Department of Film and Television Studies
Options in Film Studies 2015/16
Discovering Cinema Part II - Changing Contexts:
Art Cinemas; Film and Politics; Contemporary Authorship
Week One: The French New Wave and the Left Bank Group
Screening:
 Toute la mémoire du monde (dir. Alain Resnais, Films de la Pleiade, France,
1956).
 Hiroshima mon amour (dir. Alain Resnais, Argos Films, France/Japan, 1959).
Required Reading:
- Naomi Greene, The French New Wave: A New Look (London: Wallflower,
2007), p. 1-14.
- Robert Farmer, ‘Marker, Resnais, Varda: Remembering the Left Bank Group’,
Senses
of
Cinema
52
(2009),
available
at:
<http://sensesofcinema.com/2009/feature-articles/marker-resnais-vardaremembering-the-left-bank-group/>.
Additional Reading:
- Peter Graham and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), The French New Wave: Critical
Landmarks (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
- Emma Wilson, Alain Resnais (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2006).
- James Monaco, Alain Resnais (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).
- Lynn A. Higgins, New Novel, New Wave, New Politics: Fiction and the
Representation of History in Postwar France (Lincoln and London: University
of Nebraska Press, 1998).
Further viewing: Nuit et brouillard (dir. Alain Resnais, Argos Films, France, 1955),
Les Quatre Cents Coups (dir. François Truffaut, Les films du Carrosse, France, 1959),
À bout de souffle (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, SNC, France, 1960), L'Année dernière à
Marienbad (dir. Alain Resnais, Cocinor, France/Italy, 1961), Cléo de 5 à 7 (dir.
Agnès Varda, Ciné Tamaris, France/Italy, 1962).
Week Two:
Italian Art Cinema – Modernity, Alienation and the Value of Ambiguity
Screening: L’eclisse (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, Cineriz, Italy, 1962).
Required Reading:
- David Bordwell, ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice’, Film
Criticism 4:1 (1979), pp. 56–64. Reprinted in Catherine Fowler, ed., The
European Cinema Reader (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 94–102 and
available
at:
<http://academic.uprm.edu/mleonard/theorydocs/readings/Bordwell.pdf>.
- Gilberto Perez, The Material Ghost: Films and Their Medium (Baltimore,
Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press, 2000), pp. 367-416.
Additional Reading:
- Peter Brunette, The Films of Michelangelo Antonioni (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998).
- Laura Rascaroli and John David Rhodes (eds.), Antonioni: Centenary Essays
(London: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
- David Thomson, The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies and What They Did to
Us (London: Allen Lane, 2012), pp. 241-345.
Further viewing:
L’eclisse concludes a thematic trilogy that begins with L’avventura (dir. Michelangelo
Antonioni, Cino Del Luca, Italy, 1960) and continues with La Notte (dir.
Michelangelo Antonioni, Nepi Film, Italy/France, 1961). I would recommend
watching both prior to L’eclisse.
Week Three:
The New Hollywood –Unmotivated Heroes and the Influence of Europe
Screening: Five Easy Pieces (dir. Bob Rafelson, Raybert Productions, U.S.A., 1970).
Required Reading:
- Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction (London: I.B. Tauris,
2005), pp. 11-48.
- Thomas Elsaesser, ‘The Pathos of Failure: Notes on the Unmotivated Hero’, in
Elsaesser, The Persistence of Hollywood (New York & London: Routledge,
2012), pp. 225-236.
Additional Reading:
- Peter Krämer, The New Hollywood: from Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars
(London: Wallflower, 2005).
- Derek Kystrom, ‘Hard Hats and Movie Brats: Auteurism and the Class
Politics of the New Hollywood’, Cinema Journal, 43:3 (2004), pp. 18-41.
- Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex ‘n’ Drugs ‘n’ Rock ‘n’
Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (London: Bloomsbury, 1998), pp. 52-150.
- David Thomson, The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies and What They Did
to Us (London: Allen Lane, 2012), pp. 347-420.
Further Viewing:
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, Warner Bros., U.S.A., 1967), The Graduate (dir.
Mike Nichols, StudioCanal, U.S.A., 1967), Easy Rider (dir. Dennis Hopper, Pando
Company Inc., U.S.A., 1969), The Last Picture Show (dir. Peter Bogdanovich,
Columbia, U.S.A., 1971).
Week Four:
Film and Politics 1 – Masculine Communities,
the Male Gaze and Queer Readings
Screening: Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, Warner Bros., U.S.A., 1959)
Required Reading:
- Laura Mulvey, Visual and Other Pleasures [2nd ed.] (Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2008), pp. 14-27.
- Robin Wood, Rio Bravo (London: BFI, 2003), pp. 6-24 and 71-76.
Additional Reading:
- Pam Cook and Philip Dodd (eds.), Women and Film: A ‘Sight and Sound’
Reader (London: Scarlett Press, 1993).
- Alexander Doty, Making Things Perfectly Queer: Interpreting Mass Culture,
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993), pp. 1-15.
- Dolores Burdick, ‘Danger of Death: The Hawksian Women as Agent of
Destruction’, Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities 1:1 (1981), pp.
36-40.
- Alexander Doty, ‘Queer Theory’, and Anneke Smelik ‘Gay and Lesbian
Criticism’ in Hill and Church Gibson (eds.) Oxford Guide to Film Studies
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) pp.135-153.
Further viewing:
Some Like it Hot (dir. Billy Wilder, Mirisch Company, U.S.A., 1959), Out of the Past
(dir. Jacques Tourneur, RJO, U.S.A., 1947), To Have and Have Not (dir. Howard
Hawks, U.S.A., 1944), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (dir. Howard Hawks, 20th Century
Fox, U.S.A., 1953).
Week Five:
Film and Politics 2 – New Argentine Cinema and Critical Aesthetics
Screening: The Headless Woman (dir. Lucrecia Martel, El Deseo, Argentina, 2008).
Required Reading:
- Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment
as Mass Deception’ in Dialectic of Enlightenment (London: Verso, 1997) pp.
120-167.
- Maria M. Delgado, ‘La mujer sin cabeza/The Headless Woman: Silence,
historical memory and metaphor’, in Spanish Cinema: Auteurism, Politics,
Landscape and Memory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), pp.
196-211.
Additional Reading:
- Jennifer Slobodian, ‘Analyzing the Woman Auteur: The Female/Feminist Gazes
of Isabel Coixet and Lucrecia Martel’, The Comparatist 36:1 (2012), pp. 160177.
- Cecilia Sosa, ‘A Counter-narrative of Argentine Mourning: The Headless Woman
(2008), directed by Lucrecia Martel’, Theory, Culture and Society 26:7-8 (2009),
pp. 250-262.
- Jens Andermann, New Argentine Cinema (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012).
Further viewing:
La Ciénaga (dir. Lucrecia Martel, 4K Films, Argentinia/Spain/France, 2001), Las
Acacias (dir. Pablo Girogelli, Airecine, Argentina, 2011), The Secrets in their Eyes
(dir. Juan José Campanella, Tornasol Films, Argentina, 2009).
Week Six: Reading Week
There will be no lecture, screenings or seminars this week. Please take this as an
opportunity to catch up on additional reading and further viewing
Week Seven:
Film and Politics 3 – Documentary Cinema
Screening: Cartel Land (dir. Matthew Heineman, The Documentary Group, U.S.A.,
2015).
Required Reading:
- Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary (2nd ed.) (Indiana: Indiana University
Press, 2010) pp. 1-41.
- Michael Atkinson, ‘Line in the Sand’, Sight & Sound 25:11 (2015), p. 40-43.
Additional Reading:
- Stella Bruzzi, New Documentary (2nd ed.) (New York and London: Routledge,
2006).
- Brian Winston (ed.), The Documentary Film Book (Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2013).
- Betsy A. McClane, A New History of Documentary Film (2nd ed.) (New York &
London: Bloomsbury, 2012).
Further viewing:
Salesman (dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, Maysles Films,
U.S.A., 1968), The Act of Killing (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine
Cynn, Final Cut for Real, Denmark/Norway/U.K., 1012), Reportero (dir. Bernardo
Ruiz, Quiet Pictures, U.S.A./Mexico, 2012), Narco Cultura (dir. Saul Schwarz, Ocean
Size Pictures, U.S.A./Mexico, 2013), Sicario (dir. Dennis Villeneuve, Thunder Road
Pictures, U.S.A., 2015).
Week Eight:
Nicole Holofcener Case Study Part I
Screening: Friends with Money (dir. Nicole Holofcener, This is that, U.S.A., 2006).
Required Reading:
- Michele Schreiber, ‘Independence at What Cost? Economics and Desire in
Nicole Holofcener’s Friends with Money (2006)’, in Feminism at the Movies:
Understanding Gender in Contemporary Popular Cinema (Oxon; New York:
Routledge, 2011), pp. 177-188.
- V.F. Perkins, Film as Film: Understanding and Judging Movies (New York:
Da Capo Press, 1993), pp. 158-186.
Additional Reading:
- Sean Brayton, ‘“Mexican” Labour in the Hollywood Imaginary’, International
Journal of Cultural Studies 11:4 (2008), pp. 459-476.
- John Caughie (ed.), Theories of Authorship: A Reader (London: Routledge,
1981).
- Barry Keith Grant (ed.) Auteurs and Authorship: A Film Reader (Oxford;
Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008).
- Virginia Wright Wexman (ed.), Film and Authorship (New Brunswick, N.J.:
Rutgers University Press, 2003).
Further viewing:
Walking and Talking (dir. Nicole Holofcener, Channel Four Films,
U.K./.U.S.A./Germany, 1996), Lovely and Amazing (dir. Nicole Holofcener, Blow Up
Pictures, U.S.A., 2001), Every Secret Thing (dir. Amy Berg, Likely Story, U.S.A.,
2014).
Week Nine:
Nicole Holofcener Case Study Part II
Screening: Please Give (dir. Nicole Holofcener, Feelin’ Guilty, U.S.A., 2010).
Required Reading:
- Claire Perkins, ‘Beyond Indiewood: The Everyday Ethics of Nicole
Holofcener’, Camera Obscura: A Journal of Feminism, Culture, and Media
Studies 29:85 (2014), pp. 137-159.
- Michele Schrieber, ‘Their own personal velocity: women directors and
contemporary independent cinema’, in American Independent Cinema: Indie,
Indiewood and Beyond, ed. by Geoff King, Claire Molloy and Yannis
Tzioumakis (Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2013), pp. 96-107.
Additional Reading:
- Geoff King, Indie 2.0: Change and Continuity in the Contemporary American
Indie Film (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014).
- Peter Biskind, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of
Independent Film (London: Bloomsbury, 2005).
- C. Paul Sellors, Film Authorship: Auteurs and Other Myths (London; New
York : Wallflower Press, 2010).
Further viewing:
Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (dir. Rebecca Miller, IFC Productions, U.S.A.,
2002), The Ballad of Jack and Rose (dir. Rebecca Miller, Elevation Filmworks,
U.S.A/, 2005), The Notorious Bettie Page (dir. Mary Harron, Killer Films, U.S.A.
2005).
Week Ten:
Nicole Holofcener Case Study Part III
Screening: Enough Said (dir. Nicole Holofcener, Fox Searchlight, U.S.A., 2013).
Required Reading:
- Rachel Lister, ‘The Feature Film as Short Story: The “Little Disturbances” of
Nicole Holofcener’, Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies
24
(2012),
available
at:
<http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/scope/documents/2012/october2012/lister.pdf>.
- Christina Lane, ‘Just another girl outside the neo-indie’, in Contemporary
American Independent Film: From the Margins to the Mainstream, ed. by
Chris Holmlund and Justin Wyatt (London; New York : Routledge, 2005), pp.
193-209.
Additional Reading:
- Alice Gregory, ‘Nicole Holofcener Nails It’, The New Yorker (20 September
2013), available at: <http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/nicoleholofcener-nails-it>.
- A.O. Scott, ‘The Woman Who Knew Too Much’, The New York Times (17
September
2013),
available
at:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/movies/enough-said-stars-jamesgandolfini-and-julia-louis-dreyfus.html?_r=0>.
- Jennifer Vineyard, ‘How to Make a Movie: Nicole Holofcener on the
Difference Between Directing Movies and TV’, Vulture (9 October 2013),
available at <http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/nicole-holofcener-on-directingtv-vs-movies.html>.
Further viewing:
Holofcener has also directed episodes of Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, Bored to
Death, Parks and Recreation, Enlightened, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Inside
Amy Shumer and Orange is the New Black. The IMDb carries a complete list of which
episodes she has directed at <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0392237/>.