Introduction to Film Studies: English 233 (2005)
Professor Stewart
This course introduces students to basic concepts in film analysis and criticism. We will develop terms that allow us to talk about film with some degree of precision. Among these will be narrative, genre, and various technical aspects of film-making such as cinematography and editing. We will also address issues in film criticism such as spectatorship and pleasure.
Learning to think and write about films will be our main objective. In addition to class time, there will be weekly readings and quizzes. Students will also be responsible for viewing films for the class. Grades will be based on quizzes, several short writing assignments, participation, and a final exam.
Films: Students are responsible for seeing the films for the course on their own time. Viewing quizzes will be conducted at the beginning of class every Thursday.
Writing Assignments: All writing assignments are due at the beginning of Monday’s class.
Late essays will not be accepted. Essays must be typed, double spaced, with 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins, a 12 point font, and only your name (in English) and student number at the top. One page means one page, not half a page. Refer to chapter seven (Manuscript Form) of the
Corrigan book for other formatting information and examples.
Policy on Plagiarism: Anything you copy from someone else’s work must be attributed to them with a footnote and proper citation. See Corrigan Chapter 7. Quotations should be kept as brief as possible and not be used to substitute for your own writing and thinking. Anything copied from someone else (including information taken off the internet) and not attributed to them is plagiarism and a form of cheating. This includes texts as short as a phrase or part of a sentence.
It also includes passages in which you might change a few of the words but leave the meaning essentially the same. When in doubt, always footnote. Failure to do so leaves you liable to penalty. Students caught plagiarizing—either when the assignment is graded or afterward—will be given zero and failed in the course.
Evaluation: 30% quizzes; 30% written assignments; 30% Exam; 10% participation
Texts: A Short Guide to Writing about Film
Reading Packet (RP)
Timothy Corrigan
Schedule by Week
1. Introduction
2. Writing about Film
Reading:
Assignment:
Monday: Review and Screening (
Thursday: Screening first film (
Good Morning Vietnam
Corrigan: Chapter 1
Before the Nickelodeon
Good Morning Vietnam
(Levinson 1987)
1-2 page “review” of Good Morning Vietnam
)
)
3. Watching and Writing The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (Greenaway 1989)
Reading:
Corrigan: Chapter 2; Kracauer: “Basic Concepts”
Assignment: 1-2 pages. Pick one visual element of The Cook… and use it to explain the overall meaning of the film.

Introduction to Film / 2
4. Classic Narrative
Reading:
5. Mise-en-Scene
Reading:
6. Cinematography
Reading:
Stagecoach (Ford 1939)
Corrigan: 34 – 45; Turner 67 – 78
The Crying Game
The Great Train Robbery
(Jordan 1992)
Corrigan: 45 – 54
The Grand Illusion
Corrigan: 54 – 62
(Renoir 1937)
(Porter 1903)
7. Editing and Sound
Reading:
Do the Right Thing
Corrigan: 62 – 77
(Lee 1989)
8. Alternative Film Style Floating Weeds (Ozu 1959)
Assignment: 2 pages. Explain three ways that Ozu defies the rules of the
Classical Hollywood Narrative Style and to what effect.
9. Genre: The Western
Reading:
The Searchers (Ford 1955)
RP Turner: 78 -92
10. Genre: The Western The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah 1968)
Reading: RP Tompkins
11. History
Reading:
12. Pleasure
Reading:
Assignment:
The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler 1946)
RP Rosenstone
Meet Me in Saint Louis (Minnelli 1944)
RP Dyer: “Entertainment and Utopia”
2 pages. Use Dyer’s thesis to analyse
Meet Me in Saint Louis as an historical film AND a film of the Second World War.
13. Spectatorship
Reading:
14. Stars
Reading:
15. Performativity
Reading:
Blond Venus (von Sternberg 1932)
RP Turner: 109 – 120
The Seven Year Itch (Wilder 1955)
RP Turner: 94 – 109
Desperately Seeking Susan (Seidelman 1985)
Madonna: “Material Girl”; Turner 67 - 78