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Schedule of Meetings, Readings, & Screenings


Note: Many of the films in this course contain adult content, including violence, profanity, drug usage, child abuse, and/or frank sexual content. These films are intended for mature audiences and may not be suitable for children under 17 who are unaccompanied by an adult. If you are disturbed by R-rated or unrated film content, you should consult the instructor.

All screening times given below are approximate.

Key to abbreviations for Quizs listed on this page:

FAC Film Analysis and Criticism, course anthology
SGWF A Short Guide to Writing About Film, any edition, by Timothy Corrigan
FA Film Art: An Introduction, any edition (FILM 2100 textbook on reserve in library)

Please note: this syllabus is subject to change (with notice).

 

Section I: Film Form & Analysis

Week 1       Introduction to Film Analysis / Film Form & Meaning

Monday, January 9

Read: 1. D2L: SGWF Chapters 1 & 2, skim Chapter 3 to review FILM 2100 terms
Quiz: Take Quiz 0 via D2L; due before 11:59pm Monday night

Wednesday, January 11

Read: 1. FAC*: Lúcia Nagib, "Talking Bullets: The Language of Violence in City of God" Third Text 68 (18:3), (May 2004): 239-250 (Okay to skim and/or skip "Murdered Words" section on pages 240-243)
*Also available as a PDF on D2L for this first week
  2. D2L: Interview with Director Fernando Meirelles
View: Cidade de Deus / City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund, 2002, Brazil; 130 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings

 

Week 2        Mise-en-scène & Melodrama

Monday, January 16

No Class Meeting in honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Wednesday, January 18

Read: 1. D2L: Paul Gormley, In the Mood for Love and the ‘Secret’ of Cinematic Affect,” The Cine-Files 10 (Spring 2016) (okay to skim first 2 paragraphs about affect; focus on the parts after that about melodrama)
  2. FAC: "Interview with Wong Kar-Wai at Cannes 2001" in Peter Brunette, Contemporary Film Directors: Wong Kar-wai (2005): 123-133
View: Fa yeung nin wa / In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000, Hong Kong; 98 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956, US)
  Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995, US)
  The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999, US)
  All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999, Spain)
  The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003, France)
  2046 (Wong Kar-Wai, 2004, Hong Kong)

 

Week 3        Narrative & Structuralism 

Monday, January 23

Read: 1. FAC: Nick Lacey, "Propp's Narrative Functions," in Narrative and Genre (2000): 46-53
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over readings

Wednesday, January 25

Read: 1. D2L: Interview with Director Boaz Yakin
View: Fresh (Boaz Yakin, 1994, US; 114 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings
Shot-by-Shot Analysis Group Project assigned today
Sign up for your top three choices via 1-minute Qualtrics survey before 9am tomorrow

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982, US)
  Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002, US)
  Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999, US)

 

Week 4        Camerawork & Editing

Monday, January 30

Read: 1. FAC: Vsevolod Pudovkin, "On Editing" (7-12)
2. FAC: André Bazin, "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema" (47-52)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over readings

Wednesday, February 1

Read: 1. D2L: Guillermo del Toro interview
View: El Espinazo del diablo/The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, 2001, Mexico; 106 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925, Russia)
  Sans soleil (Chris Marker, 1982, France)
  Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1999, Hong Kong)
  7 Boxes (Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schembori, 2012, Uruguay)
  Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922, US)
  The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939, France)
  Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941, US)
  Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948, Italy)
  The Little Foxes (William Wyler, 1941, US)
  Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006, Mexico/Spain)

 

Week 5         Sound Design

Monday, February 6

Read: 1. FAC: Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevold Pudovkin, & Grigori Alexandrov, "Statement on Sound" (315-317)
  2. FAC: Mary Ann Doane, "The Voice in Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space" (Subsections "Synchronization" and "Voice-Off and Voiceover" 318-325 only)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over readings

Wednesday, February 8

Read: 1. Cinephilia and Beyond article on Punch Drunk Love
  2. Two Video Interviews with Jon Brion on music in Punch Drunk Love: Interview 1 (2:56) and Interview 2 (2:41)
  3. Rolling Stone interview with Jon Brion
View: Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002, US) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Letter from Siberia (Chris Marker, 1957, France)
  Sans soleil (Chris Marker, 1982, France)
  Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1961, France)
  Journeys from Berlin 1971 (Yvonne Rainer, 1979, US)
  Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier, 2012, Norway)
  The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011, France)
  Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964, US)
  Living in Oblivion (Tom deLillo, 1994, US)
  Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly, 1952, US)
  Play Time (Jacques Tati, 1967, France)
  2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968, US)
  Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964, France)
  Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, US)
  Pariah (Dee Rees, 2013, US)
  Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942, US)
  Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012, US)
  Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997, US)
  Airplane! (Jim Abrahams/David Zucker, 1980, US)
  The River (Pare Lorentz, 1937, US)
  Nuit et brouillard /Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955, France)
  Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958, US)
  Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002, US)
  Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound

 

Week 6       Editing / Shot-by-Shot Workshop

Monday, February 13

Read: 1. FAC: Interview with Joe Bini (Editor for Grizzly Man), "Speaking Cinema" from First Cut 2
View: Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005, US/Germany; 104 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over film and readings **via D2L**

Wednesday, February 15

  Shot-by-Shot Workshop during class Wednesday--MANDATORY ATTENDANCE!

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, 1982, US)

 

Week 7        Shot-by-Shot Analysis Projects & Exam 1

Monday, February 20

Optional Read: SGWF: Chapters 4-7
Shot-by-Shot Presentation due on Monday
Shot-by-Shot Evalutaion due after your presentation and before class on Wednesday
Film Analysis Essay assigned Monday

Wednesday, February 22

Exam 1 on Wednesday at 9:50am (in 2 Parts on paper in class)
Exam format includes Part 1: SxS & Short Answer questions and Part 2: Multiple Choice/T-F questions that cover material from Section 1.

Begin Film Analysis Essay Screenings on D2L

 

Section II: Film Styles

Week 8        Documentary and Avant-Garde Cinemas

Monday, February 27

Reading: 1. FAC: Bill Nichols, "What Types of Documentary Are There?" from Introduction to Documentary (2001): read for the definitions, characteristics, & drawbacks of each of the 6 modes (99-105, 109-110, 115-116, 125-127, 130-131, and especially the chart on 138)
Optional: 2. Stan Brakhage, excerpt from Metaphors on Vision on D2L
View: 1. The Body Beautiful on D2L (Ngozi Onwurah, 1991, UK; 30 min.)
2. Scorpio Rising via free streaming on YouTube (Kenneth Anger, 1964, US; 30 min.)
Screenings in class: Selected Short Films (Study Guide) in class may include excerpts from:
Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1987, US; 14 min.)
The Dante Quartet
(Stan Brakhage, 1987, US; 6 min.)
Commingled Containers (Stan Brakhage, 1996, US; 3 min.) 
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over films and readings

Wednesday, March 1

Reading: 1. FAC: Virginia Bonner, "The Gleaners and 'Us': Radical Modesty in Agnes Varda's Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse" in Documenting the Documentary 2nd Edition (494-506)
View: Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse/The Gleaners and I via D2L or via Amazon rental (Agnès Varda, 2000, France; 81 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings

Due by Wednesday: Select your Film Analysis Essay film

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Rain (Joris Ivens, 1929, France)
  The River (Pare Lorenz, 1938, US)
  Don't Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967, US)
  Primary (Robert Drew, 1960, US)
  Harlan County USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976, US)
  Le Joli Mai (Chris Marker, 1963, France)
  Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989, US)
  The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988, US)
  Reassemblage (Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1982, US/Senegal)
  Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1990, US)
  Looking for Langston (Issac Julien, 1989. UK)
  The Body Beautiful (Ngozi Onwurah, 1991, UK)
  Sari Red (Pratibha Parmar, 1988, UK)
  Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2003, US)
  Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006, US)

 

Week 9       Spring Break

Monday, March 6 - Wednesday, March 8

No Class Meetings during Spring Break

 

Week 10      Art Cinema

Monday, March 13

Read: 1. FAC: David Bordwell, "Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice" (649-658) (Bordwell Study Guide) (Okay to skim so that you understand the terms in the headings)
2. FAC: Peter Wollen, "Godard and Counter Cinema: Vent d'Est" (418-426)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over readings

Wednesday, March 15

Read: 1. D2L: Interview with Alfonso Cuarón
  2. D2L: The Dissolve Review of Criterion DVD release of Y tu mamá también
View: Y tu mamá también (And Your Mother Too) (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001, Mexico; 105 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings
Continue paper screenings & writing

Friday, March 17

Thesis Sentence & Outline (2 pages max with no sentences except for thesis sentence) of your Film Analysis Essay due via D2L Assignments folder before 11:59pm

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1963, France)
  Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1960, Sweden)
  Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982, Sweden)
  Vivre sa vie/My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961, France)
  A bout de souffle / Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959, France)    
  Le Mépris / Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963, France)
  Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964, France)
  Bande a part/Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964, France)
  Deserto rosso / The Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964, Italy)
  Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
  Hiroshima, mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
  L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
  Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013, US; 96 min.)
D2L: Interview with Shane Carruth excerpts and Upstream Color FAQ on D2L
Video Interview with Shane Carruth

Week 11          The Politics of Space & Time  / Exam 2

Monday, March 20

Reading: 1. FAC: Gilles Deleuze, "Beyond the Movement-Image" (227-228 and bottom of 234-239) (Study Guide)
Online Video Lectures: Optional Video Lectures on D2L **Optional for extra review before today's class and again before Exam 2 but strongly recommended!**
View: Y tu mamá también (And Your Mother Too) (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001, Mexico; 105 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over Y tu mamá también film and Deleuze readings

Wednesday, March 22

Exam 2 on paper and on D2L at 9:50am (in 2 Parts)
BRING YOUR COMPUTER FOR PART 2 QUESTIONS

Exam format includes Short Answer (Part 1) and Multiple Choice/T-F (Part 2) questions that emphasize material from Section 2.

 

Section III: Cultural Criticism & Close Readings

Week 12       Ideology & Cultural Criticism

Monday, March 27

Reading: 1. FAC: Louis Althusser, excerpts from "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses": "The State" (137), "Ideological State Apparatuses" (141-158), and "Ideology Interpellates Individuals as Subjects" (170-176)
2. FAC: Jean-Luc Comolli & Jean Narboni, "Cinema/Ideology/Criticism" (686-693)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over readings

Wednesday, March 29

View: Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017, 114 min.) (Study Guide)
Online Video Lectures: Optional Lectures 1 and 2: review Get Out videos from Intro to Film BEFORE meeting today (Recommended if you missed this material when you took Intro!)
Quiz: Take-home Quiz due Wednesday at 9:50am:
- Bring & turn in on paper a bulleted list of the film's examples of ISAs and the RSA
- Enter bulleted lists of examples of ISAs and the RSA from Get Out. No need for sentences or paragraphs, but do clearly signal what your examples are from the film in short phrases. To do this, identify the ISA/RSA by the name Althusser gives them (can include the one we modified in lecture), then list the example(s) from Get Out that you found for each category. It's okay to transcribe your notes from the film here (not a photograph, but typed/transcribed/pasted), but they must be your own notes, of course!

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986, US)
  They Live! (John Carpenter, 1988, US)
  The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992, UK)
  Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, 1975, UK)
  Office Space (Mike Judge, 1999, US)
  Wag the Dog (David Mamet/Barry Levinson, 1997, US)
  Dead Poet's Society (Peter Weir, 1989, US)
  Mona Lisa Smile (Mike Newell, 2003, US)
  The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999, US)
  Bande des filles/Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, France, 2014)
  Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2000, US)

 

Week 13       Feminist Studies

Monday, April 3

Read: 1. FAC: Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema" (711-722) and review your notes from Intro to Film on Mulvey & ideology (Mulvey study guide)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over readings

Wednesday, April 5 

Read: 1. D2L: Interview with Director Jonathan Glazer on D2L
View: Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013, UK; 108 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953, US)
  The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947, US)
  American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999, US)
  Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001, Australia)
  Eve of Destruction (Duncan Gibbins, 1991, US)
  Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, 1987, US)
  The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934, US)
  Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990, US)
  Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960, US)
  Sans toit ni loi /Vagabonde (Agnès Varda, 1985, France)

 

Week 14    Race & Post-Colonial Studies

Monday, April 10

Read: 1. FAC: Robert Stam & Louise Spence, "Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction" (751-766)
2. FAC: Manthia Diawara, "Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance" (767-776)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over readings

Wednesday, April 12  CLASS MEETS VIA D2L VIDEO LECTURES TODAY

View: La Haine/Hate (Matthieu Kassovitz, 1995, France)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings on D2L (complete quiz first to unlock Video Lectures)
View: Online Video Lectures on D2L (lectures will not be visible until the quiz is completed at 9:50a)
1. Race & PoCo 2 just the last 10 min (32:35-42:03)
2. Lecture 1 Hate (0.00-42.19)

Saturday, April 15

Film Analysis Essay due by 11:59pm via D2L Assignments

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1911, US)
  The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg, 1985, US)
  Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1982, US)
  The Searchers (John Ford, 1956, US)
  Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937, France)
  La Noire / Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene, 1966, Senegal)
  Sankofa (Haile Gerima, 1994, US/Ethiopia)
  Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964, US)
  Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977, US)
  The Piano (Jane Campion, 1991, New Zealand)
  Cidade de Deus (City of God) (Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund, 2002, Brazil)
  Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês/How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1971, Brazil)
  The Battle of Algiers (Gilles Pontecorvo, 1960, Italy/Algeria)
  Soy Cuba/I am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964, Soviet Union/Cuba)
  Bande des filles/Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, France, 2014)

 

Week 15    LGBTQIQA "Queer" Studies

Monday, April 17

Reading: 1. FAC: Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" (pp. Foreward on 81-82, List on 85, Right column of 89-top of 90, Right column of 94-left column of 95)
  2. Essence review of Moonlight
View: Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016, US; 111 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over film and readings

Wednesday, April 19

Reading: 1. FAC: Judith Butler, "Subversive Acts" and "From Parody to Politics," excerpts from Gender Trouble (pp. 134-141 and 145-149)
View: XXY (Lucía Puenzo, 2007, Argentina; 88 min.)
Quiz: on Wednesday at 9:50am over film and readings

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  Fried Green Tomatoes (John Avnet, 1991, US)
  Sleep with Me (Rory Kelly, 1994, US)
  The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1995, US)
  Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011, UK)
  Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994, New Zealand)
  High Art (Lisa Cholodenko, 1998, US)
  Pariah (Dee Rees, 2011, US)
  Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1989, US)
  Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2015, US)
  The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper, 2015, UK/US/Denmark)
  XXY (Lucia Puenzo, 2007, 88 min., Argentina)
  Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015, 108 min., US)

 

Week 16       Disability Studies and Review

Monday, April 24

Read: 1. D2L: Rosemarie Garland Thomson, "Disability, Identity, and Representation: An Introduction" from Extraordinary Bodies (1997)
2. D2L: Roger Ebert's review of The Station Agent (Chicago Sun-Times)
3. D2L: Charles Taylor's review of The Station Agent (Salon Magazine)
View: The Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy, 2003, US; 88 min.) (Study Guide)
Quiz: on Monday at 9:50am over film and readings
Closing Survey assigned Monday
Online course evaluations on the DUCK begin

Wednesday, April 26

Assignment: Closing Survey due Wednesday
Class party potluck: Bring food and review questions to share with class on Wednesday! :-)
Bring your LAPTOP or Smartphone to class on Wednesday.
Online course evaluations on the DUCK end.

 

Clips and recommended additional screenings this week:
  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007, France)
  The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995, US)
  Mad Love (Antonia Bird, 1995, US)
  Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988, US)
  Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines, 1986, US)
  Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette, 2004, US)
  The Wizard of Oz (King Vidor, 1939, US)
  The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994, US)
  Richard III (Richard Loncraine, 1995, UK/US)
  The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray, 2009, US)
  The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin, 2003, Canada)
  The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2015, Ukraine)

 

Week 17 Exam 3

Monday, May 1

Exam 3 at 9:50am (in 2 Parts on paper in class)
Exam format includes Short Answer (Part 1) and Multiple Choice, Matching, T-F questions (Part 2) on material from Section 3