

Cross-listed ENG 259/459

Concentrating on the American form, we will study more than a dozen examples of detective films and detectives in film. We will consider the historical evolution of this important form, from The Maltese Falcon through films like Dirty Harry and The French Connection, examining such matters as the nature of mystery, the character and methods of the central figure, the relationship between the particular film and its time, the place of the film within the history of cinema. We will also read some significant fictional texts and consult some secondary works. Like any other English course, this one will require some papers of varying length, dealing with the films, texts and classroom discussions. Students need not be expert in film—they will learn enough of that from class—but should be capable of analyzing works of narrative and writing clear, forceful papers. May be used to fulfill the upper-level requirement.

POPULAR FILM GENRES: FILM NOIR

Cross-listed ENG 259

The course will consider that large, unusual, and varied group of motion pictures known, for reasons of style and content, as film noir - dark films - which includes horror, gangster, detective, and crime movies. We will examine some of the history of the term and the kinds of movies it refers to, study some relevant primary and secondary sources, and of course, screen, analyze, and discuss a dozen or more motion pictures. Possible titles to study include "Murder, My Sweet", "Touch of Evil", "Gilda", "The Third Man", "Double Indemnity", "Night and the City". Aside from the films and the reading assignments, the course will require approximately three papers and a final examination. Although no particular expertise in film is necessary, students should be capable of writing clear, forceful, coherent analyses of narrative. Not open to freshmen.

POPULAR FILM GENRES: VAMPIRE FILMS

Cross-listed ENG 259/459

This course will attempt to cover the history, literature, and above all, the cinema of vampirism from the silent era through the present day. We will study a number of important examples of the form, read a couple of significant literary works about the vampire, especially Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula", and also employ one or two texts that deal with the vampire in cinema. Not open to freshmen.

ISSUES IN FILM: BLAXPLOITATION

Cross-listed ENG 265/465, AAS 254

In the history of black cinema, seldom has a body of filmmaking been as controversial and as rife with contradiction as the so-called blaxploitation films of the early 1970s. An outgrowth of the collapse of the Hollywood studio system, the civil right and Black Power movements, the counterculture, feminism, and gay liberation, the blaxploitation films embody the cultural crises of '70s America. Although the short-lived era remains tainted in the eyes of many due to valid charges of white opportunism and black exploitation, the cultural significance of blaxploitation cinema cannot be overestimated given its undeniable influence on both hip-hop culture and contemporary filmmaking (from Tarantino to John Singleton to the Hughes Brothers). The primary goal of this course will be to unpack the culturally loaded term "blaxploitation" in terms of its relationship to economics, audience, identity politics, art, music, stardom and genre. While the core of the course will focus on legendary films such as Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Shaft, Coffy, Superfly, and The Mack, the "contexts" surrounding this body of films will be given similar critical attention. Thus, reading by key Black Power figures such as Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton, Angela Davis, and Amiri Baraka will help establish one primary context for the genre. In addition, works by black literary figures such as James Baldwin, Chester Himes and Iceberg Slim will help further ground film discussions. Finally, mainstream counterpoints to blaxploitation such as Sounder and Claudine will be analyzed alongside the fully independent countercinema of UCLA filmmakers Haile Gerima, Charles Burnett and Julie Dash. Critical readings on the period will include the work of Donald Bogle, Robyn Wiegman, Ed Guerrero, Jennifer Devere Brody, Kobena Mercer, and Michelle Wallace. Potential screenings include Willie Dynamite, Car Wash, Cooley High, Cleopatra Jones, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Across 110th Street, Black Belt Jone, and The Wiz.

ISSUES IN FILM: FAMILY REPRESSION AND RAGE IN FILM AND SOCIETY

Cross-listed ENG 265/465, WST 265

The course aims to understand the social psychology of modern and contemporary Western/American family experience, and especially its means of abetting the concealment, repression, and suppression of people's emotional lives. Study of the films combined with the readings seek to develop critical understanding of the nuclear family (and versions of it) and the conditions it may create for child-rape, racism, homophobia, murder and self-destructive behavior such as substance abuse, self-mutilation, and suicide. Sometimes the violence is arbitrary, sometimes it is inevitable, sometimes it is incomprehensible. In each case the course's attention is on the personal and collective machineries of repression, the resulting rage in many individals, and the frequent (and now often familiar)violent results. Readings in the course include works by Erik Erikson, Nancy Chodorow, Alice Miller, and Stephanie Coontz. Films are to be taken from the following list: A Price Above Rubies (1998), A Thousand Acres (1994), All My Sons (1948), American Beauty (1999), American History X(1999), Bastard out of Carolina (1996), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Falling Down (1933), Fargo (1996), Fried Green Tomatoes (1992) Heavenly Creatures (1994), In the Bedroom (2001), Ju Dou (1991), Mildred Pierce (1945), Monster (2002), Monster's Ball (2001), Ordinary People (1980), Piano Teacher (2003), Unfaithful (2002).

DOCUMENTARY, MOCK DOCUMENTARY, REALITY TV

Cross-listed: ENG 265/465

This course combines a survey of major historical movements and styles in documentary film with an examination of more recent trends and challenges to the tradition. So, in addition to studying the expository political documentary, ethnographic film, and the direct cinema and cinéma vérité movements, we will explore forms including reality TV, mock documentary, and autobiographical film and video.

HOORAY FOR BOLLYWOOD

Cross-listed AH 223

This course will explore the evolution of commercial cinema in India. We will examine the role that Bollywood cinema has played in the struggle for national independence and in the country's subsequent navigation of tradition and modernity.

STUDIES IN A DIRECTOR: THE FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Cross-listed ENG 264/464

An examination of the career of Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), emphasizing the close analysis of his most significant and influential works, from the 1926 British silent thriller The Lodger to such late-period American films as Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. As we discuss the films, we will also consider questions of cinematic authorship, the development of a recognizable visual and narrative style, and the significance of genre (thriller, romantic melodrama, horror film, et al.). We will approach the films from a variety of critical perspectives (including auteur theory, feminist theory, and star studies); readings will include essays by Robin Wood, Tania Modleski, William Rothman, Chris Marker, and others.

STUDIES IN A DIRECTOR: B. DE PALMA

Cross-listed ENG 264/464

We will study the career of a highly regarded contemporary American director whose work, most of it the more or less violent genres of horror, crime, and suspense, displays both a highly self conscious experimentalism and an acknowledgment of film tradition. In the course we will attempt to discover those particular attributes that define a De Palma film. We will also discuss those directors who most influence his work, especially Alfred Hitchcock, and touch on some of the individual motion pictures that lie behind certain of De Palma's films. In the course we will screen a large selection of the director's films, in roughly chronological order, concentrating especially on the best known and most successful titles, including Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, and Body Double. The syllabus will include some of the literary texts that provide the sources for some of his films and at least one critical study of the De Palma canon. Assignments will include critical papers and a final examination.

THE FILMS OF JEAN-LUC GODARD

Cross-listed AH211/411, FR 282/482, CLT 211J/411J, ENG 264/464

MUSEUM STUDIES

Cross-listed ENG 268/468, AH272/472, FMS454

Major museums around the world are now collecting motion pictures and other types of moving image and audio-visual art with a level of commitment equal to their traditional interests in paintings, sculptures and other established art forms. These creative works exist in unique formats that bring special challenges to curators and archivists responsible for their conservation and proper exhibition. Taking full advantage of the George Eastman House's rich archival film collection and screening facilities, this course offers instruction in curatorial and preservation standards for motion picture, video, digital and audio materials with a contextual focus on museum, library and archive institutions. Class instruction emphasizes basic concepts of preservation research, programming, cataloging, digital technologies and preservation; management and interpretation of collections; museum and institutional collections development policies; museum architecture relating to audio-visual media; fund raising and education. Students will be assisted in selecting a topical area of interest in film and media studies, relating to their broader academic pursuits, from which they will develop a special research project. 35mm archival film and other media screenings will be presented on class night in the Dryden Theatre at 8:00pm are considered part of the class. Bus (Red Line) transportation to the George Eastman House will be provided. Enrollment is limited to 20 students.

FILM HISTORY: FILMS OF THE '30s

Cross-listed ENG 260/460

The course will deal with a selection of American films from the richest and possibly most important decade in the history of Hollywood. We will screen and discuss a variety of genres, from horror to documentary, concentrating on the films themselves, their place in the history of cinema, their relevance to social, political, and cultural issues. Supplementary readings will include texts on the period and on films of the time. Two or three papers will be required, along with a final examination. Possible films include King Kong, Frankenstein, Our Daily Bread, Public Enemy, Gold Diggers of 1933, Dinner at Eight, etc.

STUDIES IN FILM HISTORY: FILMS OF THE '70s

Cross-listed ENG 260

As a counterpoint to the often irony-tinged manner in which U.S. culture of the 1970s is frequently derided and dismissed, this course will both champion and examine the richness, vitality and complexity of that time period through close attention to the cinema of the era. While a significant segment of the course will focus on the much-heralded work of such directors as Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Terrence Malick, the course will also be concerned with some of the more artistically (and politically) suspect genres of the period (disaster films, blaxploitation, horror) in order to provide a more inclusive and representative example of the intriguing interplay between sociopolitical issues and cinema that make the '70s so important to the history of American film. Issues to be discussed include: the impact of Vietnam, Watergate, feminism, civil rights and gay/lesbian rights; genre revision; the emergence of the blockbuster; stardom; auteurism; porn and midnight movies; camp spectatorship; underground/alternative cinema; and '80s recuperation. Potential screenings include: Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, A Woman Under the Influence, The Poseidon Adventure, Dog Day Afternoon, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Saturday Night Fever, Coming Home, Joe, Badlands, Pink Flamingos, and Dawn of the Dead.

FEMINIST FILM THEORY

Cross-listed FR 287, CLT 211G, ENG 261/461, WST204F

Feminism has had a powerful impact on the developing field of film theory from the 1970s to the present. This course will examine the major feminist work on film, moving from the earlier text-based psychoanalytic theories of representation to theories of feminine spectatorship to studies of reception contexts and audience. We will also give some attention to the very important role of feminist theory in television studies. Weekly screenings, keyed to the readings, will allow us to test the value of these positions for close critical analysis of the film or television text. Readings to include: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Constance Penley, Judith Mayne, Linda Williams, Jacqueline Bobo, Valerie Smith, Lynn Spigel, Lynne Joyrich, Julie D'Acci.

TOPICS IN CONTEMPORARY ART & CRITICISM: WARHOL

Cross-listed AH 350/550

As the most famous artist of the second half of the twentieth century, Warhol has been the subject of a growing literature that expands upon art history and criticism to encompass queer theory and cultural studies. But the most important shift in Warhol's reception has been brought about by the restoration and return to circulation of his prolific film output from the years 1963-69. The films will be the main focus of this course, but we will also consider Warhol's early work as a fashion illustrator, his entrepreneurship at the Factory, his voracious collecting, and, of course, his paintings. We will read Warhol's writings, including a, A Novel, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, and Popism; and we will examine new approaches to Warhol and ask how they illuminate not only the art but also such issues as consumption, publicity, visibility, celebrity, sexuality, identity, and selfhood.

OUR VOYAGE TO ITALY

Cross-listed IT 248, CLT 213B, HIS 221

Taking the inspiration from Martin Scorsese's anthological film My Voyage To Italy, the course focuses on a few momentous episodes and phenomena of Italian political, social, and cultural history as portrayed and interpreted in film. Chronologic, geographic and cultural criteria dictate the selection of movies that will be analyzed as documents of specific historical moments between Italy's unification and the present, of different regional and urban identities, of relevant cultural issues, and of exemplary cinematic styles. We will discuss aspects of Risorgimento, Fascism, the World Wars and their aftermath, the culture of individual cities and the contrast between North and South, the condition of women, emigration and immigration, power and repression, spirituality and secularism. Among the major film directors, the course includes Rossellini, Visconti, Fellini, Olmi, and Bertolucci. The analysis of the movies will be integrated with readings from the fields of history, literature, criticism, and theater. A glance at Verdi's Operas in the Nineteenth Century and at the tradition of social song as it develops in the post war period will complement the course.

POLITICAL FILM

Cross-listed PSC 255

The course will focus on an examination of representations of WWII in European films. We will screen and discuss films about fascism, the war, and resistance, made in the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, and Germany.

MOTHERS, COMRADES & WHORES: WOMEN IN POST-WAR GERMAN CINEMA

Cross-listed GER 288/488, CLT 212P/412P, WST288

In this course we will explore representations of women in post-World War II German cinema. Moving chronologically from the building of two German states to the post- unification period, we will consider the constantly shifting meaning of "woman" in popular and avant-garde films, narrative and documentary films, films by both male and female directors. We will consider equally films from East and West Germany. How does "woman" function as a narrative device in these films? Do women behind the camera change "woman's" meaning within the film? Can "woman" consistently be reduced to one narrative trope (mother, comrade or whore), or does she resist? All readings and discussions are in English; all films are subtitled.

HISTORY OF BRITISH CINEMA

Cross-listed ENG 262/462

This course tracks the major development in British cinema from the silent period to the 1990s. In addition to providing a historical overview of major filmmakers and movements, the course places special emphasis on the interplay between nostalgia and modernity in British culture. Films to include Hitchcock's Blackmail; Michael Powell's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Peeping Tom; Carol Reed's The Third Man; David Lean's The Happy Breed and Oliver Twist; Robert Hamer's Kind Hearts and Coronets; Stephen Frears's My Beautiful Laundrette; Jack Clayton's Room at the Top; Terence Davies's Distant Voices, Still Voices; Ken Loach's Riff-Raff; and Lynne Ramsey's Ratcatcher.

STUDIES IN A NATIONAL CINEMA: CHINESE CINEMAS

Cross-listed ENG 262/462

The course examines diasporic Chinese cinemas from the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China on Taiwan(ROC), Hong Kong(HK), the U.S. and Canada, mostly from the 1980s to the present. We will pay special attention to the migrations of the films and individuals, including actors such as Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan, Tony Leung, and Jet Li, actresses such as Joan Chen, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, directors such as Ang lee, Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-Wai, and others. We will cover a wide variety of genres, including epic, martial arts, action, thriller, comedy, and drama. Some experience with film studies, especially world cinema, and Chinese history will be helpful but not required. Weekly outside screenings of films are required (but if you cannot attend the scheduled screenings you may watch the films on your own time through the Multimedia Center reserves). Students will be evaluated based on short and longer writing assignments, classroom discussion leading participation, and short quizzes.

LANGUAGE IN ADVERTISING

Cross-Listed LIN 105

The course examines the use advertisers make of language in selling their products and how it affects our perceptions of the product and ourselves. The emphasis in the course is on learning about the structure of language and how we can use it as a guide to observing and understanding the effectiveness of commercial messages.

HOLLYWOOD & JEWISH VALUES

Cross-Listed ENG 250/450

This course considers the founding of Hollywood by the sons of East European Jewish immigrants in the early part of this century. Readings include some histories of Hollywood, such as Neal Gabler's, AN EMPIRE OF THEIR OWN. Some attention is how film-making grew from earlier popular art forms and, under the influence of the several major Jewish studio heads, took on forms and values of Yiddish theater melodrama, which blended with indigenous American values and styles. The course will try to relate generic features of Hollywood films and related popular literature--such as the happy ending, the relation of women to men, the treatment of love and violence, the use of spectacle, the western, gangster, family, and glamour motifs--to Jewish and American values, their differences and their combinations. If there is interest film music can also be part of the course. No exams; written commentary on films and readings for collective study.

SOUND THEORY

Cross-listed ENG 266

Although cinema is an audiovisual medium, there has long been a tendency by critics, historians, theorists and audiences to privilege the visual component of film over the essential element of film sound. In an attempt to redress this imbalance, this course will focus on the technological cultural and theoretical histories of film sound throughout the twentieth century. We will examine the use of sound in "silent" cinema, radio's role in the development of sound cinema, alternative and avant-garde uses of sound, and the complex effects of contemporary sound technologies (Dolby, THX, DTS, etc.) on the medium and experience of film. The course will also pay particular attention to the role of voice (and song) in cinema as well as the various ways that sound technology and sound practices affect our understanding of narrative space, the body, and social identity.

INTRODUCTORY DIGITAL ART

Cross-listed SA 151

For the purpose of this course, the computer and software will be a medium of artistic production. Students will use writings, and readings on contemporary art practice and theory to create work within the framework of contemporary digital art. Software, namely Adobe PhotoShop and Macromedia Dreamweaver, will be the medium for materializing conceptual ideas. Prior experience with the software used in this course is not required. Studio Art supplies fee: $50. Some familiarity with Macintosh computer required.

ADVANCED DIGITAL ART

Cross-listed SA 252A/252B/252C, FMS 260C/260D

Advanced Digital Art looks at contemporary digital art and new media and practice using readings, visiting collections, galleries, and production of photographic work. Topics such as output, web and interactive media, advanced photoshop and director, and flash may be covered. The core of the work revolves around self-directed projects, readings, writings, and critiques. Studio art supplies fee $50. Restrictions: Permission of instructor required.

ADVANCED VIDEO & SOUND ART

Cross-listed FMS 262B/262C, SA 262A/262B/262C

In this advanced production course, video and sound will be considered as independent art forms as well as part of video installations. Students will produce experimental videos and sound pieces. They will also explore the use of these mediums when combined with two- and three-dimensional materials in real time. This course will cover both analogue and digital formats. Studio arts supplies fee: $50.

3D DIGITAL TIME-BASED MEDIA

Cross-listed SA 252A/252B/252C

"3D Imaging" introduces the techniques that shape and the theories that inform 3D digital practices. By investigating the unique points of view possible within three-dimensional computer worlds, projects will explore space and time outside of our daily human scale. Techniques covered include 3D modeling, texturing, and animation. Advanced students may independently pursue 3D computer-based production or concentrate exclusively on creating and rigging cyborgs, mecha, or other characters. Final pieces may be created for installation, video, or multimedia applications. Studio arts supplies fee: $50. Enrollment limited at 10. Restrictions: Permission of instructor required.

ISSUES IN ADVANCED VIDEO & SOUND: 3D IMAGING

Prerequisite: FMS 261
Cross-listed SA 263A/263B/263C, FMS 265B/265C

"3D Imaging" introduces the techniques that shape and the theories that inform 3D digital practices. By investigating the unique points of view possible within three-dimensional computer worlds, projects will explore space and time outside of our daily human scale. Techniques covered include 3D modeling, texturing and animation. Advanced students may independently pursue 3D computer-based production or concentrate exclusively on creating and rigging cyborgs, mecha, or other characters. Final pieces may be created for installation, video, or multimedia applications. Studio arts supplies fee: $50. Permission of instructor required.

IT'S ALIVE! THE BODY IN 20TH CENTURY GERMAN LITERATURE AND FILM STUDIES

Cross-listed GER 269, CLT 222A, WST 269

This course will explore the body as a site of discourse in the 20th century German-speaking literature and film. We will attempt to uncover a variety of corporeal meanings constructed by German literary and cinematic texts: the body and/as machine, the body of the Jew, the aestheticized body, the sexualized body, the divided body/body parts, and the globalized body. Each text will be explored in relation to its socio-historical context, providing students with a general overview of German-speaking culture of the period.

ATOMIC CREATURES: GODZILLA

Cross-listed CLT 214M/414M, JPN 214

A study of the phenomenon that generated and helped define the Japanese KAIJU EIGA (monster film) genre: the Godzilla series that began with the original film by Inoshiro Honda, Gojira, (1954), and its better-known US remake Godzilla, The King of The Monsters (1956). The larger context of the course is a critical investigation of the science fiction/horror/creature film generated in the late 1940s by the dawn of the nuclear age. The course will begin with a sampling of seminal non-Japanese titles that created a paradigm for the Godzilla film, and will address the historical and social contexts for the series' erratic trajectory since 1954. Students are responsible for assigned readings and are required to attend screenings. Previous course work in Japanese and/or film studies (theory, history and analysis) is useful but not required.

IDENTITY, VIOLENCE, TRAUMA

Cross-listed FR 255/455, CLT 211F

Using memoirs and films, as well as recent theoretical treatments of identity and ethnic conflict and violence, this course will examine representations of traumatic violence generated around identity questions. We will concern ourselves specifically with the conflict and violence that has marked the history of Europe since the mid-the 20th century. We will examine questions of identity in the French context through the work of such theorists as Julia Kristeva, Steven Ungar and Tom Conley, and Amin Maalouf. We will expand from identity theories to testimony from and about the Holocaust--Charlotte Delbo, Primo Levi, Sarah Kofman, Giorgio Agamben, and Wladislaw Szpilman—and to trauma theory as elaborated by Cathy Carruth and Shoshana Felman. Films will include Les Violons Du Bal, Au Revoir Les Enfants, The Pianist, The Gray Zone, After the Rain, No Mans Land. Like these last two films, the material for the latter part of the course turns to recent representations of ethnic violence in the Balkans, and to the theoretical work of Ammiel Alcalay and Slavoj Zizek.

HISTORY OF FRENCH CINEMA

Cross-listed FR 281/481, CLT 211C/411C

This course surveys the history of French cinema from its early experiments through the "Tradition of Quality" to the moment immediately preceding the emergence of the New Wave. We will study films selected from the work of the following directors: Lumiere, Melies, Gance, Dulac, Leger, Clair, Vigo, Renoir, Carne, Ophuls, Pagnol, Clement, and Bresson. Readings will include contemporary critical and theoretical discussions, as well as historical analyses. Knowledge of French is helpful but not necessary.

FRANCE UNDER THE GERMANS: WWII

Cross-listed FR 266, CLT 241E/441E

This course will focus on the period of Vichy France [the Occupation], 1939-1945. We will examine literature and film produced within the period and study how it is shaped by complex negotiations with state power and national identity. Theoretical readings will focus on the vexed questions of collaboration and resistance, both as the period understood them, and as later historical rewritings cast them. In more recent literature and film, we will explore French culture's later efforts to interpret this period to itself. Readings will include Bardeche, Brasillach, Celine, DeBeauvoir, Sartre, Alice Kaplan, Steven Ungar. Films will include work from the Vichy and post-Vichy periods by Carne, Duvivier, Clouzot and Becker, and later reexaminations of the period by such filmmakers as Malle, Truffaut, and Ophuls.

FRENCH FILM – THE NEW WAVE

Cross-listed FR 280/FR480, CLT 211B/411B

This course provides a detailed examination of the French filmakers of the New Wave, from 1959 to 1967. We will examine the work of Jean-Pierre Melville, Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Anges Varda, and Jacques Rivette. We will also explore the films' historical context and influence through some attention to their predecessors and successors. Knowledge of French helpful but not necessary.

JAPANESE ANIMATION (ANIME)

Cross-listed JPN 292, CLT 214E/414E

An exploration of Japanese popular culture through Japanese animation (anime), coupled with an in-depth investigation of anime as a film form. This year we will focus on the films of two directors who have played major roles in raising the popularity of Japanese animation worldwide. The visual sensibilities of Mamoru Oshii and Hayao Miyazaki are striking in their differences, but there are arguably correlations between their worldviews. Discussions will address issues of landscape, genre, gender, race, and identity, as well as the history of Japanese animation and its contemporary, global appeal. There are no prerequisites for the course, although a background in film studies and/or Japanese culture is helpful.

HISTORY OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Cross-listed CLT 214A/414A, JPN 283

A survey of Japanese cinema since its origins, this course examines the major issues, trends and moments that make up its history. Content varies according to the particular timespan offered (origins to 1960s or origins to present), but significant topics addressed include: silent film and popular culture; the import market and its influence; prewar, wartime and postwar censorship; popular genres; animation; the early international festival circuit; the art film and New Wave; and patterns of global distribution and exchange. Course taught in English (additional instruction in Japanese available for majors). Enrollment is limited to 12 students.

RUSSIA GOES TO THE MOVIES

Cross-listed RUS 267/267W, CLT 215A, RST 267/RST 267W

In Russia, the dawning of the age of movies coincided with the birth of the Soviet state. According to Lenin, the most revolutionary of the arts was also to be the art of the Revolution. Yet Soviet directors, from Eisenstein to Tarkovsky, were also among the world's most influential film makers. This class will look at these artistically interesting and popular films while exploring the changing relationship between politics, experimentation and entertainment in Russian cinema, always mindful of the backdrop of totalitarian society and the nature of mass culture in general. Topics will include: Innovation and Ideology; From Hollywood to High Stalinism; Popular Patriotism; The Thaw in Cinema after Stalin's Death; From High Hopes to Stagnation (the Sixties and Seventies); The Last Days of Soviet Film and the New Russian Cinema. No knowledge of Russian required. Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory.

SPANISH FILM

Cross-listed SP 288/488, CLT 216B/416B

Devoted to the critical analysis of recent Spanish cinema within its cultural contexts. Beginning with the early post-Civil War period, the focus is on film as the narrative representation of radical changes and transitions in Spanish society. Considers the translation of other media (literary, theatrical, etc.) into film and the problematic relationship between historical reality and the aesthetics of cinema. Emphasis on films from the democratic transition to today. Includes films by directors such as Bunuel, Erice, Saura, Trueba, Garcia Sanchez, Almodovar, de la Iglesia, Amenabar. Class taught in English. Written work in Spanish for SP credit.

WOMEN IN HISPANIC FILM

Cross-listed SP 289, CLT 216C/416C, WST 264F

How men and women are characterized in films from contemporary Spain and Spanish America often reveals a critical problematic at the heart of representing relations of gender and power in and around those cultures. From more traditional images of inclusion and exclusion--the old macho--hembra division--directors have become more savvy and sophisticated with regard to modes of representation and to wider, global audiences. More challenging to interpret, especially as parodic commentaries, the films of Carlos Saura, Pedro Almodovar, Iciar Bollain, Maria Luisa Bemberg, Maria Novaro, and Daniel Calparsoro, among others, force the spectator to recognize layers of recycled images spun off from their contexts into new cinematic narratives. The results are frequently explosive. This course seeks to problematize these productions, and to root out the ambiguous and conflictual aspects of personal (and national) identity embodied in them. Class taught in English. Written work in Spanish for SP credit.

FRANCOPHONE CINEMA

Cross-listed FR 288/488, CLT 211M/411M, AAS 267

The aim of this course is to examine the polyvalent character of French-speaking cinema that is termed as "Francophone." We will explore issues of the universal application of 'Francophone family' that mainly includes African, Caribbean, and French Canadian films, and will investigate the case of French-speaking Europe other than France. We will closely examine the aesthetic and theoretical questions that each Francophone cinema raises in search of a cinematic discourse along with questions of production, distribution, and exhibition. Films include among others Sembène's Borom Sarret (1963), Mambety's La petite Vendeuse de soleil (1998), Bekolo's Le complot d'Aristote (1996), Sissako's La vie sur Terre, (1998), Djebar's Nouba des femmes du Mont-Chenoua, Palcy's Rue Cases-Nègres (1983), Arcand's Le Déclin de l'empire américain (1986). Weekly film screenings. Knowledge of French is encouraged but not necessary. The course will be taught in English.

MEXICAN FILM

Cross-listed SP 287A, CLT 216A/416A

Proximity to the United States ensures that first-time visitors to Mexico already have Hollywood versions of the country in their heads. However, the 'real' Mexico is a much more complex place than most movies allow. Archetypes of tough hombres, renegade outlaws, Steson hats, dark and sultry women, and strange beach bums lolling under the hot sun fall by the wayside quickly when Mexican productions initiate viewers into the grittier and much more varied realities of contemporary urban and rural Mexico. This course explores both historical antecedents and contemporary visions of the Mexican nation by directors such as the exiled Spanish director Luis Bunuel to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Alfonso Cuaron Carlos Reygadas, Raul Ruiz, Maria Novaro, and other current box office favorites. We examine contemporary productions of the Mexican imaginary, from 1935 Bordertown to Robert Rodriguez's Bedhead, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and, of course, Y tu mama tambien, Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer, La ley de Herodes and all stops in between. Course taught in English but work may be written in Spanish for Spanish Credit. Course work: Several short papers and reviews; final paper.

TOURIST JAPAN

Cross-listed JPN 219A/219W/419A, CLT 214N/414N

A study of Japan as a tourist destination, focusing on the late nineteenth century to the present, with an emphasis on the role of visual culture (images generated by the tourist industry as well as those that advertise and promote Japan as a tourist destination more inadvertently). We will look at the ways in which the development and significance of tourism and the artifacts that sustain it construct a rich history of how Japan has both defined itself and been defined by others. For example, what has been the role of visual culture, in the context of tourism, in creating a concept of Japan in a global context? How do illustrations, photography, and film reflect changing concepts of urban space, rural culture, industry, geography, and military and political authority at both the national level and beyond? What is the phenomenon of postcard culture: its origins, significance, and development? Can we identify patterns (for example, recurrent iconography) that provide a link between the visual culture generated by tourism and changing concepts of nationalism and cultural identity? In what ways can such an investigation be useful?

LIVES OF PERFORMERS: ART/FILM/PERFORMANCE AROUND 1970

Cross-listed AH 309/509, WST 314

Speaking of why she began making films in her new memoir FEELINGS ARE FACTS: A LIFE, Yvonne Rainer writes, "Ignored or denied in the work of my 1960s peers, the nuts and bolts of emotional life shaped the unseen (or should I say the 'unseemly'?) underbelly of high U.S. minimalism. While we aspired to the lofty and cerebral plane of a quotidian materiality, our unconscious lives unraveled with an intensity and melodrama that inversely matched their absence in the boxes, beams, jobbing and standing still of our austere sculptural and choreographic creations." This course explores these repressed "melodramas of minimalism," but not only in the U.S. context. European and Japanese films from the same period—within five or six years in either direction from 1970—suggest parallel preoccupations. Artists and filmmakers include Chantal Akerman, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Joan Jonas, Yoyoi Kusama, Meredith Monk, Yoko Ono, Bruce Nauman, Yvonne Rainer, Werner Schroeter, Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, and Andy Warhol.

BROADCASTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Cross-listed MUR 161

A descriptive and critical analysis of the nature of electronic mass media, broadcast practices and impact. Historical development of mass media institutions and role of media in society, including evaluation of news, government regulation, economics, emerging technologies, and audience dynamics, as well as decision-making and organizational aspects of the broadcast industry. Designed to provide a broad, rigorous orientation for understanding basic elements of media production as well as skills training in reporting, writing, editing, delivery and production of broadcast media.

FILM AS OBJECT

Cross-listed JPN 207/407, FMS 420, CLT 230/430

Film Studies involves the critical analysis of the pictorial and narrative qualities of motion pictures, film theory, and film history, understanding film as both industry and creative art. This course unconventionally focuses on the tangible object at the origin of the onscreen image, and what we can learn about the social, cultural and historical value of motion pictures and national film cinemas through an understanding of Film as an organic element with a finite life cycle. Focus is on the photographical element, but includes a consideration of alternative capture media.

ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND FILM

Cross-listed ENG 250/450

Asian American Literature is primarily a literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, with dramatic growth in the past half century or so. We will focus on the literary genres of APA works from the past century--drama, fiction, poetry, memoir--and we will also pay attention to cinematic texts. Our literature includes works by Chinese American, Filipina American, Indian American, Korean American, Japanese American, and Vietnamese American authors. Some prior knowledge of 20th century U.S. literature or Asian Pacific Islander American history will be helpful, but not necessary. (For those who have not taken history courses or who wish for a refresher see the books by Such Chan or Ronald Takaki, listed under recommended texts.) In addition to the study of genres, we will analyze Asian/Pacific Islander/American texts by interrogating myths, "foundational fictions", fantasies and the fantastical. Edward Said usefully argues in Orientalism that Europe imagined the "Orient" since it "helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience" (1978). We will read works of Asian American literature that revise and incorporate Asian myths, and contrast these with the West's popular imagination of the "Orient".

NAPOLEON: IMAGE, MYTH, HISTORY

Cross-listed: FR 249, AH 249, HIS 224, CLT 266, CLT 466

With the exception of Jesus Christ, no historical personage has been more written about, or been the subject of more iconic portrayals, than Napoleon Bonaparte. This course examines the image of Napoleon at the intersection of myth and history, for Napoleon attempts to write his own history as myth. Literary accounts of Bourienne, Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Hugo Dumas, Tolstoy, and Scott. Pictorial representations by David, Gros, Géricault. Abel Gances classic silent epic Napoleon (1927), Guitrys Napoleon (1955), as well as other cinematic treatments. Modern historical treatments by Cole, Englund, and Bell. Conducted in English.

HISTORY OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Cross-listed: JPN 283, CLT 214A/414A

DANCE, ART AND FILM

Cross-listed: AH 311/511

This course explores relations among dance, art, and film at significant moments in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will study instances in which the forms are particularly closely aligned, including the famous productions by artists such as Gontcharova, Picasso, and Matisse, for Diaghilevs Ballets Russes; Martha Graham's partnership with Isamu Noguchi; and Merce Cunningham's work with Robert Rauschenberg. We will also look simply at how dance is filmed or how dance uses film. The course will concentrate on two figures of the post-war American avant-garde: Merce Cunningham and Yvonne Rainer. Cunningham's dances choreographed for film in collaboration with film- and video-makers and Rainer's move from choreography to filmmaking and eventually to hybrids of the two will constitute the core of the course.

SUPERVISED TEACHING

INDEPENDENT STUDY

SPECIAL TOPICS

SENIOR PROJECT

INTERNSHIP