Spring 2014
DMS 108 Film History 2
Tuesday/Thursday, 11:00-12:50
CFA, Room 112
Instructor: Laura McGough, CFA 248 lmcgough@buffalo.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:00 and by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This class will focus on post-World War II cinema, beginning with classic
Hollywood film and moving rapidly through a range of movements that draw from and, in some cases, radically dismantle that style paying attention to the influence of Italian Neorealism on the various film genres that succeed it: French
New Wave Film, Chinese 6 th generation film, New American Cinema, and Third
Cinema. The postwar films that we’ll view in class tell the stories of various marginalized groups – thieves, gangsters, peasants, gang members, the unemployed, immigrants, youths, the elderly
– individuals who are often left out of the mainstream of society. Cultural theorist Ken Gelder has asserted that marginalized groups are “imaginative representations” brought into being through narrative, that is, through the stories that are told about them. We’ll keep Gelder’s notion in mind as we move through the semester. While we might not be able to answer why marginalized characters are so prevalent in post-war film, we certainly can consider how their stories are told both narratively (thematic concerns, narrative structure) and filmically (stylistic concerns, auteur theory).
We’ll also consider how the construction of gender and references to popular culture (music, fashion, movies) also contribute to the understanding of both the fringes of society and mainstream culture.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Learning Outcome
1. Students will acquire a fundamental knowledge of post-World War 2 film history including major artists, movements and technological innovations in their historical contexts.
2. Students will develop the ability to critically analyze films from a variety of genres.
Assessment
Readings, screenings and inclass discussions.
Blog posts, readings, screenings, and in-class discussions
3. Students will gain an understanding of the development of narrative structure and cinematic technique ( mise en scene, cinematography) in early cinema.
4. Students will gain an understanding of theoretical concepts related to film analysis
(auteur theory, subcultural theory, gender theory)
Blog posts, readings, screenings, and in-class discussions
Readings, and class discussions.
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COURSE EVALUATION
This class is a history and analysis oriented course. You are expected to complete all of the readings assigned each week and to attend lectures and screenings consistently. Since all films will be screened in class, it is imperative that you attend every class and take notes on the films as well as the lectures.
Attendance is mandatory (see below). Writing assignments will be based on both lectures and readings which may not exactly repeat each other. Your final grade will be calculated based on a combination of writing assignments, class participation and attendance.
CLASS ATTENDANCE (see below for more information)
Class attendance and participation will count as 20% of your total grade, therefore, attendance is essential. Students are allowed two excused accompanied by proper documentation .
Students are also expected to remain seated during the duration of the class and not leave the room during film screenings. Long, unexcused absences from the classroom will be result in the student being marked absent for the day.
LAPTOPS AND CELLPHONES
The use of laptops and cellphones in class is strictly prohibited . Students using laptops or cellphones may be asked to leave class and be marked absent for the day. Regardless, the use of cellphones and laptops in class will directly affect your participation grade.
CLASS ASSIGNMENTS a. READINGS
All reading material will be available for download from the class blog at: http://dms108filmhistory2.wordpress.com . This will include occasional links
Websites or online videos as well as academic articles and texts. b. Response Posts
Throughout the semester, students will communicate ideas through brief response papers posted to the class blog. Response posts will be submitted on the date they are due; late assignments are subject to significant point reductions. If you have trouble posting to the blog you should email your text to me at lmcgough@buffalo.edu
. Not knowing how to post will not be an excuse for a late submission.
You will write eight blog posts (150-250 words) that will respond to a series of questions that I pose about the assigned film and readings. The posts should represent your own interpretation of the film and the reading materials, but be supported by quotes and citations from the readings and references to the film.
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I’m interested in your critical reading of both the film and the ideas proposed in the readings. The posts should be well-written, proofed and you should use citations (page numbers, name of author or article) when you quote or refer to the readings.
One thing I like about blog posts - you can embed or provide links to videos, articles, images, etc. Feel free to utilize the capacities of the Web in your posts; if there is a scene from the film on the Web that you want to reference, feel free to embed the video into your post, if the film we are reviewing reminds you of another, then feel free to post a link, etc. Just please refrain from directly uploading video or audio files to the blog
– we have limited memory and will need to use what space we do have for reading assignments, etc.
Information on how to post to WordPress can be found on the class blog. There are also instructional videos that you can access on the Web to help you with the posting process (it’s really easy!).
CLASS PARTICIPATION
Two methods will be used to generate dialogue and measure class participation. a. In-class Participation
Students are expected to participate in post-screening discussions. Occasionally, we will also break into small discussion groups to consider specific aspects of a film. b. Blog Comments
During the weeks that blog posts are scheduled, you should respond to three or more of your classmates ’ posts, using the comment section. These comments shouldn’t rise to the level of invoking a flame war, but should be the sort of natural responses that you would make in class in reply to a fellow student. Is a classmate making a point you hadn’t thought of? Is there something that you remember from the film or readings that builds-upon or offers a different interpretation to this idea that you could refer them to? Whether you agree or disagree with their interpretation, tell us why. Point to specific examples within the film or readings and offer another interpretation.
Blog Post Schedule:
Post 1: Best Years of Our Lives , due Monday, February 10
Post 2: Bicycle Thief , due Tuesday, February 18
Post 3: Breathless , due Monday March 10
Post 4: Mon Oncle , due Monday March 31
Post 5: Black Girl , due Monday April 7
Post 6: Platform , due Monday, April 21
Post 7: City of God , due Monday, April 28
Post 8: Neo-NeoRealism, due Friday, May 9
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GRADING
Your grade will be determined by a combination of two elements:
8 blog posts
– 80% (10 points each)
Class Attendance & Participation – 20%
COURSE SCHEDULE
Note: This syllabus is subject to change.
The weekly reading assignments will vary. Some, as in the case of Best Years of
Our Lives or Breathless , will involve more background reading into film theory while others, including Platform and City of God , will focus more on your interpretation of the film.
January 28: Introduction
Class Blog Sign-up
January 30: Marginal Characters
Film: Edgar G. Ulmer , Detour [1945]
Readings: Gelder, Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice ; Ebert,
“Detour”; Loren, Dead Fathers and Other Detours: Ulmer’s Noir pp. 61-62 & 68-
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February 4: Classical Hollywood Cinema
 Film: William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives [1946]
 Readings: Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System , Chapter 3, pp. 67-77;
Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art An Introduction , Chapter 4, pp. 132-133 and 142-149; Bazin, “William Wyler or the Jansenist of Directing,” pp. 1-22
February 6: Classical Hollywood Cinema
(con’t)

Film: The Best Years of Our Lives
(con’t)

Readings: Best Years One Sheet ; Gerber, “Heroes and Misfits: The
Troubled Social Reintegration of Disabled Veterans in “The Best Years of
Our Lives,”
pp. 545-574
February 11: Italian Neo-Realism
 Film: Vittorio DeSica, The Bicycle Thief [1948]

Readings: Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art an Introduction , pp. 459-461;
Ruberto & Wilson, Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema , pp. 5-10 & pp.
25-39
February 13: Italian Neo-Realism
(con’t)

Film: The Bicycle Thief (con’t)

Film: Cortile Cascino II: Children of Fate [ 1962/1993] (excerpts)

Readings: Bazin, “Neorealism and Pure Cinema” (entire essay);
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Gordon, Bicycle Thieves , pp. 31-26 and 82-98

Optional:
View “Critics’ Picks ‘The Bicycle Thief’” by A. O. Scott
February 18: Unreliable Narrators: Rashomon

Film: Akira Kurosawa, Rashomon [1950]

Readings:
Redfern, “Film style and narration in Rashomon” pp. 1-3;
Bordwell and Thompson, “Narrative as a Formal System,” Chapter Three from Film Art An Introduction , pp. 71-96 (excluding pages 83-85)
February 20: Unreliable Narrators: Rashomon
(con’t)

Film: Rashomon (con’t)

Film: Seven Samurai (excerpts)

Readings: McDonald, Keiko I. "The Dialectic of Light and Darkness in
Kurosawa's Rashomon
” pp. 183-192
February 25: Realism and Surrealism: Luis Buñuel

Film: Luis
Buñuel,
Los Olividados [1950]

Film: Luis
Buñuel/Salvador Dali,
Un Chien Andalou [1929]

Readings: Bazin, “Cruelty and Love in Los Olividados” pp.1-4; Shrader,
“ Los Olvidados ”
February 27: Realism and Surrealism
(con’t)

Film: Los Olividados
(con’t)
March 4: French New Wave

Film: Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless [1960]
 Readings: Bordwell and Thompson, Breathless and “Continuity Editing” in
Film Art: An Introduction pp. 231-234, 252-274 & 397401; Raskin, “Five explanations for the jump cuts in Godard’s
Breathless ,
“ pp. 141-153;
Quick On-Line Tutorial: Camera Terminology; Framing & Basic Camera
Shot Types; Camera Movement
March 6: French New Wave: (con’t)

Film: Breathless (con’t)

Readings : Breathless PRESS Book, pp. 17-
21; Sarris, “Notes on Auteur
Theory in 1962” pp. 561-564

Web Articles on Style in Breathless:
“Cinemode: Stripes, Hats and Poor
Boys: The Cool Style of Breathless ”; O’Heir, “ Breathless : Rebel postcard from the past”; Young,
Breathless ;
“Pop Culture 101:
Breathless (1961)
”
March 11: New American Cinema
 Film: John Cassevettes, Shadows (1959)

Readings:
Cassevettes, “The Making of
Shadows
”; Lipman, “Mingus,
Cassavetes, and the Birth of a Jazz Cinema ’ pp.145-164
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March 13: New American Cinema
(con’t)
 Film: Robert Frank, Pull My Daisy [1959]
 Film : Shirley Clarke, The Cool World [1964] - excerpts
 Readings:
Kouvaros, “‘Time and how to note it down’: the lessons of Pull My Daisy” pp. 1-17; Massood, “The Cool World” pp. 434-
436

Optional Reading: Allan, “T he Making (and Unmaking) of "Pull My Daisy" pp. 185-205
March 25: Comedy & Modernism: Jacques Tati

Film: Jacques Tati, Mon Oncle [1958]

Readings: Fawell, “Sound and silence, image and invisibility in Jacques
Tati's Mon Oncle” pp.221-229; Déry “An Analysis of Filmic Satire: the
Modern and Vernacular in Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle ”
March 27: Comedy & Modernism
(con’t)

Film: Mon Oncle
(con’t)

Film: Playtime [1967] - excerpts

Reading:
Ebert “
Playtime
Review”
April 1: Third Cinema in Africa: Black Girl

Film: Ousmane Sembene, Black Girl/La Noire de..., [1966]

Readings:
Rosenblum, “Tribal Scars (Sembene’s
Black Girl
)” pp. 284-
288; Langford, “Black and White in Black and White: Identity and
Cinematography in Sembene’s Black Girl (1966) pp.13-21 ; Landy, “Politics and Style in Black Girl
”
April 3: Third Cinema in Africa: Touki-Bouki

Film: Djibril Diop Mambéty, Touki-Bouki [1973]

Readings: Porton, “ Touki bouki: Mambéty and Modernity”; Williams,
‘‘Entering and leaving modernity’ - Utopia and dystopia in Mambety’s
Touki Bouki and Hyènes ” pp. 124-134
April 8: Independent US Cinema, Part I

Film: Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep [1979]

Readings : Massoud,
“An Aesthetic Appropriate to Conditions: Killer of
Sheep, (Neo)Realism, and the Documentary Impulse
” pp. 20-41
April 10: Independent US Cinema, Part II

Film: Jim Jarmusch, Stranger than Paradise [1984]

Readings:
Hoberman, “Paradise Regained”; Andrew, “
Stranger Than
Paradise : Enter Jarmusch”

April 15: Chinese 6 th Generation Film

Film: Jia Zhang Ke, Platform , [2000]
 Readings: “Jia Zhang-Ke: Platform”; “Cinema with an Accent: Interview
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with Jia Zhangke, Director of Platform ”; Xudong, “Poetics of Vanishing:
The Films of Jia Zhangke ” pp. 71-84
April 17: Chinese 6 th Generation Film
(con’t)
 Film: Platform (con’t)
 Readings: McGrath, “The Independent Cinema of Jia Zhan” pp. 80-85 &
96 (bottom of page)-103; Shuqin,
“Negotiating In-Between: On New-
Generation Filmmaking and Jia Zhangke’s Films” pp. 98 – 100 and 116-
121
April 22: Brazilian Film

Film: Fernando Meirelles/Kátia Lund, City of God [2002]

Readings: Carlsten, “Violence in The City of God : The Fantasy of the
Omniscient Spectator ,” pp.1-6; McClennen, “From the Aesthetics of
Hunger to the Cosmetics of Hunger in Brazilian Cinema: Meirelles’
City of
God , ” pp. 1-12; Rose, “To what extent is City of God in example of the
‘cosmetics of hunger’ as opposed to the ‘aesthetics of hunger’?” pp. 1-8
April 24: Brazilian Film ( con’t)

Film: City of God (con’t)
April 29: Neo-neo-realism, Part I

Film: Kelly Reichardt, Wendy and Lucy [2008]

Readings:
Scott, “Neo-NeoRealism”; Hoberman, “ Wendy and Lucy”
May 1: Neo-neo-realism, Part I (con’t)

Film: Wendy and Lucy (con’t)

Film : In-between Days (excerpts)
May 6: Neo-neo-realism, Part II

Film Ramin Bahrani, Man, Push Cart [2005]

Readings: Schager, “Man Push Cart”; Hill, “The Ever-Vending Problem”
May 8: Neo-neo-realism, Part II

Film: Man, Push Cart (con’t)

Film Excerpts: Dardenne Brothers; Vik Muniz
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Department of Media Study Academic Policies
Students are entitled to a course syllabus with course content, meeting times, course requirements, grading criteria, statements on academic integrity, disabilities, sexual harassment
Criteria for grading of projects and papers should be made explicit before the work is due; formats for examinations should be made explicit prior to their administration.
All students must meet the academic requirements stated in the course syllabus.
This includes papers, projects, class participation, and laboratory assignments that count toward the final grade.
Late work is accepted only at the discretion of the instructor.
Students who fail to adhere to punctuality or miss classes will see their grade impacted accordingly.
Incomplete grades can be requested but remain at the discretion of the instructor. If request is approved, faculty member and student must complete and sign the “Departmental Request for Grade of Incomplete” form http://registrar.buffalo.edu/pdfs/requestIncompleteGrade.pdf
Students must adhere to DMS equipment access and usage rules as outlined in the Equipment Room Policy - http://mediastudy.buffalo.edu/equipmentpolicy.php
Weapons are not allowed on campus. If students are planning a production that involves using anything which could be interpreted as a weapon they must obtain written permission from the University Police or the equivalent authority beforehand.
No student can be required to view or respond to materials he/she deems offensive. Substitute materials will be made available, where possible.
Collaboration is encouraged where appropriate and in accordance with the instructor’s consent. However, plagiarism is never acceptable. Students must understand that they may under no circumstances knowingly represent as their own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test, or in connection with any other form of academic work. If in doubt, the student should err on the side of caution and consult the instructor for guidance.
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If a student has a disability (physical or learning) the student may contact the
Office of Disability
Services http://www.student-affairs.buffalo.edu/ods/ during the first two weeks of class. ODS will provide information on arrangements for reasonable accommodations.
Sexual harassment of employees and students, as defined at http://affirmativeaction.buffalo.edu/
SHpolicies/sexharassmentpolicy.pdf is contrary to university policy.
Classes are to meet at the time and location listed in the schedule, unless changed with the consent of the entire class, and approved by the
Department Chair.
Instructors are to be available for consultation during office hours and, at the discretion of the instructor, by appointment.
Instructors are required to justify a grade, if a student asks for this information.
Instructors should retain academic records for one year after the end of the course.
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State University of New York at Buffalo
Department of Media Study
I have read the DMS 108 syllabus and I am aware of the program’s requirements and policies including the attendance policy. I understand that I should keep the syllabus and course policies for my records.
Date:_________________________
Semester:______________________
Print name:________________________________________________
Signature:__________________________________________________
Student person number:_____________________________
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