Aug 19 – 21: Early Cinema—We will examine the ‘pre-history’ of film and look briefly at the work D.W. Griffith.

Shown and discussed in class

For Thurs: Intro to CD; FFC Intro.

Aug 26: German Expressionism and late silent film—Expressionism was the major artistic movement before and briefly after WW I. It’s methods were to express inner emotional states in the characters’ surroundings. Many Expressionist directors came to Hollywood, Murnau the most talent of them.

Sunrise, F.W. Murnau, Fox, 1927

Gunning, ‘Aesthetic of Astonishment,’ FTC; Kracauer, ‘Caligari’ FCC CD, ‘Mise-en-scène’; FFC, Chap. 1,

Sept 2: Soviet Montage—After the Russian Revolution, the arts, and film especially, flourished. Eisenstein, the most important revolutionary filmmaker, developed and practiced the idea that editing, or montage, was the most important tool in creating a film.

Potemkin, Sergei Eisenstein, USSR, 1925

FFC, Chap 2; CD, ‘Montage,’ Eisenstein, ‘Film Form,’ FTC.

Sept 9: The Classical Hollywood Style, Melodrama—At their base, all American films are made in similar ways. This section begins our study of the “Classical Hollywood Style” and its chief genre, melodrama.

Now, Voyager, Irving Rapper, WB, 1942

Short Paper Due
FFC, Chap 5; CD, ‘Continuity Editing; Elsaesser essay, on line

Sept 16: Other Genres, The Western—the Western proves that genres have a life span; the genre is currently over. The Searchers, one of the most influential films ever made, shows the beginning of the end.

The Searchers, John Ford, WB, 1958

Warshow, Wood, FTC; FFC CD, ‘Genres’

Sept 23: Film Noir—noir is a genre that, unlike most Hollywood productions, speaks to darkness and despair. Welles practically invented it in Citizen Kane and, in Touch of Evil, provides a delirious climax in a film whose reputation has grown enormously.

Touch of Evil, Orson Welles, 1958, Universal

Comito essay, on line.
FFC, Chap. 3, CD, “The Long Take” and “Genre”

Sept 30: The Action Film—what Hollywood does best! This is a rare action/fantasy/special effects film directed by a woman, and it is important to understand what difference that makes.

Strange Days, Kathryn Bigalow,
Fox, 1995

FFC Chap 6; CD, ‘Sound and Music’

Oct 7: Science Fiction—born with the invention of film, science fiction has thrived, with some ups and downs. 2001 is the last science fiction film, no matter how many others have been made since.

2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick, MGM, 1968

Essay on line

Oct 14: Italian Neorealism—we begin to examine other cinemas, starting with a film that was part of a movement after WW II that lead the way to new kinds of filmmaking.

Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica, Italy, 1948

André Bazin, 43-56, 195-211, FTC

Oct 21: European Modernism—modernism is a complex term that we will examine through a number of films. It’s main goal is to find alternatives to the Hollywood style. We begin with the work of a director who was a powerful influence on film in the sixties and seventies.

My Life to Live, Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1962

Dayan; Bordwell; Comolli/Narboni, FTC; http://otal.umd.edu/~rkolker/AlteringEye/Chapter2-2.html;
Look again at ‘European and Other Cinemas’ in FFC, Chap 5;

Oct. 28: Modernism continued—Antonioni made films that told their stories by means of the how characters were seen and defined by their environment. This film makes extraordinary and inventive use of color.

L'avventura, Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960

Short Paper Due
FFC CD, “Point of View”;
http://otal.umd.edu/~rkolker/AlteringEye/Chapter2.html
Nowell-Smith article, "Shape and a Black Point"

Nov 4: American Modernism—perhaps a contradiction in terms. However, Scorsese owes much to Godard, to Expressionism, to the Searchers, and to new ways of presenting a character by means of how he sees the world.

Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, Columbia, 1976

Selection from A Cinema of Loneliness, online. FFC CD: ‘Lighting’ and ‘Camera’

Nov. 11: Three Versions—this is an experiment to attempt to understand how three different versions of the same story idea work when done in different times, different countries, different directorial sensibilities. Douglas Sirk, a German, was the best melodrama director in fifties Hollywood.

All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, Universal, 1955

Mulvey, Sarris, FTC

Nov 18: Fassbinder was the best of the ‘New German filmmakers’ of the seventies. He takes Sirk and turns melodrama into politics.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974

www.otal.umd.edu/~rkolker/AlteringEye/Chapter2-3.html

Nov 25: Haynes is one of our major independent filmmakers. The question is why he decided to make the 3rd version of All That Heaven Allows, and how it is different in 2002 than it was in 1955 and 1974.

Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes, Focus Features, 2002

Dec 2: Grand Summary—in 2002, The British Film Institute’s ten year critics choice of the top ten films (Citizen Kane was 1, 2001 was 6 and Sunrise 7, Potemkin 8). This is one of the most complex and deeply emotional films of American cinema.

Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, Universal, 1958

Term Paper Due On Subject Approved by Instructor.
FFC, Chap 4; CD, ‘Mise-en-scéne’

Dec 12, 2:50-5:40

Final Exam