Classical Film Theory

required prerequisite to the concentration.

This course is designed to introduce the student to the basic concepts and intellectual preoccupations that dominated what is now known as "classical film theory." Attention will be given to major theorists and theorist/practioners of the first half of the twentieth century such as Sergei Eisenstein, Rudolf Arnheim, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Hugo Munsterberg, Siegfried Kracauer, Andre Bazin, Maya Deren, and others. We will engage with their writings and seek to understand how they theorized the existing function and future possibilities of film as an art, as a phenomenon of mass culture, and as an industry of national and international importance. Emphasis will be given to the application of these ideas to films both contemporary to the theorists studied and more recently produced.

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