Spring

Classic French cinema (from the earliest filmmakers to the beginnings of the New Wave) will be studied through the examples of ten movies, which influenced its history and represented the development of an esthetical movement : the French school before 1914 (Louis Feuillade’s "Fantômas"), the "avant-garde" of the 20s (Jean Epstein’s "La Chute de la maison Usher"), the surrealist cinema (Luis Buñuel’s "L’Age d’or"), the musical comedy (Rene Clair’s "Le Million"), the "100% talking" film (Sacha Guitry’s "Le Roman d’un tricheur"), the poetic realism (Jean Renoir’s "La Bête humaine", Marcel Carne "Le Jour se lève"), the cinema under the Occupation (Henri-Georges Clouzot’s "Le Corbeau"), the evocation of the Belle Epoque (Max Ophuls’ "Le Plaisir"), the revival of the literary adaptation (Robert Bresson’s "Journal d’un cure de campagne"). This course will be taught in English.

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.

A study of the history and culture of Italian-Americans through filmic and literary representations. Writers include Helen Barolini, Tina De Rosa, Giose Rimanelli, and Ed McBain (Savatore Lambino); directors include Coppola, Scorsese, Savoca, Cimino, and Ferrara

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 first part 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.

This is the second part of the international survey history of film covering the sound era up to 1960. It is strongly recommended that students take the first section first. This survey will deal with issues of film form, industry organization and film culture during three decades, focusing on the crystallization of the Classical Hollywood Film as a key issue. But international alternatives to Hollywood will also be discussed, from the unique forms of Japanese cinema to movements like Italian Neo-realism and the beginnings of the New Wave in France. Film style, from the classical scene break down to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting) will form the center of the course, while attention will also be paid to the development of a film culture. Texts will include Bordwell and Thompson, Film History: An Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, Godard and others. Screenings will include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir.

This is the second part of the international survey history of film covering the sound era up to 1960. It is strongly recommended that students take the first section first. This survey will deal with issues of film form, industry organization and film culture during three decades, focusing on the crystallization of the Classical Hollywood Film as a key issue. But international alternatives to Hollywood will also be discussed, from the unique forms of Japanese cinema to movements like Italian Neo-realism and the beginnings of the New Wave in France. Film style, from the classical scene break down to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting) will form the center of the course, while attention will also be paid to the development of a film culture. Texts will include Bordwell and Thompson, Film History: An Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, Godard and others. Screenings will include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir.

This course explores the political documentary film, its intersection with historical and cultural events, and its opposition to Hollywood and traditional media.  We will examine various documentary modes of production, from films with a social message, to advocacy and activist film, to counter-media and agit-prop.  We will also consider the relationship between the filmmaker, film subject and audience, and how political documentaries are disseminated and, most importantly, part of political struggle. 

ARTV 23901 or consent of instructor. This course focuses on the shaping and crafting of a nonfiction video. Students are expected to write a treatment detailing their project. Production techniques focus on the handheld camera versus tripod, interviewing and microphone placement, and lighting for the interview. Post-production covers editing techniques and distribution strategies. Students then screen final projects in a public space. Lab fee $50.

5/34905 This class traces the deployment of cinema as both national culture and "optical weapon" during a time of total war. We will study the Film Law of 1939 and the "national policy films" and "people's films" that attempted to raise the aesthetic and technical level of cinema in Japan in order to compete with the memory of Hollywood films both at "home" and in the Asian countries occupied by Japan. The class will include films made under Japanese sponsorship in the colonies of Taiwan and Korea as well as in the puppet state of Manchuria and the occupied territory of Shanghai. We will also study local sources of wartime Japanese cinema -- the prewar leftist film movement, the documentary film movement, the narrative avant-garde -- in the context of the broader image culture of wartime Japan. No knowledge of Japanese is required: separate section for discussion of Japanese and other Asian sources.

Robert Bresson is one of the most ambitious, most enigmatic filmmakers. In an era of reflexive, ironic post-classical cinema, it sometimes seemed as though he sought to ignore film history altogether, to defy its habits and conventions – to re-invent the medium in his own terms. Yet Bresson delves deeply into questions of cinema as a mode of perception, of knowledge and belief, as a way to explore social being and singularity: the individual inextricably, often tragically bound in the transactions of modern life. In this course we will consider Bresson’s sources, his modes of narration, the relation of text and image, visual style and sound practice; we will seek to define the special mode of attention that his films command. [All readings are in English.]