Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences: Course Proposal Narrative
General Education Advisory Committee
Queens College, City University of New York
Course Title: FRENCH 250 French Cinema
Primary Contact Name and Email: David Andrew Jones (david.jones@qc.cuny.edu)
Date course was approved by department: August 27, 2008
Justification
Please describe how the course will address criteria for Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences courses.
Be sure to include an explanation of the course’s specific learning goals for students to make a connection between these
and the general criteria for Perspectives courses.
This course will satisfy the Appreciating and Participating in the Arts (AP) and European Traditions
(ET) requirements of the PLAS. This course will focus on the study of the contributions of French
filmmakers to the art form of cinema. Students will learn the history of cinema in France, and will
study the innovations introduced by French filmmakers. Students will learn how the study of French
Film relates to the larger discipline of French studies. In addition, they will learn to make more
informed aesthetic judgments, and will train their critical faculties in a way that will help them better
understand all forms of visual media--including plastic arts, television, advertising, and the internet.
This will help them in their approach to such media in their daily lives, as well as give them critical
thinking skills they can bring to bear on other disciplines at Queens College. French Cinema is part
of French culture, and we will analyse how the traditions of Western European thought manifest
themselves in twentieth-century French culture in general, and in French cinema in particular. The
course will thus satisfy the ET requirement for the PLAS. This course meets the aims of the
Appreciating and Participating in the Arts section of the PLAS by training students in the “skills of
observing and listening to…and appreciating and understanding the creative arts,” thereby helping
students to “develop awareness of the role of these arts in human life.”
Criteria Checklist
Please be sure that your justification addresses all three criteria 1-3, below. For criteria 4-8, please check all that apply
and discuss these in your justification.
A Perspectives course must:
1. Be designed to introduce students
to how a particular discipline creates
knowledge and understanding. YES
2. Position the discipline(s) within
the liberal arts and the larger society.
YES
3. Address the goals defined for the
particular Area(s) of Knowledge the
course is designed to fulfill. YES
May 2008
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where appropriate to its
discipline(s) and subject matter:
4. Be global or comparative in approach.
5. Consider diversity and the nature and construction of forms
of difference.
6. Engage students in active inquiry. YES
7. Reveal the existence and importance of change over time.
YES
8. Use primary documents and materials. YES
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Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
For a typical course
Assignments:

A reading journal in which, for every film, the student writes about the ways in which that
film has changed his/her perception of cinema.

A paper focusing on the aesthetic elements of a given film, and a second paper
focusing on differences in the genres of fiction and documentary film.
A third paper describing how this course has helped the student to sharpen his/her
critical faculties, and how it might have altered his/her approach other visual media.

Sample syllabus (see also attached):
Part 1: The Cinema in France
August 28, 30: Les Enfants du paradis. Introduction to the course.
September 4, 6: La Belle et la Bête. Before class: Read La Belle et la bête (photocopy).
September 11, 20: Les 400 coups. First paper due Sept. 20.
September 25, 27: A Bout de souffle.
October 2, 4: Cléo de 5 à 7. First paper returned Oct. 4.
October 9, 11: L’Année dernière à Marienbad. Rewrite of First Paper due Oct. 11.
October 16: Midterm Examination.
Part 2: France in the Cinema
A. WWII
October 18, 23, 25: Le Chagrin et la pitié.
October 30-November 1: Shoah
November 6, 8: Au Revoir les enfants
November 13, 15: Hiroshima, mon amour. Begin work on second paper.
B. Colonialism/Postcolonialism
November 20, 27: Bataille d’Algers. Second paper due Nov. 29.
November 29, December 4: Les Roseaux sauvages
December 6,11 La Haine. Third paper due December 11.
Description of How Films Relate to Course Goals.
Les Enfants du Paradis (1940) will serve as a bridge between an earlier period of French cinema (silent
films and early talkies) that will not be treated in the course, and the films to follow. The extensive use of
pantomime scenes, and the central role of all forms of theater will help us map out the origins of French
cinema. La Belle et la Bête will enable us to open the style/substance debate, and discuss the importance of
the visual aspect of cinema. The next four films on the program will allow us to investigate the fertile
period of French cinematic production known as the New Wave. These films have had a strong and lasting
influence on world cinema.
After the midterm, we will discuss the role of France in the Second World War. By viewing both
documentaries and fictions films representing the war, we will tease out the distinctions between the two
genres of film, and discuss notions of truth, fiction, representation and memory. Our final films will open
discussions of colonization and independence (Battle of Algiers), adolescence and identity during wartime
(Roseaux sauvages), and the legacy of decolonization on minority populations living in France (La Haine).
May 2008
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Assessment
Perspectives courses must be recertified every five years, and we are seeking ideas for how to best carry out this
assessment. What forms of evidence that the course is meeting its goals as a Perspectives course would be appropriate to
collect for this course during the next five years? How would you prefer assessment to be conducted? How might
evidence of effective teaching and student learning be collected and evaluated?
The primary tool for assessment of how the course met the PLAS criteria would be the reading
journal and the final paper. The final paper will show what the students have learned from the class,
how they have improved or changed the way they approach films and other visual media. Examples
of the journals or final papers could be kept to assist in evaluation of whether the course is meeting
its stated goals.
Administration
What process will your department develop to oversee this course, suggest and approve changes, and conduct assessment?
Who will be in charge of this process? Also indicate whether the course will be primarily taught by full-time or adjunct
faculty, or by a combination of the two types of instructor.
This course is offered once every two years by the Department of European Languages and
Literatures. The course is taught by a full-time faculty member, who is responsible for its content.
All PLAS courses offered by the Department of European Languages and Literatures are overseen by
a PLAS committee, which is responsible for review of the course to assure that it meets the goals of
the PLAS.
May 2008
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