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Spring, 2002 |
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English/Cinema Studies 272 |
Rice 114, (440) 775-8574 |
In this course we'll explore what it means to look at cinema through the lens of a particular national tradition, our example being American cinema. An underlying concern of the course is not only how do we "discover" a tradition but what kind of critical perspective and limitations such an approach offers.
The tradition of American cinema is largely, though not exclusively,
the tradition of the Hollywood
entertainment industry, the self-proclaimed "dream factory." We will look at two eras which are arguably
the high points of this Hollywood system, 1939-42 and 1971-75 in order to understad the way "the
system" we call Hollywood fostered distinctive types of moviemaking over
its history. Many of the readings
will focus on industrial history and the nature of the production system;
the movies we will look at are presented in some measure as "examples"
of the Hollywood traditions. A
central question we will deal with is the degree to which we want to think
of the movies made in this system as "products" and the degree to which we want to think
about them under the rubric of "art." Or,
as director William Wellman put it, we'll inquire about the relation of "canned goods to caviar."
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Date |
Movie |
Readings, Available on ERes |
Supplementary
Movie |
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Week 1 |
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Margaret Farrand Thorp from America at the Movies Appendix IV: The Production Code of the Motion Picture Producers and Directors of America, Inc. Boardwell,
Staiger & Thompson from The
Classical Hollywood Cinema Robert B, Ray from A Certain Tendency of Hollywood Cinema: "Introduction" and "Formal and Thematic Paradigms" Richard
Maltby Hollywood: An
Introduction |
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Week 2 |
Gone With the Wind 1939 |
from Richard
Harwell, ed. Gone With the Wind as Book and Film from Leonard
Leff The Dame in the Kimono |
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Week 3 |
Stagecoach 1939 |
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Destry Rides Again 1939 Dodge City 1939 |
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Week 4 |
Rebecca 1940 |
Thomas
Schatz from The Genius of the
System |
Jezebel 1938 |
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Week 5 |
His Girl Friday 1940 |
Gareth Jowett,
ed. From Film: The Democratic Art: Part Three: A Mature Oligopoly |
The Philadelphia Story 1940 The Awful Truth 1940 My Favorite Wife 1937 |
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Week 6 |
The Maltese Falcon 1941 |
Peter
Wollen "The Auteur
Theory" Robert
Rosenbluam & Robert Karen
from When the Shooting Stops…the Cutting Begins. |
High Sierra 1941 Double
Indemnity 1944 The Big Sleep 1946 |
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Week 7 |
Citizen Kane 1941 |
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Week 8 |
Break Week |
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Week 9 |
Harold and
Maude 1971 Five Easy Pieces 1970 |
Jowett from Film: The Democratic Art:The Uncertain Future Robert Sklar from Movie-made America: A Cultural History of American Movies Gerald Mast, ed. from The Movies in Our Midst |
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Week 10 |
Chinatown 1974 |
Mast, Cohen,
Braudy, ed. From Film Theory and Criticism John Cawelti,
"Chinatown and Generic Transformation" Robert
Benedetto "The Two Chintowns" from Creative Screenwriting |
The Long
Goodbye 1973 |
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Week 11 |
Taxi Driver 1976 |
Paul Schrader,
"Notes on Film Noir" Robert B. Ray from A Certain Tendency of Hollywood Cinema
"The Godfather and Taxi Driver" |
Dirty Harry
1971 |
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Week 12 |
The Godfather 1971 |
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Week 13 |
American
Graffiti 1973 |
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Week 14 |
Night of the Living Dead 1968 |
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The Exorcist 1973 |
Mechanics
of the Course.
1) I assume valuable things happen in class sessions. I take attendance; I expect you to keep track of your attendance too, because "I didn't realize I'd missed that many classes" is not an excuse. You get two unexcused absences, absences other than illness or family emergency. "I had a paper due for another course, my fish was depressed, I don't do Wednesdays, I'm in a production of The Sunshine Boys and we had rehearsal" are not excusable absences.
We only have 39 classes, less than 39 hours over the semester. More than 2 unexcused absences and your grade goes down; after 6 unexcused absences, you've no-entry-ed the course.
Attendance also means showing up on time. I'm aware that things happen, but regularly strolling in 5 minutes after class starts is a very bad idea.
2) You have to participate in the class. Participation doesn't mean talking a lot, it means being engaged in the interchange among the members of the class: asking good questions, responding to other people's questions, thinking before you talk. Talking in groups such, as a class is a skill, every bit as much as writing is. Its a skill worth having, because in fact a
lot of work in all institutions gets done in that way. Being able to talk effectively in a group is, as they say, an important "self-empowerment." I know that a number of people have trouble speaking up in class. You should feel as free to consult me on strategies and methods for doing that as you'd consult me about your writing.
3) You have to form, with other members of the course, a discussion group that meets outside of class once a week. Some groups prefer to meet before discussions and/or lectures, other prefer to meet after. Right after the showing of the movie on Sunday might be a good time to meet. That's up to each group to decide. Groups should be 4 or 5 people maximum.
Academic or emergency incompletes are yours to take if you want, as long as you are in good standing in the course. You don't need to tell me the story, unless you want to; I trust that you wouldn't take an incomplete without a good reason. "Good Standing" means that you have completed all the work assigned for the first module and at least some of the work for the second.
The Honor Code
It should go without
saying that I expect you to hand in your own work, not somebody else's. But in this course I expect you
to read each other's writing and talk to each other about your ideas. Having a real intellectual life does not
mean hiding from other people's thoughts in hopes of staying "original"
but instead responding imaginatively and creatively to the influence of other
people's ideas. Thus
obvious cheating--buying papers off the net, using somebody else's essay from
another course, lifting unacknowledged sections from other people's writing--is
plagiarism. You simply can't learn anything
from this sort of thing, so it violates the whole point of education.
If discussions with other people in the course or in the readings you
do for the course or in other contexts influences your thinking to an unusual
degree, you should acknowledge them.
* Written work must be handed in on time.
* Late essays will be accepted at the discretion of the instructor
* All work must be handed in to get credit for the course.
* Hard copies of essays must be typed, double spaced, stapled together, pages
numbered.
* Backs of previously used paper is fine for drafts; final version should
be printed on both sides of the sheet.
* Essays must have a title, though they don't have to have a cover sheet.
* References should be in the following form: (Wordsworth, "Preface" p.
2) with full citation in end notes
The class will be divided into writing groups. Each week one group will write a short essay due by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, another will write a sort essay due by 5 PM on Thursday. Essays should be about 600 words (two typed pages) These essays will be posted to a course listserve.
Initial Assignment
#1. A 600 word essay explaining why you’re taking the course, what specifically you want to get out of it, and what you think you know about American cinema.
Midterm Essay
#2. 1500 words. This is a short critical essay; I'll ask you to focus on the relation of style to meaning in a single movie. Due the week before Spring Break.
A 3000+ word
essay on a topic of your choice. I
am open to proposals for different kinds of final projects, though they will require
a proposal, a progress report, and a final report/reflection on the
project. The essay will be developed in three stages.
#1 Proposal. A brief 500 word explanation of what you think you want to write about and why you think this is important. Due week 11
#2 First Draft. Due week 13. I'll read and comment on this draft. It should be as complete as possible, but I don't expect a "finished"product.
#3 Final Draft. Due at the end of Reading Period.
How I comment on your written work.
The comments on your writing will be, as one former student put it, "ambiguous." I don't do much "this is good, that's bad" commenting. The comments I make will be directed to making you think about what you'rewriting about, raising issues you may want to consider in revising, or writing about in the next prep essay. For specific advice on how to revise, what to do with a particular argument, etc., we should set up a conference.
You won't receive any grades over the course of the semester. This isn't because the grade is unimportant (if it was unimportant we wouldn't give it, would we?) but because the work in the course is part of a process, rather than a sequence of discrete units. If I am trying to encourage you to use your writing to be experimental and speculative, leading to your final essay, it makes little sense to grade it along the way. But if you want a sense of how you're doing, you should feel free to come and speak to me about your work. I will be able to tell you if you are making what I see as reasonable progress, what things you may want to work on, what things you seem to be doing best. I won't be able to be extremely precise about a grade equivalent, however. On a rough scale, though, I would say that if you are doing intelligent analysis of the works we consider and are able to state your own views clearly, that is C- to C+ work. If you are able to interpret the material we are working with, discuss not only what is "said" but what its significance might be, you would be in the B- to B range. If in addition you can demonstrate a capacity for self-reflective critical work (thinking about your own way of thinking and what it means to think as you do) you would be in the B+ to A range. So these are the kinds of mental activity you will be doing in the course: analysis & response, interpretation, and self-reflection.
Filmography for American Cinema
Gone With the Wind 1939, MGM/Selznick, prod. David O. Selznick, dir. Victor Fleming; uncredited directors: George Cukor, Sam Wood, David Selznick, scr. Sidney Howard and others, ph Ernst Haller, Ray Renaham, mus. Max Steiner, pd. William Cameron Menzies, ad Lyle Wheeler 1939
Stagecoach UA/Walter Wanger, prod. John Ford, dir. scr. Dudley Nicholas, ph Bert Gennon, Ray Binger, mus, 5 composers, md Boris Morros 1939
His Girl Friday 1940, Columbia, prod./dir. Howard Hawkes, src. Charles Lederer from The
Front Page, Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht ph Joseph Walker 1940
Rebecca , Selznick International, prod. David O.
Selznick, dir. Alfred Hitchcock;
scr. Robert Shrewood, Joan Harrison, ph George Barnes, mus Franz Waxman 1940
The Maltese Falcon, Warner Brothers, prod. Henry Blanke, dir. John Huston, scr. John Huston ph Arthur Edson, mus. Arnold Deutsch 1941
Citizen Kane, RKO, prod./dir. Orson Welles scr. Joseph Mankiewicz, ph Gregg Toland, mus Bernard Hermann, ad Van Nest Polglase 1941
Five Easy Pieces Columbia/Bert Schnieder (Bob Rafelson, Richard Wenschler) dir. Bob Rafelson scr. Adrian Joyce ph Lazlo Kovacs mus. Various 1970
Harold and Maude Paramount/Mildred Lewis/Colin Higgins d. Hal Ashby scr. Colin Higgins, ph John A. Alonzo mus. Cat Stevens 1971
Chinatown. Paramount/Long Road Robert Evans, prod. dir. Roman Polanski, scr. Robert Towne, ph John Alonso, pd Richard Sylbert, mus Jerry Goldsmith 1973.
American Graffiti Universal/Lucasfilm/Coppola Company (Francis Ford Coppola & Gary Kurtz) dir. George Lucas, scr George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck, ph Ron Eveslage, Jan D'Alquen, Lazlo Kovacs (uncredited) mus; various sources. 1973
Taxi Driver Columbia/Italo-Jdeo (Michael and
Julia Phillips) dir Martin Scorsese,
scr. Paul Schrader, ph Michael Chapman, mus. Bernard Herrmann 1976