This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles.

Advanced Documentary Workshop: This course is designed to provide guidance to students already engaged in producing a documentary. The class will concentrate on strategies of editorial storytelling, layering and texturing soundtracks, and finishing practices such as audio sweetening and color correction. Pre-requisites include Documentary Video I, Documentary Video II, or the consent of the instructor.

Many distinguished filmmakers have found inspiration in mystery novels written by women. In this course we shall read novels by Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley's Game), Ruth Rendell (Tree of Hands, The Bridesmaid, Live Flesh), and, time permitting, Laura by Vera Caspary, Bunny Lake is Missing by Evelyn Piper, and Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong, and we shall analyze the films based on these novels, directed by such luminaries as Hitchcock. Chabrol, Caviani, Clément, Wenders, Almodóvar, Preminger, and others. Among topics of particular interest are: techniques of film adaptation; transnational dislocations from page to screen; the problematics of gender; and the transformations of "voice" understood both literally and mediatically.

Jean Renoir has often been dubbed – by both filmmakers and critics – as the greatest auteur. The richness and range of his production – variously described as “classic” and “modern,” quintessentially “French” and “universal” – are indeed remarkable. His experimental and narrative forays in the late-silent era, his bold appropriation of literary sources and of pictorial and theatrical models during the highs and lows of 1930s France, the continuities and breaks of his American work in the 1940s, and his subsequent return to French and international co-productions – all these form a complex creative biography, that embraces major shifts in film history while maintaining Renoir’s unique touch, his mastery of form, his conception of the social and the communal so often articulated through depth-of-field compositions and camera work. We shall explore Renoir’s exemplary works, attending to his interlacing of melodramatic, comedic, even farcical, as well as realist inspirations in their historical, political, and cultural contexts. Close viewing and analysis of the films will be accompanied by readings from the filmmakers’ own writings and interviews, criticism both contemporary to the films’ production as well as recent perspectives, and historical backgrounds.
All principal readings in English.

The aim of this course is to examine the kind of work that film actors do. We will trace the evolution of film acting from early silent pictures until now, and along the way I hope to deal with a variety of questions: How is the style of film acting affected by motion-picture genres? How is it affected by technology? What’s the difference, if any, between professional and non-professional acting? Do supporting players behave differently from lead actors? To what degree do film actors improvise, and how can we recognize it when they do? To what extent do actors behave “naturally” (whatever that means) and to what extent do they employ techniques of stylized imitation and the related arts of mime or impersonation? Our chief method of answering these and other questions will be to analyze the evidence we find on the screen in a series of widely different films. In addition to participation in discussion of the films and assigned readings, students will write an essay exam and a short analytic essay.

In this seminar we explore the idea of an international “ludic cinema” in the first half of the twentieth century. Our goal is two-fold: on the one hand, we will identify the trajectory of a ludic modernism in film history by rereading canons and introducing underexposed films; on the other hand, we will examine the interdisciplinary writings on the notion of play, ranging from anthropology and psychology to education and literary studies, through the prism of cinematic modernity. Readings include seminal texts by Walter Benjamin, Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois, D. W. Winnicott, and Gregory Bateson, as well as more recent scholarly works by Miriam Hansen, Bill Brown, David Bordwell and Kristine Thompson. Films include early short and experimental films, city symphonies, American slapstick comedies, and films by Ernst Lubitsch, Jean Renoir, Frank Capra, Fei Mu, Yasujiro Ozu, and Jacques Tati.

The year 1960 is commonly understood as a watershed in United States film history, marking the end of the so-called "classical" Hollywood cinema. We will discuss this assumption in terms of the break-up of the studio system; the erosion of the Production Code; the crisis of audience precipitated by televisionÕs mass spread; and the changing modes of film reception, production, and style under the impact of video, cable, and other electronic communication technologies. We will also relate cinema to social and political issues of the post-1960s period (Civil Rights, student and women's movements, the Vietnam war, urban crisis, reproductive freedom, AIDS, the Reagan/Bush era, and the end of the Cold War) and ask how films reflected upon and intervened in contested areas of public and private experience. With the help of the concept of "genre" (and the changed "genericity" of 1980s and '90s films) and of the notion of "national cinema" (usually applied to film traditions other than the United States), we will attempt a dialogue between industrial/stylistic and cultural-studies approaches to film history.

Although the horror genre is often considered to begin in the early 1930s with the enormous successes Tod Browning’s Dracula, James Whale’s Frankenstein and the rest of Universal Studios’ classic monster cycle, the horrific – terror, shock, revulsion – has been an important part of the cinema since its inception. In this course, we will explore the nature of horror and the horrific in the cinema and the various perspectives that can be utilized to understand these films and their continued, remarkably resilient global appeal. The syllabus will include readings on such topics as the uncanny, the fantastic, monstrosity, abjection, anxiety, gender identity, and spectacle. The primary focus of the course discussions will be on the “threat”: a concept that includes the monster or villain, the actions or intended actions of that monster, and the way they are depicted onscreen. Although the course will attempt a long view of the genre’s history and will deal with international examples (particularly J-horror, a cycle of Japanese horror films from the 1990s and early 2000s), the privileged films in this course will be American, and from what may be understood as the beginning of the modern or post-classical era of the genre: Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and The Birds, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the films of the 1970s and early 1980s, especially the “slasher” film and its forerunners. We will deal with the increasing centrality of displays of violence and gore to the genre and the expansion of the genre to include physically unremarkable villains and little to no trace of the supernatural, which seems to culminate in the recent phenomenon of “torture porn” – as well as the concurrent spread of monsters and the monstrous into works that are decidedly outside of the horror genre (i.e. Twilight). What significance do these and other recent developments have for our understanding of horror and for the importance of the monster to the genre? Can these changes help us to understand earlier, more classical works of horror? Filmmakers to be discussed include Whale, Hitchcock, Romero, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Rob Zombie.

CMST 10100. Required of all Cinema and Media Studies concentrators. This seminar is designed to provide senior concentrators with a sense of the variety of methods and approaches in the field (such as formal analysis, cultural history, industrial history, reception studies, psychoanalysis). Students will present material relating to their B.A. project, which will be discussed in relation to the issues of the course.

We shall analyze films and fictional works that reflect both realities and myths about the “Eternal City,” Rome. Classical Rome will not be studied; instead the focus will be on a trajectory of works, both written and cinematic, that are set in and explore late nineteenth to late twentieth-century Rome. The goal is to analyze some of the numerous diverse representations of modern Rome that portray historical, political, subjective, and/or fantastical/mythopoetic elements that have interacted over time to produce the palimpsest that is the city of Rome. Books by D’Annunzio, Moravia, Pasolini and Malerba; films by Fellini, Visconti, Rossellini, Bertolucci, Pasolini, and Moretti. Taught in English; Italian majors will read the texts in the original Italian.

This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The aim of this course is to introduce students to what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We will discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking.

Problematic images of Blackness have plagued the cinema since its very birth. This course will concentrate on examining the ways that African Americans have responded to this history of (mis)representation both as filmmakers and as spectators. In this manner, we will analyze how African American filmmakers have themselves approached the question of how to represent Blackness. As well, we will investigate how African American audiences have negotiated their position as spectators. Moreover, we will examine other cinemas within the Black diaspora and identify if/how the patterns and concerns of various Black cinemas overlap. Throughout the quarter we will consider the overarching question of what is Black cinema?

Slavoj _i_ek has used film as the great expositor of his theories of ideology, perversion, sexuality, politics, nostalgia, and otherness. In this discussion-heavy course we will watch a lot of film from the directorial subjects of his main discussions (Chaplin; Rossellini; Lynch; Haneke; Kie_lowski; Tarkovsky; von Trier; Hitchcock and others) alongside Zizek’s theoretical writings on their film. The course examines why for the man who has been called the “Elvis of cultural theory” film is such a perfect lens through which to examine social situatedness and intersubjective *aporia*. There is no “paperwork” assigned for the course. The course is conducted seminar style and participants are expected to be vocal, prepared and somewhat ornery.

PQ: Consent of instructor. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. This course may not be counted toward distribution requirements for the concentration, but may be counted as a free-elective credit.

Neither a coherent movement nor a precise style, La Nouvelle Vague was nonetheless a watershed moment in the history of modernism. In this class, we will study the French New Wave’s emergence from the context of post WWII modernization and Existentialism, cinephilia and film criticism and theory. With an examination of canonical and lesser-known films (1950-early 1970s), we will pursue our study from the standpoint of cinematic ontology and French cultural and political history. We shall explore how this cinema considerably expanded the parameters of modern art practice and intellectual thought as well as redirected assumptions surrounding the medium’s formal and philosophic capacities. Films by Rohmer, Rivette, Truffaut, Godard, Eustache, Varda, Raynal, Chabrol, Rouch, Resnais, Garrel, and others.

From the treaty port of Shanghai to the imperial capital of Beijing, from the “re-colonized” city of Taipei to the “floating city” of Hong Kong, and from an anonymous city in inland China to global Chinatowns, cities in Chinese-language cinemas at once reflect and participate in the historical transformations of modern China and the negotiation between national, local and cosmopolitan identities. Meanwhile, throughout its history, the motion-picture medium has shown an affinity with the city as an audio-visual ensemble, which in turn has provided constant inspiration for cinematic experimentation. Taking the chronotope of the “sinophone city” as an entry point, this course participates in both the on-going discussion of cinematic cities and the emerging discourse on the phonic articulation and visual mediation of a global sinophone culture. No knowledge of Chinese is required.

The film musical appears as a quintessentially American form. From the development of the genre in synchronization with early sound technology to its full efflorescence in the MGM Broadway adaptations of the 1950s, nothing spoke the capital intensity of hallywood and the ideology of Americanism more clearly than the musical. This course studies East Asian emulation of Hollywood’s “transmedia exploitation” of popular music, revues, and musical films but also the musical that blazed regional circuits through East Asia, from “oriental jazz” and the wartime films of Yamaguchi Yoshiko/Ri Ko-Ran to postwar Toho travelogues and contemporary films featuring East Asian pop stars. Main focus on Japan; also films from Hong Kong, Manchuria, and Taiwan.

This course focuses on the making of independent documentary video. Examples of direct cinema, cinéma vérité, the essay, ethnographic film, the diary and self-reflexive cinema, historical and biographical film, agitprop/activist forms, and guerilla television are screened and discussed. Topics include the ethics and politics of representation and the shifting lines between fact and fiction. Labs explore video pre-production, camera, sound, and editing. Students develop an idea for a documentary video; form crews; and produce, edit, and screen a five-minute documentary. A two-hour lab is required in addition to class time. Lab fee $50.

Consent of instructor. Please register by faculty section.