Film Studies
Modules 2014/15
Course code: TBD
Course Title: Cinema, History, Politics
Lecturer: Dr Ruth Barton
Term: semester 1 Michaelmas Term
Contact Hours:
11 hours lectures
11 hours seminars
approx 58 hours self study and assignments
ECTS value: 5 ECTS
Rationale and Aims:
This course will introduce students to questions of form and narrative in the context of
depicting and debating issues of history and politics on screen. The course includes a
number of key films that have laid the foundation for future filmmakers working within
the rubric of the political and historical film. The course will cover a spread of periods
and topics including representations of World War II and the Holocaust; issues of
terrorism and of human rights.
Course content:
The course will include productions from a number of different eras and film cultures.
Starting with two key anti-war films, we will look at how filmmakers responded to the
threat of war; we will follow this with films that look back at the Holocaust, from the
mainstream Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993) to arthouse, Fateless (Lajos Koltai,
2005). The construction of a political cinema will be discussed through screenings such
as Battle of Algiers, (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966). This will be followed by a look at questions
of human rights in a number of specific case studies taken from mainstream and nonmainstream cinema.
Indicative Resources:
Film included on this course include La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937), The Great
Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940), Schindler’s List, The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf, 1998)
and Osama (Siddiq Barmak, 2003). Key texts will include: Judith E. Doneson (2002), The
Holocaust in American Film, Syracuse & New York, Syracuse University Press; Josef
Gugler (2011) Film in the Middle East and North Africa, Texas: University of Texas Press;
Marcia Landy (2000) (ed.), The Historical Film, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers
University Press; Robert A. Rosenstone (1995) (ed.), Revisioning History, Princeton N.J.:
Princeton University Press; Vivian Sobchack (ed.), The Persistence of History: Cinema,
Television and the Modern Event, London and New York: Routledge; Robert Toplin
(1996), History by Hollywood, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
This course will enable students to:



be conversant with the historical, political and social
backgrounds to these works (PO1)
employ textual analysis to discuss and illustrate these
issues (PO 2, PO3)
confidently evaluate the shifting nature of film
representation in the period covered (PO2, PO3, PO7)
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning:
This course will be taught through a combination of film screenings, lectures and
seminars. Students will be expected to prepare for seminar discussion by reading the
set texts and viewing the set film. Students may be required to make a class
presentation on some aspect of the course covered.
Methods of Assessment:
10% class participation
90% term essay
Evaluations:
This course will be evaluated by an end-of-term survey.
MODULE TITLE AND CODE:
Cult Cinema (FSS011)
LECTURER:
Dr. Paula Quigley
CONTACT HOURS:
22 lecture/seminar hours
22 screening hours
SEMESTER:
ECTS ALLOCATION:
1 (Michaelmas Term)
5
Rationale and aims
While ‘cult cinema’ is notoriously hard to define, this module will examine a number of
films that have earned ‘cult’ status for a variety of reasons. We will address questions of
authorship, genre, style, production practices, audiences and modes of distribution,
exhibition and reception. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which these
films have circulated in popular and academic discourses, and the various attempts to
identify cult qualities and qualifying practices.
Course Content
Definitions of cult cinema
Questions of production and distribution
Modes of exhibition and circulation
Generic contextualisation and reformulation
Questions of authorship
Issues of audience and spectatorship
Critical responses
Textual analyses
Resources
There is no set text for this course. Required viewing and reading is set each week.
Further viewing and reading is recommended as appropriate.
The following titles are useful accompaniments to the module as a whole.
Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton, Cult Cinema. Whiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik. (eds.) The Cult Film Reader. Open University Press,
2008.
Marc Jancovich (ed.) Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Popular Taste.
Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2003.
Graeme Harper (ed.) Unruly Pleasures: The Cult Film and Its Critics. FAB Press: 2000.
Joan Hawkins, Cutting Edge. Art Horror and the Horrific Avant-Garde. Minneapolis and
London: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
Ken Gelder. (ed.)The Horror Reader. London: Routledge, 2000
.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

Synthesise their knowledge of cult cinema within a wider economic, industrial,
aesthetic and socio-cultural context; (PO1)

Analyse current issues within the study of cult cinema within the broader
context of currents within film studies; (PO2)

Differentiate between the range of material that characterizes the category of
cult cinema; (PO3)

Apply the theoretical models and critical approaches under discussion to specific
films and film styles;(PO3, PO5, PO7)
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning
Teaching methods include film screenings, lectures and seminar discussions. Students
will be expected to attend all classes and screenings; read from primary as well as
secondary sources and comment upon these readings; participate in class discussion;
perform the required assessment(s). Students may be required to make a class
presentation on some aspect of the course covered.
Methods of assessment
90% coursework
10% participation
Module Evaluation
Course and Teaching Surveys will be circulated to students at the end of the module.
Feedback will be used to reflect on course development.
Course Code: FS7026
Course Title: Cinema and Ireland
Lecturers:
Professor Kevin Rockett & Professor Ruth Barton
Semester:
2 (Hilary term)
Contact Hours:
11 hours lectures
11 hours seminars
22 screening hours
ECTS value:
10 ECTS
Rationale and Aims
The objective of the module is to engage critically and historically with Irish cinema
through tracing the influence foreign cinemas had on Irish representations and to
examine the slow development of Irish cinema until the expansion of film production
from the 1980s onwards.
Course Content
This module will explore the history of Irish cinema. It will cover such areas as
representations of the past, state film production policies, film censorship, and the
history of Irish film distribution and exhibition. In addition, it will trace how British and
American cinemas have represented Ireland and the Irish, and it will examine
representations of political violence, history, gender and the cinema of the Celtic Tiger
years, while also focusing on Ireland’s two most prominent auteurs, Neil Jordan and Jim
Sheridan.
Indicative Resources: Films to be viewed and discussed include The Informer (John
Ford, 1935), Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947), The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952), In the
Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan, 1993), The Miracle (Neil Jordan, 1990), Nora (Pat
Murphy, 2000), and The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach, 2006).
Recommended readings include Kevin Rockett, Luke Gibbons and John Hill, Cinema and
Ireland, London, 1987, 1988; Martin McLoone, Irish Film, The Emergence of a
Contemporary Cinema, London, 2000; Emer Rockett and Kevin Rockett, Neil Jordan,
Exploring Boundaries, Dublin, 2003; Kevin Rockett, Irish Film Censorship, Dublin, 2004;
Ruth Barton, Jim Sheridan: Framing the Nation, Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2002; Ruth
Barton, Irish National Cinema, London and New York, 2004.
Learning Outcomes
This course will enable students to:
 synthesise their knowledge within economic, industrial,
aesthetic and socio-cultural contexts (PO1)
 be conversant with the historical, political and social
backgrounds to these works (PO1, PO3)
 evaluate the shifting nature of film representation in the
periods covered (PO4, PO5)
 apply the critical approaches under discussion to specific
films (PO3, PO6)
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning
This course will be taught through lectures and seminars. Students will be expected to
prepare for seminar discussion by reading the set texts.
Method of Assessment
One 3,500-4,000 word essay (90 per cent), class participation (10 per cent)
Evaluations:
This course will be evaluated by an end-of-term survey.
Course Code: FSS009
Course Title: French Cinema
LECTURER: Professor Kevin Rockett
CONTACT HOURS: 22 lecture/seminar hours
22 screening hours
SEMESTER: Hilary Term (semester 2)
ECTS value: 5
Rationale and Aims:
This is a Sophister option course. The objective is to explore the history of French
cinema from the silent era to the present. It will examine key periods, directors and
themes as a means of uncovering its rich variety of representations and relate these to
broader cultural and social issues.
Course Content
Areas to be covered include the silent era; Jean Vigo (Zero de Conduite, 1934); Jean
Renoir and popular front cinema (Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, 1936); Julien Duvivier
and the African exotic (Pepe le Moko, 1937); Marcel Carné and poetic realism (Le Jour se
Leve, 1939); French cinema during and World War Two; the policier (Bob le Flambeur,
1995); Alain Resnais and the problem of memory (Last Year at Marienbad, 1961);
cinema of the banlieue (La Haine, 1995).
Resources
Required viewing and reading will be set for each week. Further viewing and reading is
proposed as appropriate. The following books are recommended:
Dudley Andrew, Mists of Regret: Culture and Sensibility in Classic French Film, Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Jill Forbes and Michael Kelly, French Cultural Studies: An Introduction, Oxford University
Press, 1995.
Susan Hayward, French National Cinema, London: Routledge, 1993.
Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau, French Film: Texts and Contexts, eds., London:
Routledge, 2nd edition, 2000.
Learning outcomes
This course will enable students to:




synthesise their knowledge of French cinema within
economic, industrial, aesthetic and socio-cultural context
(PO1)
be conversant with the historical, political and social
backgrounds to these works (PO1, PO3)
evaluate the shifting nature of film representation in the
periods covered (PO4, PO5)
apply the critical approaches under discussion to specific
films and film styles (PO3, PO6)
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning
This course will be taught through a combination of film screenings, lectures and
seminars. Students will be expected to prepare for seminar discussion by reading the
set texts and viewing the set film. Students may be required to make a class
presentation on some aspect of the course covered.
Methods of Assessment:
One 3,500 to 4,000 word essay (90 per cent) and class participation (10 per cent).
Evaluations:
This course will be evaluated by an end-of-term survey.
Course Code:FSS014
Course Title: Cinema and Censorship
Lecturer:
Prof Kevin Rockett
Term:
Michaelmas
Contact Hours:
11 hours lectures
11 hours seminars
22 screening hours
ECTS Value: 5
Rationale and Aims:
This is a Sophister option course. The objective is to introduce the history of film
censorship from its beginnings in the American, British and Irish contexts, while issues
of censorship in non-western cinemas will also be explored. Students will engage with
social and cultural contexts which will inform discussion of the film texts that will be
analysed.
Course content:
This module will examine the nature of film censorship from the 1890s to the debates
surrounding internet pornography in the present. It will cover different periods and a
variety of national cinemas, and examine how the ‘real’ and ‘representation’ have been
engaged with, or confused, in film controversies. Films to be explored will range from
early cinema to the present day including films which were restricted because of their
sexual content; films which broke new ground with representations of violence;
controversies concerning political censorship; and representations of national
stereotypes. Overall, the course will explore the limits of what has been socially and
culturally acceptable in a broad range of national cinemas.
Indicative Resources:
Films to be screened and discussed include Traffic in Souls (1914), The Bitter Tea of
General Yen (1933), The Rains Came (1940), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960),
and A Clockwork Orange (1971).
Course textbooks will include Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality,
and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934, New York; Columbia UP, 1999; Lea
Jacobs, The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1991; James C. Robertson, The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship
in Action, 1913–1972, London / New York: Routledge, 1989; Kevin Rockett, Irish Film
Censorship: A Cultural Journey from Silent Cinema to Internet Pornography (2004).
On successful completion of this module students should be able to
Demonstrate a knowledge of the history of film censorship in a number of juristictions,
especially different treatments of sex and violence;(PO1, PO8, PO9, PO10)
Evaluate the policies that informed the practices of state censors and industry
regulators; (PO2, PO3)
Analyse key texts to uncover the forensic scrutiny of film censorship in practice; (PO4,
PO6)
Appreciate the social, political and cutural differences between western and nonwestern film censors; (PO5, PO6)
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning:
This course will be taught through a combination of film screenings, lectures and
seminars. Students will be expected to prepare for seminar discussion by reading the
set texts and viewing the set film.
Methods of Assessment:
One 3,500 to 4,000 word two-part essay (90 per cent) and class participation (10 per
cent).
Evaluations:
This course will be evaluated by an end-of-term survey.
Course Code:
Course Title:
Lecturer:
Term:
FSS007
National Cinemas (2) – Russian cinema
Dr Ruth Barton
semester 2 Hilary Term
Contact Hours:
11 hours lectures
11 hours seminars
approx 58 hours self study and assignments
ECTS value: 5 ECTS
Rationale and Aims:
This is a Sophister Option course. The objective is to introduce students to Soviet and
Russian filmmaking via a selection of key films and filmmakers. Students will be
encouraged to explore the ideological and political backgrounds to the films and to
familiarise themselves with aesthetic concerns in order to be able to evaluate the films
critically.
Course content: This course focuses on a selection of key Russian films and filmmakers
with a particular emphasis on the work of Andrei Tarkovsky and his legacy. The course
will open with an introduction to Soviet filmmaking and policies and then move on to
examine the cinema of Tarkovsky. We will then look at a number films made before and
after the fall of communism. These will include Little Vera (Vasili Pychul 1988), Nikita
Mikhalkov’s Burnt by the Sun (1994), The Return (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2006) and the
films of Alexander Sokurov. Attention will be paid to issues of freedom of expression,
social critique, government policies on filmmaking and the reception of Soviet and
Russian films outside of the country. We will also be considering the aesthetics and
production contexts of these films.
Indicative Resources:
Films to be screened and discussed include: Man With A Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov,
1929), Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky, 1966), Nostalgia (Tarkovsky, 1983), Little Vera (Vasili
Pychul 1988), Nikita Mikhalkov’s Burnt by the Sun (1994), The Return (Andrei
Zvyagintsev, 2006) and the films of Alexander Sokurov. Course textbooks will include:
David C Gillespie, Early Soviet Cinema (2000), Russian Cinema (2003); Andrew Horton &
Michael Brashinsky, The Zero Hour: Glasnost and Soviet Cinema in Transition; Birgit
Beumers (2007), The cinema of Russia and the former Soviet Union, (2007); Andrei
Tarkovsky Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema, (1989; revised ed.); George
Faraday, Revolt of the Filmmakers (2000).
Learning Outcomes:
This course will enable students to:
 be conversant with the historical, political and social
backgrounds to these works (PO1)
 employ textual analysis to discuss and illustrate these
issues (PO 2, PO3)
 confidently evaluate the shifting nature of film
representation in the period covered (PO2, PO3, PO7)
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning:
This course will be taught through a combination of film screenings, lectures and
seminars. Students will be expected to prepare for seminar discussion by reading the
set texts and viewing the set film. Students may be required to make a class
presentation on some aspect of the course covered.
Methods of Assessment:
10% class participation
90% term essay
Evaluations:
This course will be evaluated by an end-of-term survey.
Course Code:
TBD
Course Title:
Global Gothic
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Ruth Barton
Teaching Staff:
Dr Ruth Barton
Term:
semester 2 Hilary Term
Contact Hours:
22 hours screenings
22 hours lecture/seminar
approx 58 hours self study and assignments
ECTS value: 5 ECTS
Rationale and Aims:
This is a Sophister Option course. This course responds to recent theoretical shifts in
scholarship on the Gothic and film by examining how the genre of the Gothic infuses
multiple national cinemas and the work of transnational filmmakers.
Course content:
Taking a selection of films from Irish, Hollywood, Spanish and Asian filmmakers, we will
consider how useful it is to interpret these films as responding to representational
traditions of the Gothic. We will discuss the aesthetics of the Global Gothic, key
filmmakers, and production contexts. Works from the mid- and late-twentieth century
will be studied alongside more recent productions in order to provide historical points
of comparison.
Indicative Resources:
Sample films will include Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton 1955); Throne of Blood
(Akira Kurosawa 1957); The Orphanage/El Orfanato (J.A. Bayona 2007); Grabbers (Jon
Wright 2012). The course textbook will be: Glennis Byron (ed.) The Global Gothic
(Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press 2013). Other readings will be
supplied on the course handout and made available on Blackboard.
Learning Outcomes:
This course will enable students to:
 be conversant with the historical, political and social
backgrounds to these works (PO1, PO2, PO3).
 review critically the theoretical writings on the topic (PO6,
PO7)
 employ textual analysis to discuss and illustrate these
issues (PO8, PO9).
 formulate responses to issues concerning horror and the
Gothic on film (PO3).
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning:
This course will be taught by one two hour lecture/seminar and a screening. Students
will be expected to prepare for seminar discussion by reading the set texts and viewing
the set film. Students may be required to make a class presentation on some aspect of
the course covered.
Methods of Assessment:
10% class participation
90% term essay
Evaluations:
This course will be evaluated by an end-of-term survey.
MODULE TITLE AND CODE:
Melodrama (FSS003)
LECTURER:
Dr. Paula Quigley
CONTACT HOURS:
22 lecture/seminar hours
22 viewing hours
SEMESTER:
2 (Hilary term)
ECTS value:
5
Rationale and aims
This module will consider a wide range of variations on the ‘melodramatic mode’,
including examples from early cinema, classical Hollywood cinema and British cinema,
as well as current American and European cinema. We will explore key theoretical
debates and link these debates with critically informed close analysis of the films under
discussion.
Course Content
Defining melodrama
Genre and sub-genres
Generic contextualisation and reformulation
Film style and mise-en-scène
Questions of authorship
Issues of audience and spectatorship
Critical responses
Textual analyses
Resources
There is no set text for this course. Required viewing and reading is set each week.
Further viewing and reading is recommended as appropriate.
The following titles are useful accompaniments to the module as a whole.
Basinger, J. A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960. London,
Chatto & Windus, 1994.
Bratton, Jackie et al. (eds) Melodrama: Stage, Picture, Screen. London: BFI, 1994.
Brooks, P. The Melodramatic Imagination. New York: Columbia University Press. 1985.
Byars, J. All that Heaven allows: Re-reading gender in 1950s melodrama. University of
North Carolina Press, 1991.
Campbell, J. Film and cinema spectatorship: melodrama and mimesis. Polity Press, 2005.
Gledhill, C. Home is where the heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman’s film. BFI,
1987.
Lang, R. American Film Melodrama: Griffith, Vidor, Minnelli. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1989.
Laing, H. The Gendered Score: Music in 1940s Melodrama and the Woman’s Film. Ashgate
Publishing, 2007.
Doane, M.A. The Desire to Desire: The Woman’s Film of the 1940s. London: MacMillan,
1987.
Landy, M. (ed.) Imitations of Life: A Reader on Film and Television Melodrama. Detroit:
Wayne State University Press, 1991.
Mercer, J. and Shingler, M. Melodrama: Genre, Style and Sensibility. London, Wallflower
Press, 2004.
Singer, B. Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and its Contexts.
Columbia University Press, 2001.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
Synthesise their knowledge of melodrama within a wider economic, industrial, aesthetic
and socio-cultural context; (PO1)
Analyse current issues within the study of melodrama within the broader context of
currents within film studies; (PO2)
Differentiate between the range of material that characterizes the category of
melodrama; (PO3)
Apply the theoretical models and critical approaches under discussion to specific films
and film styles; (PO3, PO5, PO7)
Methods of Teaching and Student Learning
Teaching methods include film screenings, lectures and seminar discussions. Students
will be expected to attend all classes and screenings; read from primary as well as
secondary sources and comment upon these readings; participate in class discussion;
perform the required assessment(s). Students may be required to make a class
presentation on some aspect of the course covered.
Methods of assessment
Coursework: 90%
Participation: 10%
Module Evaluation
Course and Teaching Surveys will be circulated to students at the end of the module.
Feedback will be used to reflect on course development.
Week 1
Topic
The Melodramatic Mode
Viewing
Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
Reading
Christine Gledhill, ‘The Melodramatic Field: An Investigation’. Home is
where the heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman’s film: 5-39.
John Mercer and Martin Shingler, ‘Genre’. Melodrama: Genre, Style and
Sensibility: 4-13.
Steven Shaviro, ‘Black Swan.’ www.shaviro.com
Week 2
Topic
The Family Melodrama
Viewing
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958)
Reading
Thomas Elsaesser, ‘Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family
Melodrama.’ Mast and Cohen (eds) Film Theory and Criticism and Gledhill,
‘Home is where the heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman’s film.
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, ‘Minelli and Melodrama’. Gledhill, ‘Home is where
the heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman’s film: 70-74.
Laura Mulvey, Notes on Sirk and Melodrama.’ Gledhill, ‘Home is where the
heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman’s film: 75-79.
Week 3
Topic
Melodrama and the ‘Woman’s Film’
Viewing
Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, US, 1938)
Reading
Stanley Cavell, ‘Ugly Duckling, Funny Butterfly: Bette Davis and Now,
Voyager.’ Cavell, Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the
Unknown Woman. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Mary Ann Doane, ‘The “woman’s film”: possession and address.’ Gledhill,
‘Home is where the heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman’s film:
283-298.
Maria LaPlace ’Producing and Consuming the Woman’s Film: Discursive
Struggle in Now, Voyager. Gledhill, ‘Home is where the heart is: studies in
melodrama and the woman’s film: 138-166.
Week 4
Topic
Maternal Melodrama
Viewing
Stella Dallas (King Vidor, US, 1937)
Reading
Williams, Linda (1984), ‘Something Else besides a Mother: Stella Dallas
and the Maternal Melodrama.’ Cinema Journal 24.1 (1984): 2-27. Gledhill,
‘Home is where the heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman’s film:
299-325.
Ann Kaplan, ‘Ann Kaplan Replies to Linda Williams’s “Something Else
Besides a Mother: Stella Dallas and the Maternal Melodrama.’ Cinema
Journal 24.2 (1985): 40-43.
E. Ann Kaplan, ‘E. Ann Kaplan Replies.’ Cinema Journal 25.1 (1985): 52-54.
Christine Gledhill, ‘Stella Dallas and Feminist Film Theory’ Cinema Journal
25.4 (1986): 44-48.
Week 5
Topic
The Female Gothic
Viewing
Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944)
Supplementary: Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940)
Reading
Stanley Cavell, ‘Naughty Orators: Negation of Voice in Gaslight.’ Cavell,
Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman.
University of Chicago Press, 1996.
John Fletcher, ‘Primal Scenes and the Female Gothic: Rebecca and Gaslight.
Screen Vol. 36, 1995.
Mary Ann Doane. ‘Caught and Rebecca: The Inscription of Femininity as
Absence.’ The Desire to Desire: The Women's Films of the 1940s.
Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1987: 155-183.
Week 6
Topic
The Male Melodrama
Viewing
East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955)
Reading
David Rodowick, ‘Madness, Authority and Ideology: The Domestic
Melodrama of the 1950s.’ Gledhill, ‘Home is where the heart is: studies in
melodrama and the woman’s film: 268-280.
Barbara Klinger, ‘Star Gossip: Rock Hudson and the Burdens of
Masculinity.’ Melodrama and Meaning: 97-131.
Steve Cohan, ‘Why Boys Are Not Men.’ Masked Men: Masculinity and the
Movies in the Fifties: 201-263.
Week 7
Reading Week
Week 8
Topic
British Melodrama: the Gainsborough Studios
(Dr. Barnaby Taylor)
Viewing
The Wicked Lady (Leslie Arliss, 1945)
Reading
Sue Aspinall, ‘Women, Realism and Reality in British Films, 1943-53.’
British Cinema History (eds.) James Curran and Vincent Porter. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983.
Bruce Babington, ‘Queen of British Hearts: Margaret Lockwood revisited.’
British Stars and Stardom: from Alma Taylor
to Sean Connery. (ed.) Bruce Babington. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2001.
Sue Harper, ‘Historical Pleasures: Gainsborough Costume Melodrama’.
Gledhill, ‘Home is where the heart is: studies in melodrama and the
woman’s film: 167-196.
Week 9
Topic
British Melodrama: Powell and Pressburger
Viewing
Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947)
Reading
Michael Walker, ‘Black Narcissus.’ Framework 9 (Winter 1978-9): 9-13.
Marcia Landy, British Genres: Cinemas and Society, 1930-1960. Princeton:
Princeton UP, 1991.
Priya Jaikumar, ‘”Place” and the Modernist Redemption of Empire in Black
Narcissus. Cinema Journal 40.2 (Winter 2001): 57-77.
Sarah Street, ‘Analysis.’ Black Narcissus. BFI, 2005: 30-61.
Week 10
Topic
The ‘Woman’s Film’ Revisited
Viewing
Beaches (Garry Marshall, 1988)
Reading
Linda Williams, ‘Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess.’ Film Quarterly
44.4 (Summer 1991): 2-13.
Steve Neale, ‘Melodrama and Tears.’ Screen 27 (1986): 6-22.
Week 11
Topic
The ‘Woman’s Film’ Revised
Viewing
Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)
Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)
Reading
Marta Figlerowicz, ‘Comedy of Abandon: Lars von Trier’s Melancholia.’
Film Quarterly 65.4 (2012): 21-26.
Steven Shaviro, ‘Melancholia or, the Romantic Anti-Sublime.’ Sequence 1.1
2012.
Siri Erika Gullestad, ‘Crippled Feet: Sadism in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist.’
The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review 34.2 (2011): 79-84.
Caroline Bainbridge, ‘Making Waves: Trauma and Ethics in the Work of
Lars von Trier.’ Journal for Cultural Research 8.3 (2004): 353-369.
Week 12
Topic
Masochism and the Melodrama
Viewing
The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)
Reading
Catherine Wheatley, ‘The masochistic fantasy made flesh: Michael
Haneke’s La Pianiste as melodrama.’ Studies in French Cinema 6.2 (2006):
117-127.
Wood, R. (2002), ‘Do I Disgust You? Or, Tirez pas sur La Pianiste’,
Filmhäftet, 121(3).
http://www.filmint.nu/pdf/english/121/doidisgustyou.pdf
Champagne, J. (2002), ‘Undoing Oedipus: Feminism and Michael Haneke’s
The Piano Teacher’, www.brightlightsfilm.com/36/pianoteacher1.html
E. Ann Kaplan, ‘Mothering, Feminism and Representation: the Maternal in Melodrama
and the Woman’s Film from 1910 to 1940‘ in Christine Gledhill (ed), Home is Where the
Heart is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film, 1987.
Week 3
Topic
Time, Space and Gender: Film Noir and ‘the figural’
Screening
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1941)
Supplementary: Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
Reading
Thomas Docherty, ‘Discourse and Figure: The Resistance of/to Cinema’.
Alterities. Claerdon Press, 1996.
Claire Johnston, 'Double Indemnity', in E. Ann Kaplan (ed.), Women in Film Noir. 2nd
edition. Palgrave MacMillan, 1998.
J. A. Place, 'Women in film noir', in Kaplan (ed.), Women in Film Noir.
Frank Krutnik, In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. London and New York:
Routledge, 1991.
Pam Cook (ed), Women in Film Noir. BFI, 1980.
Joan Copjec (ed) Shades of Noir: A Reader. London: Verso, 1993.
Ann E. Kaplan (ed.), Women in Film Noir. London: British Film Institute, 1978.
Jon Tuska, Dark Cinema: American Film Noir in a Cultural Perspective. Greenwood
Press, 1984.
Christopher Orr, ‘Cain, Naturalism and Noir.’ Film Criticism Vol. 25, 2000.
Christopher Orr, ‘Genre Theory in the Context of the Noir and Post-Noir Film.’ Film
Criticism Vol. 22, 1997.
Robert Murphy, Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-49
(London, Routledge, 1989)
Sue Aspinall, ŒWomen, Realism and Reality in British Films, 1943-53¹ in
British Cinema History (eds.) James Curran and Vincent Porter (London,
Weidenfeld
and Nicolson, 1983)
Bruce Babington, ŒQueen of British Hearts¹: Margaret Lockwood revisited¹,
British Stars and Stardom: from Alma Taylor
to Sean Connery (ed.) Bruce Babington (Manchester, Manchester University
Press, 2001)
Maternal melodrama
Lucy Fisher. "Introduction: Motherhood and Film: A Critical Genealogy" and "The
Horror Film: Birth Traumas: Partition and Horror in Rosemary's Baby." Cinematernity.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996: 3-36 & 73-91.
Topic Performance and genre: Lars von Trier and the ‘woman’s film’
Screening
Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)
Supplementary: Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
Reading
Bainbridge, Caroline (2007), The Cinema of Lars von Trier: Authenticity
and Artifice. London: Wallflower Press.
Bjorkman, Stig and Lizzie Franke (1996), ‘Naked Miracles: Breaking the Waves’, Sight
and Sound 6:10, pp. 36-37.
Gordon, Suzy (2004), ‘Breaking the Waves and the negativity of Melanie Klein:
rethinking ‘the female spectator’, Screen 45:3, pp. 206-225.
Nobus, Dany (2007), ‘The Politics of Gift-Giving and the Provocation of Lars Von Trier’s
Dogville’, Film-Philosophy 11:3, pp. 23-37.
Williams, Linda (1984), ‘Something Else besides a Mother: Stella Dallas and the
Maternal Melodrama.’ Cinema Journal 24:1, pp: 2-27.
Best Years of our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1947)
Only Yesterday (John Stahl, 1933) – maternal
The Wicked Lady
Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947)
Thomas Elsaesser, ‘Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama.’
Mast and Cohen (eds) Film Theory and Criticism.
Week 2
Topic Maternal melodrama
Screening
Stella Dallas (King Vidor, US, 1937)
Reading
Stanley Cavell, ‘Stella’s Taste: Reading Stella Dallas.’ Cavell,
Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman. University of
Chicago Press, 1996.
E. Ann Kaplan, ‘Mothering, Feminism and Representation: the Maternal in
Melodrama and the Woman’s Film from 1910 to 1940. ‘ Christine Gledhill, Home is
Where the Heart is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film. 1987.
Linda Williams, ‘Something Else Besides a Mother: Stella Dallas and the Maternal
Melodrama’. Christine Gledhill, Home is Where the Heart is: Studies in Melodrama and
the Woman’s Film. 1987.
Angela Curran, ‘Stella at the Movies: Class, Critical Spectatorship and Melodrama in
Stella Dallas’ in Thomas E. Wartenberg and Angela Curran (Eds) The Philosophy of Film.
Blackwell, 2005: 35-247.