WEEK 3 10 October Talk on Essay Writing. Lecture and screening of extracts Soviet Cinema and montage aesthetics. Seminars

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1 University of Westminster BA Film and Television Production Semester Module 2FTP413 Credits: 15 Film Histories: Film Movements Module Leader: Ian Green Lecturers: Phil Yeats and Ian Green Lectures and Screenings: Lecture Theatre 2 Summary of module content: This module covers the emergence of cinema as an art and and industry and then goes on to explore the relationships between cinema and different forms of critical theory. Within an historical and conceptual framework, key developments within the industry will be introduced, examining the various relationships between these developments and the processes of social and cultural change. Starting with early experimentations in film,it will then move on to the silent era, examining concepts behind the notion of early cinema and go on to explore the formation of narrative styles together with issues of aesthetics. The latter part of the module will pay particular attention to the contested idea of national cinemas, the status of art cinema and cinema as art and some approaches to film language, cinema and representation, cinema and fantasy. WEEK 1 26 September Introduction to module. What does film theory and criticism try to analyse? What distinctions do people make between film theory, criticism, reviewing, analysis, argument and opinion? How do people tend to divide up the world of cinema and film? What is a film? What assumptions do people make when they try to characterise films or distinguish some films from other films? In what ways are value judgements of like and dislike, good and bad, serious and entertaining, unique or formulaic, etc, important to people? Are all judgements subjective? WEEK 2 3 October 1. What determined the shape of the earliest American films? Edison and E.S. Porter. The Nickelodeon era. D.W. Griffith - the evolution of narrative space and structure. 2. The notion of Hollywood as a classic cinema The Hollywood Studio System The Genius of the System : Film studies attempts to grapple with and even reverse negative value judgements associated with Hollywood as commercial, homogenous, low art mass-produced culture for a mass audience. Reading André Bazin, The Evolution of the Language of Cinema in his What is Cinema? Vol. I, University of California Press, 1967 Robert Sklar Movie Made America Vintage Books, 1994 pp André Bazin, The Evolution of the Language of Film in his What is Cinema? Vol.1, California University Press, 1967 pp

2 Douglas Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System, Macmillan/BFI, 1986, Chapter 1, pp 1-25 David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson, Chapter 6, Editing in their Film Art: An Introduction, 2010 or 2008 edition. David Bordwell, Classical Narration: The Hollywood Example, Chapter 9 of his Narration in the Fiction Film, Methuen, 1985 Bordwell, Thompson & Staiger, The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960, Columbia University Press, 1985 pp Elizabeth Cowie, Storytelling: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Classical Narrative in (eds) Steve Neale and Murray Smith, Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, Routledge, 1998 Robin Wood, Howard Hawks (Wayne State University Press, 2006) Introduction to 1981 edition, pp1-3 Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, Faber, 1998 [and updates] (ed) Richard Abel, Encyclopedia of Early Cinema, Routledge, 2004 (eds) Lee Grieveson & Peter Kramer, The Silent Cinema Reader, Routledge, 2003 Simon Popple & Joe Kember, Early Cinema: From Factory Gate to Dream Factory, Wallflower Press, 2003 WEEK 3 10 October Talk on Essay Writing Soviet Cinema and montage aesthetics Seminars Seminar Reading S.M. Eisenstein, The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram, in his book Film Form, Harcourt Brace, 1963 plus notes on Blackboard S. M. Eisenstein, Selected Works, Vol. 1, BFI, 1988 Sergei Eisenstein, Notes of a Film Director, Fredonia Books, 2003 (ed) Richard Taylor, The Eisenstein Reader, BFI, 1998, especially The Montage of Attractions pp 29-34; The Montage of Film Attractions pp 35-52; The Fourth Dimension in Cinema pp Richard Taylor, Theory and Film, chapter 7 of his Politics of the Soviet Cinema , Cambridge University Press, 1979 Peter Wollen, Eisenstein s Aesthetics in his Signs and Meanings in the Cinema, Secker & Warburg, 1998 David Gillespie, Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology and Propaganda, Wallflower Press, 2000 WEEK 4 17 October Lecture and Screenings Avant-garde and experimental film traditions 2

3 Screening: Seminars: Un Chien Anadalou (France 1928 Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali) Meshes of the Afternoon (USA 1942 Maya Deren) analysis and discussion of the films Seminar Reading Notes, questions and statements by filmmakers to be supplied P. Adams Sitney Film Culture: An Anthology, Secker and Warburg, 1971 P. Adams Sitney The Avant-garde film: a reader of theory and criticism, Anthology Film Archives 1978 (ed) Bill Nichols Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde, University of California Press, 2001 A.L.Rees A history of experimental film and video: from the canonical avant-garde to contemporary British practice, BFI, 1999 Peter Wollen, The Two Avant-Gardes, in his Readings and Writings Verso, 1982 WEEK 5 24 October Lecture and Introduction Movements of Cinematic Realism: Italian Neorealism Screening: WEEK 6 Lecture: Bicycle Thieves (Italy 1948 dir Vittorio De Sica) 31 October Cinematic Realisms, realist aesthetics and styles Seminars Seminar Reading André Bazin, What is Cinema? Vol.1, California University Press, 1967, The Ontology of the Photographic Image, pp 9-16, and In Defence of Rossellini, pp André Bazin, An Aesthetic of Reality Neo-Realism, Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of the Liberation in (eds), John Orr & Olga Taxidou Post-War Cinema and Modernity, Edinburgh University Press, 2000, pp (Also in What is Cinema? Vol.2, California University Press, 1971, pp 16-40) Christopher Wagstaff, Ladri di Biciclette in his Italian Neorealist Cinema An Aesthetic Approach, University of Toronto Press, 2007, Pp (ed) Giorgio Bertellini, The Cinema Of Italy, Wallflower Press, 2004 Mark Shiel, Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City, Wallflower Press,

4 First Essay: Titles Write an essay of words from one of the titles below: 1 What are the major aesthetic or formal components that constitute the notion of the Classical Hollywood Cinema? 2 Why and how did Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s place such an emphasis on montage as part of the production of meaning in films? You may use any specific examples drawn from the films of 1920s Soviet cinema as part of your discussion. 3 Make a detailed analysis of either Un Chien Andalou or Meshes of the Afternoon. Discuss whether either film is a kind of narrative film and if so how you would characterise the sort of narrative it is. Or, is either a non-narrative or antinarrative film? 4 How and why is Bicycle Thieves considered to be a realist film? Are there aspects of the film that you consider to be non-realist? Is the realism of this film purely a matter of style? AN ELECTRONIC COPY in Word format should be submitted via Turnitin on Blackboard on or before 5pm Wednesday 6 November There is a student manual for this at: ration_student_manual.pdf We will supply notes on Blackboard with advice about essay writing and also specific instructions about the presenting and formatting of your essays, referencing, Bibliography, Filmography, etc; and also address some of these issues in class or seminars. Also, if in doubt about any aspects of essay writing and submission consult us. WEEK 7 7 November Concepts of Art Cinema: European Art Cinema ; Art House Cinema Seminar Reading David Bordwell, The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice, Film Criticism, vol. IV, no.1, Fall Also in (ed) Catherine Fowler, in The European Cinema Reader, Routledge, 2002 plus notes on Blackboard 4

5 Pam Cook, Art Cinema in The Cinema Book, BFI, 1999, Pp David Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film (Chs 10,12 & 13), Methuen, 1985 Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Art Cinema, in (ed) Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, The Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford, 1996 Peter Lev, The Art Film, from his The Euro-American Cinema, University of Texas Press, 1993 Steve Neale, Art Cinema as Institution, Screen, vol. 22, no.1, Also in (ed) Catherine Fowler, The European Cinema Reader, Routledge, 2002 Peter Graham, The New Wave, Secker and Warburg, 1968 James Monaco, The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette, Oxford University Press, 1976). Naomi Greene, The French New Wave. A New Look, Wallflower 2007 Francois Truffaut, A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema, in Nichols, Bill (ed.), Movies and Methods vol 1, University of California Press, 1976 Seminars WEEK 8 14 November European Art Cinema, authorship, modernism and cinema Screening: Le Mepris (France 1963 dir Jean-Luc Godard) Seminars WEEK 9 21 November Concepts of Art Cinema in the context of contemporary and world cinema Distribution and Exhibition National cinemas and art cinema International styles and trends of art cinema Notions of independent cinema Notions of postmodernist and transnational filmmaking in both popular, commercial and art cinema National Cinemas, contempoary Hollywood and the Global Economy : China, S.Korea, India, Iran, Brazil, etc. Kate Gamm, Teaching World Cinema, BFI, 2008 (eds) Linda Badley, Linda, R. Barton Palmer and Steven Jay Schneider, Traditions in World Cinema, Edinburgh University Press, 2006 Yingjin Zhang, Chinese National Cinema, Routledge, 2004 Byung-il Choi, When culture meets trade: Screen quota in Korea, Routledge, 2002 Kinnia Shuk-ting Yau, East Asian cinema and culture heritage from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan to Japan and South Korea, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 Chi-Yun Shi, Julian Stringer, New Korean Cinema, Edinburgh University Press, 2005 Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction, Columbia Univ. Press, 2002 Julia Hallam, Realism and Popular Cinema, Manchester University Press,

6 WEEK November Image, Representation, Narrative, Ideology and Fantasy (1) Film Theory s attempts to theorise film or cinema as fantasy: dream, daydream models and identification Seminars Seminar Reading Sigmund Freud. Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming, in Art and Literature, The Pelican Freud Library, Vol.14, 1985, Pp WEEK 11 5 December Image, Representation, Narrative, Ideology and Fantasy (2) Seminar Reading Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, in Screen vol 16 no 3, Autumn 1975, Pp. 6-18; reprinted in her Visual and Other Pleasures, Macmillan, 1989; and in (ed) Nichols, Bill Movies and Methods, Vol.2, University of California Press, 1985, Pp Harry M. Benshoff & Sean Griffin, America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies, Blackwell Publishing, 2003 Shohini Chaudhuri, Feminist Film Theorists: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis, Barbara Creed, Routledge, 2006 (eds) Pam Cook & Philip Dodd, Women and Film - A Sight and Sound Reader, Scarlet Press, 1994 WEEK December New realist concerns and continuing traditions of realism in British cinema Screening: Fish Tank (2009 UK/Netherlands dir Andrea Arnold) 6

7 Second Essay: Titles Write an essay of words from one of the titles below: 1 Discuss Le Mepris OR Blow Up in detail in terms of David Bordwell s analysis of the elements that characterise art cinema. 2 Make a close and detailed analysis of the aesthetics of an art film of your choice. 3 How can art cinema teach us something about the nature of film? Use two or three examples to illustrate your argument. 4 Apply Freud s ideas about the form and purposes of daydreaming to some film examples of your choice. 5 Using a single film case study, show your understanding of the issues that Laura Mulvey raises in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema 6 Discuss national identity in relation to a single National Cinema of your choice. Refer to specific examples. AN ELECTRONIC COPY in Word format should be submitted via Turnitin on Blackboard on or before 5pm Wednesday 08 January 2014 There is a student manual for this at: ration_student_manual.pdf We will supply notes on Blackboard with advice about essay writing and also specific instructions about the presenting, formatting of your essays, referencing, Bibliography, Filmography, etc; and also address some of these issues in class or seminars. Also, if in doubt about any aspects of essay writing and submission consult us. 7

8 Further General Reading David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 8th edition [and earlier editions] (eds) Leo Braudy & Marshall Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 6th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004 [and updates] James Chapman, Cinemas of the World: Film and Society in the Twentieth Century, Reaktion, 2004 Shohini Chaudhuri, Contemporary World Cinema, Edinburgh University Press, 2005 (eds) Pamela Church Gibson & John Hill, The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford, 1998 (ed) Pam Cook, The Cinema Book, BFI Publications, 1999 Leo Enticknap, Moving Image Technology: From Zoetrope to Digital, Wallflower Press, 2005 (eds) Elizabeth Ezra & Terry Rowden, Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader, Routledge, 2006 Joel W. Finler, The Hollywood Story: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the American Movie Business But Didn t Know Where to Look, Wallflower Press, 2003 (ed) Catherine Fowler, The European Cinema Reader, Routledge, 2002 Douglas Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System: A History, BFI, 2005 (eds) Catherine Grant & Annette Kuhn, Screening World Cinema, Routledge, 2006 (eds) Mette Hjort & Scott Mackenzie, Cinema and Nation, Routledge, 2000 (ed) Paul Kerr, The Hollywood Film Industry, RKP, 1986 Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema: an Introduction, Blackwell, 2003 (ed) Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods, Volumes 1 & 2, University of California Press, 1985 Angelo Restivo, The Cinema of Economic Miracles: Visuality and Modernization in the Italian Art Film, Duke University Press, 2002 (eds) John Sedgwick & Michael Pokorny, An Economic History of Film, Routledge, 2004 (eds) Michael Temple & Michael Witt, The French Cinema Book, BFI, 2004 (ed) Graeme Turner, The Film Cultures Reader, Routledge, 2001 (eds), Valentina Vitali & Paul Willemen, Theorizing National Cinema, BFI, 2006 Lola Young, Fear of the Dark Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Cinema, Routledge, 1996 Ian Green greeni@westminster.ac.uk Room 1.16 M Block Harrow Phil Yeats P.Yeats@westminster.ac.uk September

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