Department of Film and Television
Options in Film Studies 2014/15
FI101 Spring Term
INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES
Module Tutors:
Louis Bayman (Rm A0.15 Millburn House)
Owen Weetch (Rm A0.25 Millburn House)
MODULE DESCRIPTION
SEE ALSO: Film and Television Studies Options Handbook (Online)
FIRST MEETING:
Week 1 Spring Term 2014/15,
Tuesday 06 Jan at 12.00 in A0.28
AIMS OF THE MODULE
1.
2.
3.
This module aims to introduce you to the close analysis of film texts.
It will also ask you to consider a number of key developments in film history and
some of the different examples of film internationally.
You will explore some of the main critical debates that have shaped Film Studies as
an academic discipline.
It aims to progress from examining the formal properties of film to considering its
cultural importance and artistic relevance. It will introduce questions regarding the
political and social functions of cinema and the intellectual frameworks that have
been used to explain it.
OUTCOMES
By the end of the module:
1)
You will be required to show you are able to analyse and critically discuss a range of
contemporary and older films according to its formal properties, and how they
construct emotion and meaning in films.
2)
You will be expected to be able to demonstrate an informed understanding of and
engagement with the critical and historical debates that are the focus of the module.
3)
And (very importantly) you will be able to demonstrate that, having attended the
required screenings, lectures and seminars, you have developed your own
independent reading, viewing and critical research beyond the basic starting points
provided by the module.
In Term 1, we will begin with the analysis of film form and concentrate on the basic question
of how film texts work, of how to analyse a film according to its formal properties ----- how
moving images and sound combine to make meanings, guide our expectations/trigger our
responses and create the experience we have of the films we watch.
We will focus first on the workings of the feature film, analysing the various formal
properties of film to examine various ways they have been used in cinematic storytelling for
over a century. In the second half of the term we will consider how different kinds of film
negotiate the relationship between storytelling (or narrative) and spectacle. To conclude
this first block of work, we will consider different ways in which cinema can address
questions of art and entertainment, and with what results for the viewer, with examples
from classical and contemporary Hollywood, musical cinema and Iranian art cinema.
In Term 2, the module will continue to explore the ways in which cinema creates meanings
and appeals to the senses with respect to a range of film texts and theoretical approaches to
film history such as genre, gender, emotion and postcolonialism. Underlying the course will
be an examination of ways of understanding film’s relationship to reality, from the basis of
cinema in a photographic record of reality, to questions of fantasy, documentary, parody, art
and political cinema. It will seek to strengthen your understanding of the development of
film styles and movements and of the global dimensions of film history, and will include
examples of German Expressionism, Italian neorealism, Third Cinema and Avant-garde
cinema. In addition to understanding cinema’s social function it will address the various
ways these aspects impact on our understanding of and engagement with cinema at a
sensory and emotional level.
In the opening weeks of Term 3, we will review the work we have done for the module.
TIMETABLE
The module is taught in the Autumn and Spring terms and there will be a short period of
teaching and revision in the Summer Term.
You are required to attend the lecture, one seminar and at least ONE of the film screenings
each week. In planning your work load, you should take account of the fact it is important
you know the films for our seminar discussions and have seen them on a large screen.
*** NOTE: The Film and Television Studies Department has penalties for non-attendance
at seminars without good reason. This involves a marks penalty plus extra written work.
You should check the Options Handbook (online) to make sure you are aware of the
Department’s attendance regulations.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
9.45-12
12-1
1-3
11-12
12-1.
1-2
2-3
Film Screening 1
Lecture
Film Screening 2
Seminars
(Attend ONE)
A1.25 Millburn House
A0.28 Millburn House
A0.28 Millburn House
A1.24/A1.28 Millburn House
* Seminar groups will be organised during the Introductory Session in Week 1. Whether
ALL 4 seminars listed above will run will be decided at that point on the basis of numbers.
ASSESSMENT (for the year)
Two Essays of 1500 words each
(10% of the total mark each)
One essay of 3000 words
Summer Examination (2 hours unseen/2 Questions)
(20% of the total mark)
(60% of the total mark)
ESSAY DEADLINES
Each of the essays MUST be handed in by the time/date specified below to the Film and
Television Studies Office (Room A0.12 Millburn House). In preparing your essay you should
refer to the Department of Film and Television Studies online Handbook (Options) to make
sure you are aware of the conventions of essay presentation (referencing etc) required by
the Department.
PLEASE NOTE :
Extensions will normally only be given on production of a medical
certificate. According to university regulations, when an essay is submitted late without a
formal extension having been granted, there will be a penalty of a 5% reduction of the
mark per day.
DUE DATES:
Autumn Term
First short essay (Sequence analysis/1500 words)
(Week 7)
To be submitted with:
1. Your Screening Notes on ONE film screened
In Weeks 1-5
2. Your Notes on ONE Lecture from Weeks 1-5
Hand in to the Film Studies Office (latest) before 12.00 on Monday November 10 2014
Spring Term
(Week 2)
Second short essay (1500 words)
Hand in by 12.00, Monday January 12 2015
Summer Term Long Essay (3000 words)
(Week 1)
Hand in by 12.00, Monday April 20 2015
TUTOR CONTACTS
:
L.D.Bayman@warwick.ac.uk
o.b.weetch@warwick.ac.uk
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WORK FOR SPRING TERM 2013/14
READING
PLEASE NOTE: The module requires you to attend the screenings, lectures and
seminars and do some critical reading each week in preparation for the weekly
seminar. This is NOT an option. Obviously, keeping up with the screenings and
readings will help you personally to get the most out of the seminars. Importantly
too, it will put you in a position to contribute actively and in an informed way to
seminar discussions.
Online Seminar Readings: All of the main weekly readings can be accessed
online through the Main Library system. So long as you are registered for this
module, you should be able to reach the website either directly through the Main
Library Catalogue or by using the following link:
http://go.warwick.ac.uk/lib-course-extracts
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON READING
You will help yourself if you start reading around as quickly as possible to develop
your awareness of the film history and Film Studies critical debates we will cover.
The Main Library is particularly well stocked for Film Studies in terms of books,
DVDs/videos and journals. In addition, you (really) should make yourself aware of
the very extensive online film resources by exploring the online facilities available to
you through the Main Library Catalogue ---- that gives you direct access to journals
like Film Index International and International Film Archive as well Screen, Wide
Angle, Cineaste and a host of others.
The Department of Film and Television Studies web site also provides you with easy
access to a mass of information, journals and a range of links. It is very well worth
looking at immediately.
You will also help yourself if you make yourself familiar with the Film section in the
Library as soon as possible (PN3220-3279) and also film making/photography (TR151045).
Remember: Many of the books you will need will be in heavy demand so organise
your work and reading accordingly. Make reservations early and return books
quickly.
Key Books
There are a few key books for you to track down and look at regularly. A number of
the weekly required readings are taken from them and you will find copies in the
Short Loan Collection as well as in the Stacks.
They are:
Pam Cook ed
***David Bordwell and
Kristin Thompson
Richard Maltby
John Hill and
Pamela Church Gibson
The Cinema Book (London : BFI 1985 and 1999)
***Film Art : An Introduction (New York : McGraw
Hill, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2003 etc.)
Hollywood Cinema : An Introduction (Oxford :
Blackwell, 1995)
The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford, OUP,
1998)
TERM 2: WEEK BY WEEK PROGRAMME
As noted above, the main screenings are required viewing. The "Further Viewings"
listed below are suggestions only ---- to help your work. See the Library Catalogue
and SLC in the Main Library for copies of the seminar films.
IMPORTANT: ONLINE SEMINAR READINGS. The required weekly readings have
been scanned into the main library system so they can be accessed online. So long
as you are registered for this module, you should be able to access them directly
through the Main Library Catalogue or through the following link:
http://go.warwick.ac.uk/lib-course-extracts
Week 1
Screening
Lecture
Reading
Medium Specificity: What is cinema (and does it matter)?
Spoorloos/The Vanishing (George Sluizer, Netherlands/France, 1988)
Medium specificity and the cinematic: What is it? What is film, and
what can it do that other media cannot?
Francesco Casetti (2008) ‘The Gaze of its Age’ in Eye of the Century:
Film, Experience, Modernity, New York, Columbia University Press,
p.7-27.
Additional: Carroll, N (1985) ‘The Specificity of Media in the Arts’ in Journal of
Aesthetic Education, Vol. 19, No. 4, p. 5–20.
Seymour Chatman (1980) ‘What Novels Can Do that Films Can’t (and Vice Versa)’ in
Critical Inquiry 7:1 (Autumn 1980) p.121-40.
Robert B. Ray (1998) ‘Impressionism, Surrealism, and Film Theory’ in Hill and Church
Gibson (eds) Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
André Bazin (2005), ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’, ‘The Myth of Total
Cinema’, ‘The Evolution of the Language of Cinema’ and ‘Painting and Cinema’ in
What is Cinema? Vol. I Berkeley, University of California Press.
Further Viewing: The Smiling Madame Beudet/La Souriante Madame Beudet
(Germaine Dulac, France, 1923), The Scarlet Empress (Josef Von Sternberg, USA,
1934), Le beau Serge (Claud Chabrol, France, 1958), 8 1/2/Otto e mezzo (Federico
Fellini, Italy/France, 1963).
WEEK 2
Screening
Lecture
Reading
Realism
Ladri di biciclette/Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, Italy, 1948)
Realist movements and Italian neorealism
Siegfried Kracauer (1965) ‘Basic Concepts’ in Theory of Film: the
Redemption of Physical Reality, Oxford University Press, p.27-41
Millicent Marcus (1986) ‘De Sica’s Bicycle Thief: Casting Shadows on
the Visionary City’ in Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism, New
Jersey, Princeton University Press, p.54-76
Additional: André Bazin (2005), ‘An Aesthetic of Reality: Neorealism’ and ‘ Bicycle
Thief’ in What is Cinema? Vol. 2 Berkeley, University of California Press.
Millicent Marcus (1986) ‘Introduction’ to Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism, New
Jersey, Princeton University Press, 3-31.
David Overbey (1979) ‘Introduction’ plus writings by Zavattini, De Santis, De Sica,
Visconti in Springtime in Italy: A Reader on Italian Neo-Realism, Hamden
Connecticut, Archon Books.
Christopher Williams (1980) Realism and the Cinema: A Reader, London, Routledge
and Keegan Paul.
Further viewing Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1943), Rome, Open City/Roma
città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, Italy, 1945), La terra trema (Luchino Visconti, Italy,
1948), Bitter Rice/Riso amaro (Giuseppe De Santis, Italy, 1949), Umberto D. (Vittorio
de Sica, Italy, 1952), Journey to Italy/Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini,
Italy/France, 1954).
WEEK 3
Fantasy
Screening
Nosferatu/Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (F.W. Murnau,
Germany, 1922)
Lecture
Fantasy, horror and German Expressionism
Reading
Thomas Elsaesser (1996) ‘Germany: the Weimar Years’ in Geoffrey
Nowell-Smith (ed.) The Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford
University Press, p.136-150.
Sobchack, Vivien (1982) ‘Genre Film: Myth, Ritual and
Sociodrama’ in Thomas, Sari (ed) Film/Culture: Explorations of
Cinema in Its Social Context, Metuchen, N.J.; London: Scarecrow
Press, p. 147 – 165.
Additional: Lotte Eisner (1969) The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German
Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Thomas Elsaesser (2000) Weimar Cinema and After: Germany’s Historical Imaginary,
London, Routledge.
Siegfried Kracauer (2004) From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the
German Film, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Patrice Petro (1989), ‘Melodrama and Expressionism: The Conventions of Pathos’ in
Joyless Streets: Women and Melodramatic Representation in Weimar Germany,
Princeton, Princeton University Press, p.25-39.
Maria Tatar (1995) ‘Crime, Contagion and Containment: Sexual Murder in the
Weimar Republic’ in Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany, Princeton,
Princeton University Press, p.41-66.
Further Viewing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari/Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (Robert
Wiene, Germany, 1920), The Golem/ Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (Carl Boese,
Paul Wegener, Germany, 1920), Metropolis (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927), Pandora’s
Box/Die Büchse die Pandora (G.W. Pabst, Germany, 1929), Citizen Kane (Orson
Welles, USA, 1941).
WEEK 4
Screening
Lecture
Reading
The inter-war Avant-gardes
Selected short films
Avant-garde cinema: theory and practice
Murray Smith (1998), ‘Modernism and the Avant-Gardes’ in John Hill
and Pamela Church Gibson (eds) Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford,
Oxford University Press.
Additional Reading: 'Avant-Garde and Counter Cinema' (1999) in Pam Cook (ed.) The
Cinema Book, London, BFI, p. 114-20.
Marshall Berman (2010) All that Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity,
London, Verso.
Peter Bürger (1984), Theory of the Avant-Garde, Manchester, Manchester University
Press.
Ian Christie, 'The Avant-Gardes and European Cinema Before 1930' in John Hill and
Pamela Church Gibson (eds) Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford, Oxford University
Press.
A.L. Rees (1996), ‘Cinema and the Avant-Garde’ in Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (ed.) The
Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
WEEK 5
Screening
Lecture
Reading
Documentary
Ônibus 174/Bus 174 (José Padilha and Felipe Lacerda, Brazil, 2002)
Theories of documentary
Cecilia Sayad (2014), ‘Narrative, Visibility and Trauma in Bus 174’ in
Vinicius Navarro and Juan Carlos Rodriguez (eds) New Documentaries
in Latin American Cinema, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, p.91-105
Bill Nichols (2010), ‘Why Are Ethical Issues Central to Documentary
Filmmaking?’ in Introduction to Documentary 2nd edition, Indiana
University Press, p.42-67
Additional Reading: Lorraine Leu (2008), ‘Spaces of Remembrance and
Representation in the City: José Padilha’s Ônibus 174’ in Luso-Brazilian Review, 45:2
p.177-89.
Bill Nichols (1991) Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary,
Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Michael Renov (ed.) (1993) Theorizing Documentary, London, Routledge.
Amy Villarejo (2006) ‘Bus 174 and the Living Present’ in Cinema Journal 46:1
(Autumn 2006), 115-20.
Further Viewing: Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, USA/France, 1922), Night
Mail (Harry Watt, Basil Wright, UK, 1936), Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings,
UK, 1943), Chronicle of a Summer/Chronique d’un été (Edgar Morin, Jean Rouch,
France, 1961), Titticut Follies (Frederick Wiseman, USA, 1967), Salesman (Albert
Maysles, David Maysles, USA, 1968) The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, USA, 1988),
Nostalgia for the Light/Nostalgia de la luz (Patricio Guzmán, France, Germany, Chile,
Spain, USA, 2010), The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Norway, UK,
2012).
WEEK 6
READING WEEK
WEEK 7
Screening
Lecture
Reading
Allegory
Xala (Ousmane Sembene, Senegal, 1975)
Allegory and Third Cinema.
Marcia Landy (1984), ‘Political Allegory and “Engaged Cinema”:
Sembene’s Xala’ in Cinema Journal 23:3 (Spring 1984) pp.31-46.
Additional: Bainard Cowan (1981), ‘Walter Benjamin's Theory of Allegory’ in New
German Critique 22, Special Issue on Modernism. Winter 1981: p.109-22.
Laura Mulvey (1991) ‘Xala, Ousmane Sembene 1976: The Carapace that Failed’ in
Third Text, 5:16-17, p.19-37.
Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino (1976), ‘Towards a Third Cinema’ in Bill Nichols
(ed.) Movies and Methods. An Anthology, Berkeley, University of California Press,
p.44–64.
Mike Wayne (2001), Political Film: The Dialectics of Third Cinema. Pluto Press.
Teshome Gabriel (1989), ‘Towards a Critical Theory of Third World Films’ in Jim Pines
and Paul Willeman (eds), Questions of Third Cinema, London, BFI, p.30-53.
Further viewing The Battle of Algiers/La battaglia di Algeri (Gillo Pontecorvo,
Italy/Algeria, 1966), The Hour of the Furnaces/La hora de los hornos (Octavo Getino,
Fernando E. Solanas, Argentina, 1968), In the Year of the Pig (Emile de Antonio, USA,
1968), Blood of the Condor/Yawar mallku (Jorge Sanjiné, Bolivia, 1969), Macunaíma
(Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Brazil, 1969), Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty,
Senegal, 1973).
WEEK 8
Screening
Lecture
Reading
Gender and Sexuality
Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, USA, 1959)
The male gaze, and gender and queer readings
Alexander Doty (1993), ‘Chapter one: There’s Something Queer Here’
in Making Things Perfectly Queer: Interpreting Mass Culture,
University of Minnesota Press, 1993 p.1-15
Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ in Screen,
16:3. p.6–18
Additional Reading: Terrell Carver (2009), ‘Sex, Gender and Heteronormativity:
Seeing 'Some Like It Hot' as a Heterosexual Dystopia’ in Contemporary Political
Theory 8:2 (May 2009), p.125-151.
Sedgwick - Axiomatics
Doty, Alexander ‘Queer Theory’, and Smelik, Anneke ‘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: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, USA, 1953), Vertigo
(Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1958).
WEEK 9
Emotion and Affect
Screening
Lecture
Reading
All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor, USA, 2013)
Theories of emotion and affect
Carl Plantinga, ‘Chapter 6: Negative Emotions and Sympathetic
Narratives’ in Moving Viewers: American Film and the Spectator’s
Experience, University of California Press, 2009, p.169-197
Additional Reading: Eugenie Brinkema (2014), Chapters One and Two in The Forms
of the Affects, Durham and London, Duke University Press, p.1-47.
Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth (eds) (2014), The Affect Theory Reader,
Durham, Duke University Press.
Jennifer Harding and Deidre E. Pribram (2009), ‘Introduction’ to Emotions: A Cultural
Studies Reader, London, Routledge, p.1-25.
Carl Plantinga and Greg M. Smith (eds) (1999) Passionate Views: Film, Cognition and
Emotion, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.
Further Viewing: All that Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, USA, 1955), Daughters of the
Dust (Julie Dash, USA, 1991).
WEEK 10
Parody
Screening
Lecture
Reading
Exit through the Gift Shop (Banksy, UK, 2010)
Postmodernism, Intertextuality and Satire
Dan Harries (2000) ‘Chapter 3: Transtextual Targets’ in Film
Parody, London, BFI, p. 22–42.
Additional Reading: Simon Dentith (2000), Parody (The New Critical Idiom) London,
Routledge.
Dan Harries (2002) ‘Film Parody and the Resuscitation of Genre’ in Steve Neale (ed.)
Genre and Contemporary Hollywood BFI, London, p.281-294.
Linda Hutcheon (1985), A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art
Forms, New York, Methuen.
Margaret Rose (1993). Parody: Ancient, Modern and Post-Modern. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Further Viewing: Big Deal on Madonna Street/I soliti ignoti (Mario Monicelli, Italy,
1958) Airplane! (Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, USA, 1980) Scream (Wes Craven,
USA, 1996).