Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic
Image
F.A.M.U., PRAG Spring 2007
Class time and place: Thurs. 14.00-17.00, F.A.M.U. in Room 2 on the second floor,
Lažanský palác, Smetanovo nábřeží 2, Praha 1. First of thirteen sessions 8 February.
Professor: Erik S. Roraback (B.A., Pomona Coll.; D.Phil., Univ. of Oxford).
Contact: erik.roraback@gmail.com ; mobile tel.: 777.069.731
Office hours: After seminar and by appointment; to be announced Philosophical
Faculty, Charles Univ., J. Palacha 2, Rm 110.
Programmes: FAMU-International; Inter-cultural Studies (English and American
Studies, Charles Univ.); American Univ. Program at FAMU (includes students from other
U.S.A. universities such as Brown, Yale and suchlike); Suffolk Univ. Program (Charles
Univ.); ERASMUS-Charles Univ./FAMU; Film Studies (Film dept., Charles Univ.); Institute
of Philosophy and Religion (Charles Univ.)
Course description and learning objectives:
This seminar is a select assessment of seven major films from the post war era with
special emphasis given to those cinematic moments that might teach and train us in
new non-dominatory viewing strategies, in new creative ways of circulating, and in new
non-sadistic ways of engaging with the most basic and essential element of the cinema:
the aesthetic unit of the image. Film criticism and film philosophy from Leo BersaniUlysse Dutoit, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Rancière, Erik Roraback, Steven Shaviro, and
François Truffaut will be employed toward this end. All films are either in English or
have English inter-titles or sub-titles. Clips from other films and special features from
the DVDs will also be shown. Two extracts will also be played from a CD from the ECM
series. The course is conducted in English.
Material:
DVD videos, VHS videos and CDs: see schedule
Extracts from the following critical and theoretical texts will be available in a coursereader or adduced by the professor in the course:
Bersani, Leo and Ulysse Dutoit: “Art and Authority” and “Resnais: Stalled Movement” in
Arts of Impoverishment: Beckett, Rothko, Resnais (Harvard, 1993) pp. 1-9, 147208 and pp. 221-25.
Conrad, Peter. Orson Welles: The Stories of His Life (Faber & Faber, 2003).
Cook, David A.: A History of Narrative Film (Norton, 1996).
Deleuze, Gilles: Cinema 2: The Time-Image, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta
(Minnesota, 1989).
Frampton, Daniel: Filmosophy (Wallflower, 2006).
Lambert, Gregg: “The Brain is the Screen: An Interview with Gilles Deleuze” in Flaxman,
Gregory, ed., The Brain is the Screen: Deleuze and the Philosophy of Cinema
(Minnesota, 2000).
2
Le Fanu, Mark. “Stalker” in The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky (BFI, 1987) pp. 92-107.
Morin, Edgar: The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man, trans. Lorraine Morimer (Minnesota,
2005).
_____ . The Stars, trans. Richard Howard, foreword Lorraine Mortimer (Minnesota,
2005).
Rancière, Jacques: Film Fables, trans. Emiliano Battista (Berg, 2006).
Roraback, Erik S.: a selection of essays from a book-length work in progress,
Circulatings within the Guilty Cinematic Image; or, Fifteen Essays on the Sacral
Mission of Thirty Films.
Shaviro, Steven: The Cinematic Body, Theory Out of Bounds (Minnesota, 1993).
Thomsen, Christian Braad: “The Double Man”, “Bavaria and Hollywood” and “Querelle”
in Fassbinder: The Life and Work of a Provocative Genius, trans. Martin Chalmers
(Faber and Faber, 1997) pp. 1-44, 101-10 and 302-11.
Truffaut, François: “Foreword” to André Bazin’s Orson Welles: A Critical View (Acrobat,
1978), pp. 1-27.
Assessment:
To receive credit for the seminar students must: have no more than three absences,
give one oral presentation on a film and on the required text(s) for that week, submit a
mid-term essay and a final essay in response to one of several subjects/questions that
will be given two weeks before the essay is due. Final essay (3000-4000 words): 40%,
Mid-term essay (2000-3000 words): 20%, Oral presentation: 20%, Attendance and
participation: 20%. Being more than ten minutes late at the beginning of the seminar
or leaving early will be considered an absence for that session. Students from
Charles University who cannot make the first two classes will have the
opportunity to attend makeup sessions so that the two week head start at
F.A.M.U. should not deter anyone from attending the class if they are
interested.
Weekly schedule:
8 February: American Film Noir
Pre-film lecture and screening:
Mr. Arkadin/Confidential Report (The Comprehensive Version, 1955, 105
Clips:
minutes, dir. Orson Welles).
from 2006 Criterion Collection 3-disc version of Mr. Arkadin/Confidential
Report.
15 February: Post-film lecture/discussion on Mr. Arkadin/Confidential Report
Readings:
P. Conrad: selections from The Stories of His Life: Orson Welles.
G. Deleuze: pp. 98-155 in Cinema 2: The Time-Image.
E. Roraback: “Circulating within Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin/Confidential
Report for a Newly Armed Eye” published in the conference proceedings
from the 8th Brno Conference of English, American and Canadian Studies,
3
2005.
F. Truffaut: “Foreword” to André Bazin’s Orson Welles: A Critical View,
pp. 1-27.
Clips:
The Trial (1963, dir. Orson Welles); F for Fake (1975, dir. Orson Welles).
22 February: After Italian Neorealism and Contemporary Eros
Pre-film lecture and screening:
L’Avventura (1959, English,141 minutes, dir. Michelangelo Antonioni).
1 March:
Post-film lecture/discussion on L’Avventura
Readings:
D. Cook: A History, pp. 612-16.
E. Roraback: “The Colors and the Spinozist Bodies of Michelangelo
Antonioni’s L’Avventura (The Adventure or The Fling, 1959)” EREA 3.1
(printemps 2005): ix-xviii, Univ. de Provence.
S. Shaviro: The Cinematic Body, pp. 255-69
Clips:
L’Eclisse (1962, dir. Michelangelo Antonioni); Blow-Up (1966, dir.
Michelangelo Antonioni), The Passenger (1975, dir. Michelangelo
Antonioni).
8 March:
The French New Wave and Cinematic Hallucinations
Pre-film lecture and screening
Muriel, 1965, French with English subtitles, 119 minutes, dir. Alain
Resnais.
15 March: Post-film lecture/discussion on Muriel
Readings:
L. Bersani and U. Dutoit: pp. 1-9, 147-208, 221-25.
D. Cook: A History, pp. 547-50.
G. Deleuze: pp. 116-25 and 204-16 in Cinema 2.
E. Roraback: “Time and Memory in Alain Resnais”.
Clips:
Au hasard Balthazar (1966, dir. Robert Bresson).
22 March: No class: FAMU’s spring break
Mid term paper due at the beginning of class 29 March.
29 March: Post French New Wave Cinema, Life and Death
Pre-film lecture and screening:
Providence (1976, English, 102 minutes, dir. Alain Resnais).
5 April:
Post-film lecture and discussion on Providence
Readings:
L. Bersani and U. Dutoit: pp. 147-208, 221-25.
E. Roraback: “Time and Memory in Alain Resnais”.
Clips:
Let Joy Reign Supreme (1974, dir. Bertrand Tavernier); Lancelot of the
Lake (1974, dir. Robert Bresson).
12 April: Soviet Cinema and Medieval Art
Pre-film lecture and screening:
Andrei Rublev (1966, Russian with English subtitles, 205 minutes, dir.
Andrei Tarkovsky).
4
19 April:
Screening contd. and post-film lecture/discussion on Andrei
Rublev
D. Cook: A History, pp. 791-94.
E. Roraback: “Medieval Immobilizings in Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev”.
CD extract: F. Couturier: “Andreï” (to Eduard Artemiev) 7:05 minutes from F.
Couturier, Nostalghia—Song for Tarkovsky (Munich: ECM, 2006)
26 April:
Das Neue Kino II: Fassbinder (New German Cinema)
Pre-film lecture and screening:
The Merchant of Four Seasons (Der Händler der vier Jahreszeiten, 1971,
German with English subtitles, 88 minutes, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder).
3 May:
Post-film lecture/discussion and Late-Style Tarkovsky as
Extreme Cinema
Readings:
D. Cook: A History, pp. 660-81.
E. Roraback: “Fassbinder and Cinematic Intensity”.
C. B. Thomsen: “The Double Man”, “Bavaria and Hollywood” and
“Querelle” in Fassbinder: The Life and Work of a Provocative Genius,
trans. Martin Chalmers (Faber and Faber, 1997) pp. 1-44, 101-10 and
302-11.
Clips:
Martha (1973, German with English subtitles, dir. Rainer Werner
Fassbinder); The Wings of Desire (1987, German with English subtitles,
dir. Wim Wenders).
Pre-film lecture and screening of first half of Stalker:
Stalker (1979, Russian with English subtitles, 163 minutes, dir. Andrei
Tarkovsky).
10 May:
Screening of second half of Stalker + Post-film lecture/
discussion of the film
Readings:
M. Le Fanu: “Stalker” from The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky.
E. Roraback: “Extreme Cinema: Tarkovsky’s Stalker”.
CD extract: F. Couturier: “Stalker” (to Eduard Artemiev) 7:01 minutes from F.
Couturier, Nostalghia—Song for Tarkovsky (Munich: ECM, 2006).
Readings:
Final paper due Monday 14 V 2006.