2004-05 Cinema Studies Courses

Fall 2004

Spring 2005

100-01; 100B-01(12635 - module 1; 12636 - module 2) Introduction to Digital Video Production, 1 hour / 1HU

Th 7:30-9:30 pm Modules 1 & 2, Mr. Pingree & Ms. Malkowski

An introduction to digital video production. Students will become familiar with the basics of camera, sound, and lighting equipment, and with iMovie editing software. Students will collaborate on focused production exercises and a larger final class project. This course will fulfill the prerequisite for advanced production courses in Cinema Studies, though it does not guarantee admission, which will remain at the instructor's consent. Enrollment Limit: 16. [Cr/NE or P/NP]

244-01 (12321) Masters Of World Cinema: Focus On Fellini , 2 hours / 2HU

MW 3:30-4:20 + Tu 3:00-5:00 pm Module 1, Mr. Goulding

A critical analysis and discussion of Federico Fellini's most celebrated films from his earlier films associated with post-war Italian neorealism to his internationally acclaimed baroque film fantasies of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Special emphasis will be placed on Fellini's ambiguous relationship to Italy's political left and neorealism and to the critical controversies surrounding his later films. The evolution of his distinctive and influential film style will be traced out in I Vitelloni, La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 81/2, Juliet of the Spirits, and Amarcord. Enrollment Limit: 40.

245-01 (12322) Masters Of World Cinema: Focus On Kieslowski , 2 hours / 2HU

MW 3:30-4:20 + Tu 3:00-5:00 pm Module 2, Mr. Goulding

One of the leading figures in East European cinema of the 1970s and 1980s, Krzysztof Kieslowski was closely associated with Poland’s Cinema of Moral Concern which helped give birth to the Solidarity movement and the collapse of Poland’s Communist regime. He later gained international critical acclaim for his 1990s French/Polish co-produced film trilogy White, Blue, and Red. Kieslowski’s films receiving close critical attention include Camera Buff, the monumental Decalogue, The Double Life of Veronique and the tricolor trilogy, White, Blue, and Red. Enrollment Limit: 40.

246-01 (12323) Indian Cinema, 2 hours / 2HU,WR, CD

Tu 7:00-9:30 pm + Su 7:00-10:00 pm Module 2, Mr. Vasudevan

This course will study Indian Cinema through the narrative forms of Indian film and the types of public debate about nationhood, community and gender it generated. Central concerns will be how notions of time and space were re-organized through the new medium; how earlier paradigms of representation in India influenced and were altered by cinematic practice; and what kinds of social and cognitive orientation were solicited by the story telling codes of the cinema, as well as other issues. Enrollment limit: 25.

 

Introductory Core Courses
Cinema Studies majors are required to take as Introductory Core Courses: Cinema Studies 101 (Form, Style, and Meaning in Cinema) and at least one of the Cinematic Traditions courses taught by the Cinema Studies faculty.

Prerequisite: Cinema Studies 101 and 221 are open to students who have completed any Writing Intensive course, or have gained Writing Certification in any course in the Humanities. They are also open to those who have achieved a 5 on the AP exam in English Language/Composition or English Literature/Composition, or a score of 710 or better on the SAT II writing test. Other students may be admitted by consent of the instructor, with the understanding that students should be able to demonstrate the ability to handle writing, discussion, and analysis in ways typically taught in Writing Intensive classes.

101-01 (11163) Form, Style, and Meaning in Cinema, 4 hours / 4HU

TuTh 11:00-12:15 + W 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Gallagher

This course considers the cinema as a particular media form and explores issues and methods in cinema studies. The class focuses on questions of film form and style (narrative, editing, sound, framing, mise-en-scène) and introduces students to concepts in film history and theory (industry, auteurism, spectatorship, the star system, ideology, genre). Students develop a basic critical vocabulary for examining the cinema as an art form, an industry, and a system of culturally meaningful representation. Identical to ENGL 173. Enrollment Limit: 60.

Cinematic Traditions Courses

221-01 (12317) Documentary Forms, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 11:00-12:15 + Tu 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Pingree

 

What exactly do we mean by "documentary"? Is it a mode able to capture the actual world in ways that fictional forms cannot? What is at stake in doing documentary work? In this course we will explore some of the practical and theoretical issues surrounding documentary representation. Focusing on cinema, we will examine an array of documentary texts and compare various documentary traditions, asking how each frames its pursuit of "the real." We will consider documentary practices from diverse standpoints -- structural, aesthetic, political, ethical, historical. Identical to ENGL 221. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30.

 

 

241-01 (12319) History of German Cinema, 3 hours / 3HU, WR, CD

MW 3:00-4:15 + M 7:00-9:00 pm, Ms. Ricci

 

This course examines themes, styles, and institutional changes within German cinema since 1989. Unification and its aftermath, historical legacies (e.g., Nazism, left-wing terrorism), and multicultural issues form the compass of the course. A variety of genres (action, comedy, romance, road film, and documentary) are considered. Directors include: Tykwer, Akin, von Trotta, Haussmann and Kleinert. Identical to GERM 341. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment Limit: 30.

Advanced Cinema Courses
These 300- and 400-level courses taught by Cinema Studies core faculty require as prerequisites CINE 101 and a Cinematic Traditions course or two 200-level English courses including at least one Gateway course, or consent of the instructor.

320-01 (12324) Documentary Production, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 3:00-4:15 + M 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Pingree

This course explores documentary structure in critical and creative ways. Students examine different ways to think about and understand documentaries (in terms of form, purpose, audience, etc.) and practice basic documentary production (camera, lighting, sound, non-linear editing). After engaging in various individual and small group exercises, students spend the balance of the semester working together to produce short documentary videos. Identical to ENGL 320. Prerequisite: see headnote above. Consent by instructor required. Enrollment Limit: 12. Application required. Click here to request application; it will be emailed to you.

Independent Documentary Production Screening Event

340-01 (12326) Technology and Contemporary American Culture, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 1:30-2:45 + Sun 4:00-7:00 pm, Mr. Pence

Innovation in technology is often seen as either a starry dream or a dystopian nightmare. This course seeks to move beyond such polarized judgments by looking closely at representations of technology in film, literature, visual art, and electronic resources as well as critical and theoretical works on technology and aesthetic and social experience. Identical to ENGL 340. Prerequisite: Two 200-level English courses, including at least one Gateway course or three 200-level English courses or CINE 101 and a Cinematic Traditions course or consent of the instructor. Enrollment limit: 25.

420-01 (12637) Seminar: Film Theory & Criticism Now, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

Tu 7:30-10:00 pm + M 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Gallagher

This course will focus on contemporary developments in film theory and criticism, including issues in cultural studies, post-colonialism, queer theory and gender, critical race theory, and others. We will explore film theory and criticism as a dynamic part of an on-going process, so this course will not be so much a "how to" course as a "how do we understand this material" course. In addition to readings, we will examine a number of movies for their contributions to the critical and theoretical process, not simply as object of criticism or examples of theory. The course will proceed mostly by discussion, with a final project. Prerequisite: see headnote above. Enrollment limit: 15.

498-01 (11719) Senior Tutorial, 1-4 hours / 1-4HU, WR

TBA, Mr. Pingree

Students should consult with the Director of the Program about arranging a Senior Tutorial. Consent of instructor required.

499-01 (11351) Honors Project, 0-4 hours / 0-4HU, WR

To be arranged, Staff

Students interested in pursuing Honors should consult with the Director of the Program. Consent of instructor required.

995-01 (11039) & 995-02 (11040) & 995-03 (11041) Private Reading, .5-3 hours / .5-3HU

To be arranged, Mr. Pingree, Mr. Pence, Staff

Consent of instructor required.

Cross-Referenced Courses

Art
ARTS 059-01 (register in "Art," crn 10445) Visual Concepts and Processes: Digital Video, 3 hours/ 3HU
MW 1:30-4:30, Ms. Brown-Orso

This is an introductory "hands-on" technical course in digital video production and editing with a history and history component. This course is designed to provide an overview of the history and practice of the time-based media. The goal is to outline the various terrain of the art of the moving image, and to examine the vocabulary of constructing sequences, and editing, otherwise known as "sculpting in time." Enrollment limit: 15.

ARTS 068-01 (register in "Art," 12278) Problems in: Media and Performance, 3 hours/3HU
WF 9:00-12:00, Ms. Brown-Orso

This is a studio production course in multimedia performance This workshop will incorporate of video, sound, music, movement and installation. We will examine closely themes of myth and ritual through the art making practice. We will look closely at the work of Meredith Monk, Bill Viola, John Cage, Maya Deren and others. We will be engaging in a variety of high and low-tech media, both analog and digital will be employed in the development of series of projects and performances. Public presentations of the various stages of development will take place throughout the semester including the premiere of a final public presentation at the end of the semester. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment Limit: 12.

East Asian Studies
EAST 274 (register in "East Asian Studies," crn 12347) History through Film: Cinema in South Korea, 3 hours/ 3SS, CD
TuTh 3:00-4:15, Ms. Chung

Like Hong Kong film, South Korean cinema acts as a fine-grained reflection of constant changes and upheavals, both socio-economic and political. These include the liberation from Japan in 1945, the Korean War, the 1970s economic miracle and current transformations shaping Korea. More recently, movies are re-examining the Korean War and the Park Chung Hee era, examining Korean identity as well as the status of history itself.   The course will focus mainly on films of the past two decades, examining their historical background and analyzing their thematic content. Topics of investigation include the relationship between violence and history of Korea, gender and violence, and the problem of class.   No prerequisites.   Enrollment limit: 25 .

French
FREN 350-01 (12373) Remembering the French New Wave: French Legacies in Global Cinema, 3 hours/
3HU, CD
MWF 3:30-4:20 + Tu 7:00-9:30 pm, Ms. An  

We will consider the legacy of the French New Wave in international film history through s of its major classics and their subsequent imprints on North American, European and East Asian cinemas. Other issues include the national and multi-national frameworks of cinematic production, intertextuality as representative of a globalized cinematographic heritage, and national and cultural identity as an effect of the screen. This course will be taught in English. Prerequisite: French 250 or Cine 101. Enrollment Limit: 25.

A course for first- or second-year students interested in developing their skills in college writing by examining issues of sexual orientation and gender in film. Films addressing representation of sexual identifications, homophobia and heterosexism, and community building will provide topics for reading and writing. Students will explore these topics and their relation to race, class, and historical context through writing both personal and academic essays. P/NP grading. Enrollment Limit: 15.

Fall 2004

First-Year Seminar
First-year seminars do not count toward the Cinema Studies major. For descriptions, please see “First-Year Seminar Program.”

FYSP 128-01 (register under First-Year Seminar Program, crn 5979) Media & Memory, 3 hours / 3HU,WRi

TuTh 9:35-10:50, Mr. Pence

Beyond offering different sorts of content and engagement for their audiences, various artistic forms and techniques can be understood to provide alternative models for individuals and groups to filter and process experience in general. This course will look at multiple artistic forms (e.g., painting, photography, film, literature), in light of their own technical developments and contrasts with each other across time, in order to develop a greater sense of the many ways medium matters. Enrollment limit: 14 first-year students only.

Introductory Core Courses
Cinema Studies majors are required to take as Introductory Core Courses: Cinema Studies 101 (Form, Style, and Meaning in Cinema) and at least one of the Cinematic Traditions courses taught by the Cinema Studies faculty.

Prerequisite: Cinema Studies 101 and 272 are open to students who have completed any Writing Intensive course, or have gained Writing Certification in any course in the Humanities. They are also open to those who have achieved a 5 on the AP exam in English Language/Composition or English Literature/Composition, or a score of 710 or better on the SAT II writing test. Other students may be admitted by consent of the instructor, with the understanding that students should be able to demonstrate the ability to handle writing, discussion, and analysis in ways typically taught in Writing Intensive classes.

101-01 (4729) Form, Style, and Meaning in Cinema, 4 hours / 4HU

TuTh 11:00-12:15 + W 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Gallagher

This course considers the cinema as a particular media form and explores issues and methods in cinema studies. The class focuses on questions of film form and style (narrative, editing, sound, framing, mise-en-scène) and introduces students to concepts in film history and theory (industry, auteurism, spectatorship, the star system, ideology, genre). Students develop a basic critical vocabulary for examining the cinema as an art form, an industry, and a system of culturally meaningful representation. Identical to ENGL 173. Enrollment Limit: 60.

Cinematic Traditions Courses

235-01 (5778) Special Topics in German Cinema: East German Cinema, 3 hours / 3HU, WR

MWF 9:00-9:50 + M 7:00-9:00 pm, Ms. Hamilton

East German cinema existed even before the formal establishment of the German Democratic Republic in 1949. Examining representative films from 1946 until 1989, students will explore the development and function of film culture in East Germany. In addition to close textual analysis, course members will examine literary, theoretical, and historical impulses in major works by Staudte, Vogel, Wolf, Carow and others. Films (subtitled), lectures, and discussions in English. Identical to GERM 335. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment Limit: 30.

272-01 (register in "English," crn 5779) American Cinema: The Possibilities of Art in the Entertainment Business, 4 hours / 4HU,WR

MWF 10:00-10:50 + Su 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Day

This course will focus on how American cinema functions as an entertainment industry and the ways in which the demands of business and changes in technology have shaped it. At the same time, we will explore American movies as works of art produced in a tradition of strong genres and the star system, and efforts of filmmakers to use these for individualized expression. The course will focus particularly on two great eras of American cinema, 1939-1942 and 1966-73. Identical to ENGL 272. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment limit: 30.

Advanced Cinema Courses

360-01 (6125) 1960s World Cinema: Capitalism, Art, and Revolution, 4 hours / 4HU

TuTh 3:00-4:15 + M 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Gallagher

The 1960s was a watershed decade for the film medium worldwide, with sweeping shifts in politics, economics, demographics, technology, and industrial practice. The years 1960-1969 saw the last major efforts of the classical Hollywood cinema and the birth of a popular American art cinema, the development of the U.S. avant-garde, the growth of the French New Wave, the flowering of the European art cinema, and the inception of prominent national cinemas in the Third World and postcolonial states. This course will study key movements, directors, and national cinemas of the 1960s, focusing in particular on politics, ideology, representation, industry, and authorship as they appear in films and in the cultures that produce and receive them. Likely course films will include Godard's Band of Outsiders, Kurosawa's Yojimbo, Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, Antonioni's Blow-Up, Bergman’s Persona, Boorman's Point Blank, Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, Sembene's Black Girl, the East German musical Hot Summer, and anti-colonial films such as Battle of Algiers and Black God, White Devil, and works by filmmakers from West Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Greece, and other nations. Enrollment Limit: 25.

361-01 (6223) The International Thriller, 4 hours / 4HU

MW 2:30-3:45 + Sun 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Gallagher

From 1910s cliffhanger serials and the early films of Alfred Hitchcock to histrionic neo-noirs such as Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, the popular-cinema metagenre of the thriller has been dedicated to quickening pulses, racking nerves, and inducing tension. So-called "thrillers" promise thrills, but often they successfully produce nervousness, discomfort, and suspense. They can offer viewers privation rather than plenitude, restraint rather than release.

The experience of extreme tension is not one that most people intuitively associate with the pleasures of cinema. Yet since the early years of cinema, filmmakers and viewers around the world have found in the thriller a compelling vehicle for the articulation of issues surrounding complex subjects such as sexuality and gender, politics and nationalism, and espionage and violence. This course looks historically and cross-culturally at the thriller, assessing its formal and narrative strategies as well as specific films' relevance to ongoing cultural conflicts both local and global. Likely course films include Hitchcock's Notorious and North By Northwest, Lang's Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Frankenheimer's Seconds, Melville's Le Cercle Rouge, Clouzot's Wages of Fear, Kurosawa's High and Low, and other thrillers from around the world, including Britain's The Ipcress File, the U.S. indie Suture, the Norwegian Insomnia, the French Read My Lips, Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs, and China's Blind Shaft. Enrollment Limit: 25.

392-01 (5782) Selected Directors: Almodovar, Hartley, von Trier, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 1:30-2:45 + M 7:00-10:00 pm, Mr. Pence

This course will explore cinematic authorship by focusing on directors who have defined a distinctive style despite emerging from vastly different cultural contexts. While their films reward examination in relation to these contexts and to the body of work of each director, their films also share a common domain, the contemporary international cinema of quality. In all these registers, we will examine the value and limitation of a concept of cinematic authorship.Identical to ENGL 392. Prerequisite: Two 200-level English courses, including at least one Gateway course or three 200-level English courses or CINE 101 and a Cinematic Traditions course or consent of the instructor. Enrollment limit: 25.

498-01 (4736) Senior Tutorial, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

MWF 1:30-2:20, Mr. Day

Students should consult with the Director of the Program about arranging a Senior Tutorial. Consent of instructor required.

499-01 (5783) Honors Project, 0-4 hours / 0-4HU, WR

To be arranged, Staff

Students interested in pursuing Honors should consult with the Director of the Program. Consent of instructor required.

995-01 & 995-02 & 995-03 (4737, 4738, 5776) Private Reading, .5-3 hours / .5-3H

To be arranged, Mr. Day, Ms. Hamilton, Mr. Pence
Consent of instructor required.

Cross-Referenced Courses

African American Studies
AAST-261-01 (register in "African American Studies, crn 4189 ) "Framing Blackness": African Americans and Film in the United States, 1915 to the Present, 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WRi
TuTh 11:00-12:15 + Th 7:00-10:00 pm, Ms. Jackson Smith

Through an interrogation of Hollywood's construction of Black images and the development of African American independent cinema, this class will examine the multifacted relationship of African American people to the powerful medium of film. Drawing its title from Ed Guerrero's book of the same name, "Framing Blackness" will draw on historical and critical readings as well as film viewing. The course will also track the rise of independent Black voice in film and the development of a distinctively Afrocentric aesthetic. Discussions and paper will be used for evaluation. Enrollment limit: 35.

Art
ARTS 059-01 (register in "Art," crn 4837) Visual Concepts and Processes: Digital Video, 3 hours/ 3HU
TuTh 9:00-12:00, Ms. Brown-Orso

This is an introductory "hands-on" technical course in digital video production and editing with a history and history component. This course is designed to provide an overview of the history and practice of the time-based media. The goal is to outline the various terrain of the art of the moving image, and to examine the vocabulary of constructing sequences, and editing, otherwise known as "sculpting in time." Enrollment limit: 15.

ARTS 067 (register in "Art," crn 5741) Problems in: Moving Image 3 hours/ 3HU
MW 1:30-4:30, Ms. Brown-Orso

This course will introduce various forms of advanced digital video production and editing techniques. Some of these techniques will include time-lapse imaging, performance, lighting and sound recording. We will closely examine various genres of storytelling within film history--documentary, essay, narrative, and experimental. Prerequiste: ARTS 059 Visual Concepts and Processes: Digital Video. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment limit: 12.

Chinese (East Asian Studies)
CHIN 109 (register in "Chinese," crn 5248) Topics in Chinese Film 3 hours/ 3HU
MWF 1:30-2:20 + F 7:00-10:00 pm, Ms. Deppman

This course will survey important films of the Chinese-speaking world. Attention will be paid to Western influence on Chinese film, and to the influence of political, social, and cultural developments of twentieth-century China. Enrollment limit: 50.

French
FREN 250 (register in "French," crn 5317) Survey of French Cinema: A History of Illusions, 3 hours/ 3HU, CD
MWF 3:30-4:20 + Tu 7:00-9:30 pm, Staff

This course will provide a historical survey of French cinema, starting with Melies and the Lumiere Brothers, and working through 1930s Poetic Realism, the New Wave, the 1990s, and the beginning of the digital age. Historical contextualization will be balanced with close film analysis and studies of cinematic technique and structure. We will also discuss cinema's relationship to the other arts (literature, photography, theatre, and painting). This course will be taught in English. Enrollment limit: 30.

Russian
RUSS 211 (register in "Russian," crn 5395) Russian Cinema 4 hours/ 4HU, CD, WR
TuTh 1:30-2:45 + W 7:00-9:00 pm, Ms. Forman

A survey of the major periods, genres, and themes of Russia's "most important art," including Soviet montage cinema of the 1920s (Kuleshov, Vertov, Eisenstein, Dovzhenko), Stalinist "easterns" and propaganda musicals of the 1930s and '40s (Vasiliev Brothers, Aleksandrov), the post-Stalinist cinematic revival of the 1950s and '60s (Kalatozov, Tarkovsky, Shepitko, Askoldov), and the post-Soviet search for new aesthetics, themes and heroes (Balabanov, Bodrov). Topics will include: the theory and aesthetics of Soviet and Russian filmmakers; the development of the Russian and Soviet film industry; issues of censorship, production and film distribution.Enrollment limit: 30.