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350. The History of American Film. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required.
This course is required for concentrators in the Program in Film and Video Studies, but is open to all students. The course will trace the history of American film from the earliest days of the kinematograph and the Nickelodeon to movies in the age of video, with concerns both for the contributions of individual filmmakers as well as the determining contexts of modes of production and distribution. The primary emphasis will be on the Hollywood narrative film, but some attention will be paid to independent cinema movements. The course aims to develop a sense of the continuing evolution of American film, in its internal development, in its incorporation of new technologies, and in its responses to other national cinemas. Films by the following directors, among others, will be screened: D.W. Griffith, King Vidor, Buster Keaton, Ernst Lubitsch, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Blake Edwards, and John Cassavetes. Students will attend three hours of lectures and discussion as well as view two or three hours of film each week. They will write a series of short papers and take a midterm and final examination. Cost:3 WL:1 (Paul)
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412/English 412. Major Directors. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of nine credits.
See English 412. (Freedman)
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420. Documentary Film. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.
The documentary form runs throughout the history of filmmaking from the first actualities to our present networked video. The documentary's prominence has been intermittent, but it has enjoyed periods of considerable popularity in some places and at some times, like WWII, the U.S. in the 1960s, etc. It has developed its own genres, formative traditions, theoretical reflections and aesthetic criteria, as well as supporting institutions of production, distribution, and exhibition. This course treats nonfiction cinema in a rough chronological order and touches upon the major moments and movements. Special emphasis, however, is placed on the development of documentary form, the claims it makes in representing the world, its role in societies, and its relation to ideology. In this sense, the course is not a historical survey designed to teach things about documentaries - although it will expose you to a wide range of impulses and styles, from propaganda to ethnographic films to the evening news. We will instead develop rigorous ways to think about the documentary form. Evaluation is based on written assignments and a final exam. (Nornes)
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441. National Cinemas. Film-Video 360. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($50) required. May be repeated for a total of six credits.
An in-depth exploration of the evolution and forms of a specific national or regional cinema in terms of its stylistic, socio-political, economic, and technological dimensions. Close study of the development of a cinema (e.g., Japanese, Eastern European, British) or of a film movement, e.g., Italian Neorealism, German Expressionism, French New Wave.
Section 001 - Japanese Cinema. For Fall Term, 1998, this section is offered jointly with Japanese 475.001. (Nornes)
Section 002 - The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. For Fall Term, 1998, this section is offered jointly with German 330.001.
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455. Topics in Film Studies. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of nine credits.
Section 003 - Orson Welles in Global Perspective. A critical survey of the theatrical, radio, and film oeuvre of Orson Welles that will explore his prolific activity as actor-director-producer over fifty years in a range of national and artistic contexts. Close analysis of plays produced for the Federal Theater Project in the thirties; radio and film work for the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs during World War II; film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays; and experimentations in film noir will permit an appreciation of Welles's innovations in the construction of visual and aural space; his reflections on modernity and cultural identity; and his committed involvement in national and international politics. Throughout, Welles will be presented not only as a prominent auteur whose work exhibits a distinct array of stylistic and thematic concerns; but as a multitalented, free-spirited artistic collaborator whose influence can be noted in American public life as well as in the work of several generations of filmmakers. (Benamou)
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