University of Pennsylvania Cinema Studies: Courses

FILM 101 - Film History
Cross-listed: ENGL 091, ARTH 291
This course is an introduction to the history of cinema from 1895 to the present. In demonstrating how history energizes and complicates the movies, we will examine numerous film cultures and historical periods, including Hollywood silent cinema, Italian neo-realism, the French New Wave, recent films from Iran, and a variety of other film movements from different historical epochs and cultures. Screenings will feature movies such as Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin (1925), Jean Renoir's The Grand Illusion (1937), Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause (1955), Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (1963, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), and Sally Potter's Orlando (1992). Our aim is to establish a broad historical and global foundation for the understanding of film as a complex exchange between art, technology, politics, and economics. Screenings will be mandatory.
TR 10:30 - 12:00 Lecture
T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening
CORRIGAN, Timothy (office hours: TR 8:30 - 10:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 107)

FILM 102 - Film Analysis and Methods
Cross-listed: ENGL 092, ARTH 292
This course is an introduction to the analysis of film as both a textual practice and a cultural practice. We will examine a variety of films--from Fritz Lang's M (1931) to Julia Dash's Daughters of the Dust (1991)--in order to demonstrate the tools and skills of "close reading." We will concentrate on those specifically filmic features of the movies, such as mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound strategies, as well as those larger organizational forms, such as narrative and non-narrative structures and movie genres. Because our responses to the movies always extend beyond the film frame, we will additionally do "close readings" of the complex business of film distribution, promotion, and exhibition to show how the less visible machinery of the movie business also shapes our understanding and enjoyment of particular films. Along the way, we will discuss some of the most influential and productive critical schools of thought informing film analysis today, including realism, auteurism, feminism, postmodernism, and others. Screenings are mandatory.
TR 1:30 - 3:00 Lecture
R 5:00 - 7:30 Screening
CORRIGAN, Timothy (office hours: TR 8:30 - 10:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 107)

Primary Film Courses

FILM 118 - Iranian Cinema: Gender, Politics, and Religion
Cross-listed: AMES 118
Post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema has gained exceptional international reception in the past two decades. In most major national and international festivals, Iranian films have taken numerous prizes for their outstanding representation of life and society, and their courage in defying censorship barriers. In this course, we will examine the distinct characteristics of the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. Discussion will revolve around themes such as gender politics, family relationships and women's social, economic and political roles, as well as the levels of representation and criticism of modern Iran's political and religious structure within the current boundaries. There will be a total of 12 films shown and will include works by Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Beizai, Milani, Bani-Etemad and Panahi, among others.
T 1:30 - 4:30 Lecture
MINUCHEHR Pardis

FILM 201 - TOPICS IN FILM HISTORY: Film and Social Change
Cross-listed: ENGL 291
We will explore the effect that the medium of film has had upon social, political and personal change-and vice-versa. There is a large body of films which have attempted to influence politics, social change, economics and the law. We will concentrate on three issues-war, trade unions and equal rights and see how they have been portrayed in films which try to "make a difference," Among the filmmakers we will study are Ken Loach, Gillo Pontecorvo, Dusan Makavejev, Jean-Luc Godard, Lewis Milestone and Herbert Biberman.
TR 12:00 - 1:30 Lecture
T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening
KATZ, John

FILM 202/401 - TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES: American Independent Film
Cross-listed: ENGL 292/401
This course will introduce students to the aesthetics, subject matter, financing, production, distribution and exhibition of American independent film. We will explore films with subject matter and aesthetics Hollywood has traditionally been reluctant to embrace. The films we will consider will include the recent films "American Splendor" and "Elephant." We will examine the conditions under which independent films are made and discuss how audiences react to them. We will also question the social, political and economic realities that influenced these films. Among the filmmakers we will consider are David Lynch, the Coen brothers, Spike Lee, John Cassavetes, Jim Jarmusch, John Waters, John Sayles, Barbara Koppel and Wayne Wang. There are mandatory evening film screenings every week.
TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening
KATZ, John

FILM 202/402 - TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES: The Hollywood Film Industry
Cross-listed: ENGL 292/402
This course seeks to unravel Hollywood’s complex workings and explain how American film came to dominate world film screens. We will trace the history of Hollywood from its formation in the 1910s through the 21st century, asking questions such as: How did movie stars and genre films come to dominate the film industry? What is the relationship between Hollywood and independent film? How has the global spread of Hollywood since the 1920s changed the film industry? How has Hollywood responded to crises in American politics? And how have new technologies such as synchronized sound and color cinematography, television and the VCR, and new digital technologies changed film and the film industry? We will look closely at representative studios (Paramount, Disney, and others), and we will examine the impact of industrial changes on the screen through close film analysis and weekly screenings.
MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
M 5:00 - 7:30 Screening
DECHERNEY, Peter (office hours: R 10:00 - 12:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 105)

FILM 202/601 - TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES: Hollywood and the American Novel
Cross-listed: ENGL 292/601
Is the book better than the movie? In an age when American culture seems increasingly defined by its directors and producers rather than its authors, how do we understand Hollywood’s long-standing fascination with the American novel? Or the fascination with Hollywood of novelists like Faulkner, Hemingway and Hammett? This class will look at the evolving languages of Hollywood film style and the 20th-century American novel as they intersect in film adaptations that simultaneously contribute to, and problematize, the American cultural tradition. When taken in conjunction with one another, these texts and filmic adaptations pose important problems for our understanding of authorship; the relationship between word and image; and slippery distinctions like that between ‘high,’ ‘low’ and ‘mass’ culture. Attention will be given to texts and films, but also to theories and methodologies that will inform our thinking about the relationship between them. Novels and adaptations may include Goodbye Columbus, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Deliverance, Lolita, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Loved One, and Smoke Signals.
T 6:30 - 9:30 Lecture
ESPEY, David

FILM 203 - Introduction Film Forms and Contexts
Cross-listed: COMM 140
This course will trace the development of the classical Hollywood cinema, as well as significant alternatives to this dominant mode of representation, by relating analyses of the formal elements of film texts to discussions of film industries and audiences as well as the larger social, historical context. A variety of analytical methods and perspectives will be applied to films drawn from different times and countries in order to consider the cinema as a cultural construction.
TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
MESSARIS, Paul

FILM 246 - Masterpieces of French Cinema (IN FRENCH)
Cross-listed: FREN 230
The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the history and scope of French cinema all the way to the present time through the analysis of key works of the French film canon. Particular attention will be paid to the various period styles ("le réalisme poétique", "la qualité française", "la nouvelle vague", "le cinéma du look", …) and a variety of critical lenses will be used (psychoanalysis, socio-historical and cultural context, politics, aesthetics, gender…) in a effort to better understand the specificities and complexities of these films. Film directors considered may include Renoir, Duvivier, Carné, Clément, Clouzot, Bresson, Truffaut, Resnais, Godard, Chabrol, Tavernier, Beineix, Denis and others. Entirely conducted in French.
T 1:30 - 4:30 Lecture and Screening
R 1:30 - 3:00 Lecture
MET, Philippe

FILM 258 - German Cinema
Cross-listed: GRMN 258
An introduction to the momentous history of German film, from its beginnings before World War One to developments following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990. With an eye to film's place in its historical and political context, the course will explore the "Golden Age" of German cinema in the Weimar Republic, when Berlin vied with Hollywood; the complex relationship between Nazi ideology and entertainment during the Third Reich; the fate of German film-makers in exile during the Hitler years; post-war film production in both West and East Germany; the call for an alternative to "Papa's Kino" and the rise of New German Cinema in the 1960s.
MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
MACLEOD, Catriona (office hours: W 10:00 - 12:00, Williams 733)

FILM 295 - TOPICS IN CULTURAL STUDIES: Propaganda and Political Censorship in American Media
Cross-listed: ENGL 295
This course examines propaganda and political censorship in American media (primarily film, television, and the Internet). We will consider competing theories and definitions of propaganda and the many ways that U.S. film, television, and digital media fit into those categories. Weekly topics include the World War I Creel Commission, Washington’s role in Hollywood censorship, the government’s World War II films, the Blacklist, the CIA’s support for the arts during the cold war, the effect of media consolidation on news and entertainment, the role of the media in the War on Terror, the Patriot Act, and more. We will read theories of propaganda by Walter Lippmann, Joseph Goebbles, Theodor Adorno, and Charlotte Beers, among others. Films include Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, the Army’s Autobiography of a Jeep, John Huston’s The Battle of San Pietro, Charlie Chaplin’s A King in New York, Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9-11, and Robert Greenwald’s OutFoxed.
TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening
DECHERNEY, Peter (office hours: R 10:00 - 12:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 105)

FILM 397 - Cinema Minimo (IN SPANISH)
Cross-listed: SPAN 397
This course explores the phenomenon of low budget, no budget, tiny cast, no crew, short duration and made-on-vacation filmmaking in Spain and Latin America. Following a brief history of short films from the early 20th century-- including the extraordinary silent work of Segundo de Chomón--this course will investigate the way students and amateur filmmakers have recently taken the camera and editing equipment into their own hands and challenged the tyranny of the feature length film through the electronic dissemination of low cost shorts. During the semester we will view more than one hundred films (30 seconds to 15 minutes in length) covering all genres including horror, melodrama, erotica, comedy, documentary and musical clips. We will study the technical and logistic aspects of on-line film festivals such as Solocortos.com (Argentina), NoTodo.com and Minutoymedio.com (Spain), while comparing these recent popular cinematographic movements to other minimal formats such as those developed in years past in Mexico (superocheros and narcocinema) and Latin America (Tercer cinema documentary). Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
SOLOMON Michael

Interdisciplinary Film Courses

FILM 125 - Dream and Nightmare in Fiction and Film
Cross-listed: RUSS 185; COML 185
This course is devoted to some of the most exciting modern films and novels from Latin America, Russia, and Europe -- dreams and nightmares that allow us to comprehend the "underground" of human experience. Our approach will be comparative, considering literary works in the context of film and the other arts, with special emphasis on several directors who laid the foundations of modern film: Fritz Lang, Dziga Vertov, and Sergei Eisenstein. Topics of discussion will include: creativity, deviant behavior, cultural dialogue, dissent, "delirious" modern cities (St. Petersburg, Prague, Rio de Janiero), and death. Works by Dostoevsky, Gogol, Kafka, Proust, Lispector, Machado de Assis, Mario de Andrade, Saramago, Petrushevskaia, Pelevin and others.
TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
ALLEN

FILM 137 - Introduction to Music and Sound in Cinema
Cross-listed: MUSC 037
In this course we will investigate the relationship between the soundtrack and the image in a variety of films ranging from the "silent" era to the present. Our discussion of the soundtrack will emphasize the importance of music but also consider the role of voice and noise in the production of cinematic meaning. Prior to our discussion of cinema proper we will analyze Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and take on aspects of the composer's theory of music drama as a precursor to cinematic technique. Films: Chaplin, Modern Times; Coen Brothers, O Brother, Where art thou?; Donen/Kelly, Singin' in the Rain; Godard, Masculine/Feminine; Hitchcock, Vertigo; Leone, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Marker, La Jetee; Minnelli, A Star is Born; Suzuki, Tokyo Drifter; Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera; Welles, Touch of Evil.
TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
COPENHAFER, David

FILM 224 - Jewish Film and Literature: History and Memory
Cross-listed: AMES 154, COML 282, ENGL 293, JWSP 154
T 1:30 - 4:30 Lecture
NEVO

FILM 253 - Russian History in Film
Cross-listed: RUSS 275
This course draws on the fictional, drama and cinematic representation of the Russian history based on Russian as well as non Russian sources and interpretations. The analysis targets major modes of imagining, such as narrating, showing and reenacting historical events, personae and epochs justified by different, historically mutating ideological postulates and forms of national self-consciousness. Common stereotypes of picturing Russia from "foreign" perspectives draw special attention. The discussion involves the following themes and outstanding figures: the mighty autocrats Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great; the tragic ruler Boris Godunov; the brazen rebel and royal impostor Pugachov; the notorious Rasputin, his uncanny powers, sex-appeal, and court machinations; Lenin and the October Revolution; images of war; the times of construction and the times of collapse of the Soviet Colossus.
MW 4:30 - 6:00 Lecture
TODOROV, Vladislav

FILM 300 - Cinema and the Other Arts: ICA Seminar [Contemporary Art and the Art of Curating]
Cross-listed: ARTH 301
A two-semester course, taught in conjunction with the Institute of Contemporary Art. The fall semester provides an intensive introduction to the major issues and movements in contemporary art, focusing this year on film and electronic media, and an overview of contemporary museum and exhibition practices. Frequent field trips to galleries, museums, and private collections. By midyear, participants will have designed an exhibition for installation at the ICA, and they will work in collaboration with the ICA's curatorial staff throughout the spring on every aspect of the show. Registration requires the approval of the instructor, who will interview interested students on Monday, May 3. Preference given to History of Art, Visual Studies, and Cinema Studies majors and minors.
M 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture
BECKMAN, Karen (office hours: MW 1:00 - 2:00, 209 Jaffe)

FILM 346 - French Pulp Fiction in Literature and Film (IN FRENCH)
Cross-listed: FREN 380
Often referred to in French as "paralittérature" on its literary side, pulp fiction and popular genres constitute a rather unstable, loosely defined category that tends to collapse non-canonical modes of expression. The purpose of this course is to explore the socio-economic and ideological, as well as artistic, underpinnings of a genre that is consistently decried and marginalized by cultural institutions. Such subgenres as comics, crime, horror, science fiction, adventure and eroticism (or pornography) will be considered in both their literary and filmic guises, with particular emphasis on various representations of "otherness" (the monster, the alien, the criminal, the primitive, the femme fatale, the sexual predator, etc), serialized modes of production, recurrent narrative structures, the use and function of stereotypes, etc. Please note: this seminar is for seniors (majoring in French) only.
TR 10:30 - 12:00 Lecture
MET, Philippe

FILM 370 - Blacks in American Film/TV
Cross-listed: AFAM 400
M 4:30 - 7:10 Lecture
BOGLE, D.

FILM 380 - Italian Fiction into Film (IN ITALIAN)
Cross-listed: ITAL 380
Against a historical background from the Risorgimento to Fascism, World War II and the post-war period of recovery, "Italian Encores" will present fiction by 19th- and 20th-century authors in six film adaptations. Selections, representing literary styles from Verismo to Neorealismo, will alternate between novels and novelle: Verga's I Malavoglia and Visconti's La terra trema; Senso by Boito and Visconti; Il gattopardo by Tomasi di Lampedusa and Visconti; Porte aperte by Sciascia and Amelio; La Ciociara by Moravia and De Sica. The course will conclude with an autobiography (1975), Padre Padrone by Ledda and the Taviani Brothers. Discussions of one to two weeks for texts, depending on length, will be followed by a week of classes devoted to each film. Films will be shown during a scheduled weekly screening time and also be available on library reserve for individual consultation. Topics to be addressed will include film in its relation with the sister arts (literature, painting, music), the directors in their identity as auteur, and Italian cultural issues, such as ideals and disillusionments of the Unification, government corruption, class structure, regional identity (Sicily, Sardinia), gender issues, and the family. Class conducted in Italian; prerequisite 5 semesters of Italian or equivalent.
TR 12:00 - 1:30 Lecture
KIRKHAM, Victoria

FILM 426 - Chekhov on Stage and Screen
Cross-listed: RUSS 426
"What's so funny, Mr. Chekhov?" This question is often asked by critics and directors who still are puzzled with Chekhov's definition of his four major plays as comedies. Traditionally, all of them are staged and directed as dramas, melodramas, or tragedies. Should we cry or should we laugh at Chekhovian characters who commit suicide, or are killed, or simply cannot move to a better place of living? Is the laughable synonymous to comedy and the comic? Should any fatal outcome be considered tragic? All these and other questions will be discussed during the course.
T 5:30 - 8:30 Lecture
ZUBAREV, Vera

FILM 009 - Race & Popular Cinema
Cross-listed: ASAM 009, AFAM 009
From the mainstreaming of performers such as Eddie Murphy and Ice Cube to the recent fixation on Japan, American cinema would seem to have become truly multicultural. By examining films across a spectrum of genres and from a range of time periods, we will explore film as a medium for reflecting and constructing attitudes about racial difference and related social issues such as the value of tradition, the defining of national character, and anxieties about sex and sexuality. As an Academically Based Community Service Course, we will be exploring some of these films with a partner class of local high-school students. Students will produce a series of critical responses to films as well as a larger research project in conjunction with our high school partners. Thus, students will “learn by teaching” while considering film as a determining force in culture as well as its value as a teaching tool.
TR 1:30 - 3:00 Lecture
M 3:00 - 5:00 Screening
SADASHIGE, Jacqui

FILM 116 - Screenwriting Workshop
Cross-listed: ENGL 116
This course will look at the screenplay as both a literary text and a blue print for production. Several classic screenplay texts will be critically analyzed (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, PSYCHO, etc.) Students will then embark on writing their own scripts. We will intensively focus on: character enhancement, creating "believable" cinematic dialogue, plot development and story structure, conflict, pacing, dramatic foreshadowing, the element of surprise, text and subtext and visual story-telling. Class attendance is mandatory. Students will submit their works-in-progress to the workshop for discussion.
M 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture
LAPADULA, Marc

FILM 503 - MLA: Love, Politics and Myth in Popular Cinema
Cross-listed: WSTD 503
Looking at such popular English language films as Titanic, The Piano, Reds, Cold Mountain, Gone with the Wind, and others, this course explores images of romantic love set against the background of often turbulent political times. Using Homer's the Illiad and the Oddysey and Dante's The Divine Comedy as a classical and medieval frame, respectively, for romantic love in a "dangerous time," and the writings of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Carl Kerenyi, Luce Irigary, and others, the course explores the relationships amoung romantic love, spiritual transformation, individuation and cultural and political evolution.
M 6:00 - 8:40 Lecture
MACKEY-KALLIS Susan

FILM 593 - Proseminar in Contemporary Film Theory
Cross-listed: ARTH 593
This seminar will survey the major developments in contemporary film theory (1960-present), addressing how filmmaking practices and Cinema Studies have been influenced by semiotics, psychoanalysis, marxism, decolonization, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-modernism and the emergence of new media. After surveying the historical trends within film theory, the course will then examine the role of theory in the study of film today. Are we, as some critics have recently claimed, "after Theory"? What stake does Cinema Studies have in fighting for, or against, the continuation of film theory as an essential component of the discipline? Attendance at weekly screenings is required.
W 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture
BECKMAN, Karen (office hours: MW 1:00 - 2:00, 209 Jaffe)

COMM 439 - Media Criticism, ZELIZER, M 2:00 - 5:00
COMM 819 - The Politics of Representation, SENDER, M 7:00 - 10:00, T 6:00 - 9:00

ENGL 012 - Writing Seminar in Film, BURRI, R 6:30 - 9:30
ENGL 117 - The Arts and Popular Culture, DECURTIS, R 1:30 - 4:30
ENGL 119 - Performance Arts Criticism, KANT, M 2:00 - 5:00
ENGL 292 - Topics in Film Studies, LESSARD, T 6:30 - 9:30

FNAR 061 - Film Video I, Staff, check for times
FNAR 062 - Film Video II, SWEENEY, W 4:00 - 7:00
FNAR 063 - Documentary Video, KREIDER, M 4:30 - 7:30
FNAR 064 - Interactive Video, CHAN, T 7:00 - 10:00
FNAR 252 - Printmaking: Relief/Screen, PEASE, MW 1:00 - 4:00
FNAR 267 - Animation, Staff, TR 1:30 - 4:30
FNAR 271 - Photography I, Staff, check for times
FNAR 272 - Photography I, Staff, check for times
FNAR 275 - Color Photography I, Staff, check for times
FNAR 277 - Photo III: Visual Diary, YOUNG, T 12:00 - 3:00
FNAR 287 - Color Photography II, GALLERY, R 5:00 - 8:00
FNAR 289 - Mixed Media Animation, Staff, TR 9:00 - 12:00
FNAR 340 - Digital Photography, WOODIN, F 1:00 - 4:00

SARS 253 - Media and Society in South Asia, NOVETZKE, TR 3:00 - 4:30

SPAN 397 - History Spanish American Culture, SALESSI, TR 1:30 -3:00

THAR 120 - Introduction to Acting, FERGUSON, TR 10:30 - 12:00
THAR 121 - Introduction to Directing, SCHLATTER, TR 10:30 -12:00
THAR 131 - Concepts of Lightning, WHINNERY, MW 3:00 - 4:30
THAR 170 - Voice for the Actor, BORTHWICK-LESLI, W 2:00 - 5:00
THAR 350 - Rehearsal and Perfomance: "Deep Sleep", MALAGUE, TBA

		Courses			Fall 2004 Offerings

		Fall 2008 Spring 2008 Fall 2007 Spring 2007 Fall 2006 Spring 2006 Fall 2005 Spring 2005 Fall 2004 Spring 2004 Cinema Studies Major Cinema Studies Minor			Requirements FILM 101 - Film History Cross-listed: ENGL 091, ARTH 291 This course is an introduction to the history of cinema from 1895 to the present. In demonstrating how history energizes and complicates the movies, we will examine numerous film cultures and historical periods, including Hollywood silent cinema, Italian neo-realism, the French New Wave, recent films from Iran, and a variety of other film movements from different historical epochs and cultures. Screenings will feature movies such as Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin (1925), Jean Renoir's The Grand Illusion (1937), Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause (1955), Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (1963, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), and Sally Potter's Orlando (1992). Our aim is to establish a broad historical and global foundation for the understanding of film as a complex exchange between art, technology, politics, and economics. Screenings will be mandatory. TR 10:30 - 12:00 Lecture T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening CORRIGAN, Timothy (office hours: TR 8:30 - 10:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 107) FILM 102 - Film Analysis and Methods Cross-listed: ENGL 092, ARTH 292 This course is an introduction to the analysis of film as both a textual practice and a cultural practice. We will examine a variety of films--from Fritz Lang's M (1931) to Julia Dash's Daughters of the Dust (1991)--in order to demonstrate the tools and skills of "close reading." We will concentrate on those specifically filmic features of the movies, such as mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound strategies, as well as those larger organizational forms, such as narrative and non-narrative structures and movie genres. Because our responses to the movies always extend beyond the film frame, we will additionally do "close readings" of the complex business of film distribution, promotion, and exhibition to show how the less visible machinery of the movie business also shapes our understanding and enjoyment of particular films. Along the way, we will discuss some of the most influential and productive critical schools of thought informing film analysis today, including realism, auteurism, feminism, postmodernism, and others. Screenings are mandatory. TR 1:30 - 3:00 Lecture R 5:00 - 7:30 Screening CORRIGAN, Timothy (office hours: TR 8:30 - 10:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 107) Primary Film Courses FILM 118 - Iranian Cinema: Gender, Politics, and Religion Cross-listed: AMES 118 Post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema has gained exceptional international reception in the past two decades. In most major national and international festivals, Iranian films have taken numerous prizes for their outstanding representation of life and society, and their courage in defying censorship barriers. In this course, we will examine the distinct characteristics of the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. Discussion will revolve around themes such as gender politics, family relationships and women's social, economic and political roles, as well as the levels of representation and criticism of modern Iran's political and religious structure within the current boundaries. There will be a total of 12 films shown and will include works by Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Beizai, Milani, Bani-Etemad and Panahi, among others. T 1:30 - 4:30 Lecture MINUCHEHR Pardis FILM 201 - TOPICS IN FILM HISTORY: Film and Social Change Cross-listed: ENGL 291 We will explore the effect that the medium of film has had upon social, political and personal change-and vice-versa. There is a large body of films which have attempted to influence politics, social change, economics and the law. We will concentrate on three issues-war, trade unions and equal rights and see how they have been portrayed in films which try to "make a difference," Among the filmmakers we will study are Ken Loach, Gillo Pontecorvo, Dusan Makavejev, Jean-Luc Godard, Lewis Milestone and Herbert Biberman. TR 12:00 - 1:30 Lecture T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening KATZ, John FILM 202/401 - TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES: American Independent Film Cross-listed: ENGL 292/401 This course will introduce students to the aesthetics, subject matter, financing, production, distribution and exhibition of American independent film. We will explore films with subject matter and aesthetics Hollywood has traditionally been reluctant to embrace. The films we will consider will include the recent films "American Splendor" and "Elephant." We will examine the conditions under which independent films are made and discuss how audiences react to them. We will also question the social, political and economic realities that influenced these films. Among the filmmakers we will consider are David Lynch, the Coen brothers, Spike Lee, John Cassavetes, Jim Jarmusch, John Waters, John Sayles, Barbara Koppel and Wayne Wang. There are mandatory evening film screenings every week. TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening KATZ, John FILM 202/402 - TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES: The Hollywood Film Industry Cross-listed: ENGL 292/402 This course seeks to unravel Hollywood’s complex workings and explain how American film came to dominate world film screens. We will trace the history of Hollywood from its formation in the 1910s through the 21st century, asking questions such as: How did movie stars and genre films come to dominate the film industry? What is the relationship between Hollywood and independent film? How has the global spread of Hollywood since the 1920s changed the film industry? How has Hollywood responded to crises in American politics? And how have new technologies such as synchronized sound and color cinematography, television and the VCR, and new digital technologies changed film and the film industry? We will look closely at representative studios (Paramount, Disney, and others), and we will examine the impact of industrial changes on the screen through close film analysis and weekly screenings. MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture M 5:00 - 7:30 Screening DECHERNEY, Peter (office hours: R 10:00 - 12:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 105) FILM 202/601 - TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES: Hollywood and the American Novel Cross-listed: ENGL 292/601 Is the book better than the movie? In an age when American culture seems increasingly defined by its directors and producers rather than its authors, how do we understand Hollywood’s long-standing fascination with the American novel? Or the fascination with Hollywood of novelists like Faulkner, Hemingway and Hammett? This class will look at the evolving languages of Hollywood film style and the 20th-century American novel as they intersect in film adaptations that simultaneously contribute to, and problematize, the American cultural tradition. When taken in conjunction with one another, these texts and filmic adaptations pose important problems for our understanding of authorship; the relationship between word and image; and slippery distinctions like that between ‘high,’ ‘low’ and ‘mass’ culture. Attention will be given to texts and films, but also to theories and methodologies that will inform our thinking about the relationship between them. Novels and adaptations may include Goodbye Columbus, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Deliverance, Lolita, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Loved One, and Smoke Signals. T 6:30 - 9:30 Lecture ESPEY, David FILM 203 - Introduction Film Forms and Contexts Cross-listed: COMM 140 This course will trace the development of the classical Hollywood cinema, as well as significant alternatives to this dominant mode of representation, by relating analyses of the formal elements of film texts to discussions of film industries and audiences as well as the larger social, historical context. A variety of analytical methods and perspectives will be applied to films drawn from different times and countries in order to consider the cinema as a cultural construction. TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture MESSARIS, Paul FILM 246 - Masterpieces of French Cinema (IN FRENCH) Cross-listed: FREN 230 The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the history and scope of French cinema all the way to the present time through the analysis of key works of the French film canon. Particular attention will be paid to the various period styles ("le réalisme poétique", "la qualité française", "la nouvelle vague", "le cinéma du look", …) and a variety of critical lenses will be used (psychoanalysis, socio-historical and cultural context, politics, aesthetics, gender…) in a effort to better understand the specificities and complexities of these films. Film directors considered may include Renoir, Duvivier, Carné, Clément, Clouzot, Bresson, Truffaut, Resnais, Godard, Chabrol, Tavernier, Beineix, Denis and others. Entirely conducted in French. T 1:30 - 4:30 Lecture and Screening R 1:30 - 3:00 Lecture MET, Philippe FILM 258 - German Cinema Cross-listed: GRMN 258 An introduction to the momentous history of German film, from its beginnings before World War One to developments following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990. With an eye to film's place in its historical and political context, the course will explore the "Golden Age" of German cinema in the Weimar Republic, when Berlin vied with Hollywood; the complex relationship between Nazi ideology and entertainment during the Third Reich; the fate of German film-makers in exile during the Hitler years; post-war film production in both West and East Germany; the call for an alternative to "Papa's Kino" and the rise of New German Cinema in the 1960s. MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture MACLEOD, Catriona (office hours: W 10:00 - 12:00, Williams 733) FILM 295 - TOPICS IN CULTURAL STUDIES: Propaganda and Political Censorship in American Media Cross-listed: ENGL 295 This course examines propaganda and political censorship in American media (primarily film, television, and the Internet). We will consider competing theories and definitions of propaganda and the many ways that U.S. film, television, and digital media fit into those categories. Weekly topics include the World War I Creel Commission, Washington’s role in Hollywood censorship, the government’s World War II films, the Blacklist, the CIA’s support for the arts during the cold war, the effect of media consolidation on news and entertainment, the role of the media in the War on Terror, the Patriot Act, and more. We will read theories of propaganda by Walter Lippmann, Joseph Goebbles, Theodor Adorno, and Charlotte Beers, among others. Films include Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, the Army’s Autobiography of a Jeep, John Huston’s The Battle of San Pietro, Charlie Chaplin’s A King in New York, Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9-11, and Robert Greenwald’s OutFoxed. TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening DECHERNEY, Peter (office hours: R 10:00 - 12:00 and by appointment, 3600 Market Street, Ste. 135, Rm. 105) FILM 397 - Cinema Minimo (IN SPANISH) Cross-listed: SPAN 397 This course explores the phenomenon of low budget, no budget, tiny cast, no crew, short duration and made-on-vacation filmmaking in Spain and Latin America. Following a brief history of short films from the early 20th century-- including the extraordinary silent work of Segundo de Chomón--this course will investigate the way students and amateur filmmakers have recently taken the camera and editing equipment into their own hands and challenged the tyranny of the feature length film through the electronic dissemination of low cost shorts. During the semester we will view more than one hundred films (30 seconds to 15 minutes in length) covering all genres including horror, melodrama, erotica, comedy, documentary and musical clips. We will study the technical and logistic aspects of on-line film festivals such as Solocortos.com (Argentina), NoTodo.com and Minutoymedio.com (Spain), while comparing these recent popular cinematographic movements to other minimal formats such as those developed in years past in Mexico (superocheros and narcocinema) and Latin America (Tercer cinema documentary). Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture SOLOMON Michael Interdisciplinary Film Courses FILM 125 - Dream and Nightmare in Fiction and Film Cross-listed: RUSS 185; COML 185 This course is devoted to some of the most exciting modern films and novels from Latin America, Russia, and Europe -- dreams and nightmares that allow us to comprehend the "underground" of human experience. Our approach will be comparative, considering literary works in the context of film and the other arts, with special emphasis on several directors who laid the foundations of modern film: Fritz Lang, Dziga Vertov, and Sergei Eisenstein. Topics of discussion will include: creativity, deviant behavior, cultural dialogue, dissent, "delirious" modern cities (St. Petersburg, Prague, Rio de Janiero), and death. Works by Dostoevsky, Gogol, Kafka, Proust, Lispector, Machado de Assis, Mario de Andrade, Saramago, Petrushevskaia, Pelevin and others. TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture ALLEN FILM 137 - Introduction to Music and Sound in Cinema Cross-listed: MUSC 037 In this course we will investigate the relationship between the soundtrack and the image in a variety of films ranging from the "silent" era to the present. Our discussion of the soundtrack will emphasize the importance of music but also consider the role of voice and noise in the production of cinematic meaning. Prior to our discussion of cinema proper we will analyze Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and take on aspects of the composer's theory of music drama as a precursor to cinematic technique. Films: Chaplin, Modern Times; Coen Brothers, O Brother, Where art thou?; Donen/Kelly, Singin' in the Rain; Godard, Masculine/Feminine; Hitchcock, Vertigo; Leone, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Marker, La Jetee; Minnelli, A Star is Born; Suzuki, Tokyo Drifter; Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera; Welles, Touch of Evil. TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture COPENHAFER, David FILM 224 - Jewish Film and Literature: History and Memory Cross-listed: AMES 154, COML 282, ENGL 293, JWSP 154 T 1:30 - 4:30 Lecture NEVO FILM 253 - Russian History in Film Cross-listed: RUSS 275 This course draws on the fictional, drama and cinematic representation of the Russian history based on Russian as well as non Russian sources and interpretations. The analysis targets major modes of imagining, such as narrating, showing and reenacting historical events, personae and epochs justified by different, historically mutating ideological postulates and forms of national self-consciousness. Common stereotypes of picturing Russia from "foreign" perspectives draw special attention. The discussion involves the following themes and outstanding figures: the mighty autocrats Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great; the tragic ruler Boris Godunov; the brazen rebel and royal impostor Pugachov; the notorious Rasputin, his uncanny powers, sex-appeal, and court machinations; Lenin and the October Revolution; images of war; the times of construction and the times of collapse of the Soviet Colossus. MW 4:30 - 6:00 Lecture TODOROV, Vladislav FILM 300 - Cinema and the Other Arts: ICA Seminar [Contemporary Art and the Art of Curating] Cross-listed: ARTH 301 A two-semester course, taught in conjunction with the Institute of Contemporary Art. The fall semester provides an intensive introduction to the major issues and movements in contemporary art, focusing this year on film and electronic media, and an overview of contemporary museum and exhibition practices. Frequent field trips to galleries, museums, and private collections. By midyear, participants will have designed an exhibition for installation at the ICA, and they will work in collaboration with the ICA's curatorial staff throughout the spring on every aspect of the show. Registration requires the approval of the instructor, who will interview interested students on Monday, May 3. Preference given to History of Art, Visual Studies, and Cinema Studies majors and minors. M 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture BECKMAN, Karen (office hours: MW 1:00 - 2:00, 209 Jaffe) FILM 346 - French Pulp Fiction in Literature and Film (IN FRENCH) Cross-listed: FREN 380 Often referred to in French as "paralittérature" on its literary side, pulp fiction and popular genres constitute a rather unstable, loosely defined category that tends to collapse non-canonical modes of expression. The purpose of this course is to explore the socio-economic and ideological, as well as artistic, underpinnings of a genre that is consistently decried and marginalized by cultural institutions. Such subgenres as comics, crime, horror, science fiction, adventure and eroticism (or pornography) will be considered in both their literary and filmic guises, with particular emphasis on various representations of "otherness" (the monster, the alien, the criminal, the primitive, the femme fatale, the sexual predator, etc), serialized modes of production, recurrent narrative structures, the use and function of stereotypes, etc. Please note: this seminar is for seniors (majoring in French) only. TR 10:30 - 12:00 Lecture MET, Philippe FILM 370 - Blacks in American Film/TV Cross-listed: AFAM 400 M 4:30 - 7:10 Lecture BOGLE, D. FILM 380 - Italian Fiction into Film (IN ITALIAN) Cross-listed: ITAL 380 Against a historical background from the Risorgimento to Fascism, World War II and the post-war period of recovery, "Italian Encores" will present fiction by 19th- and 20th-century authors in six film adaptations. Selections, representing literary styles from Verismo to Neorealismo, will alternate between novels and novelle: Verga's I Malavoglia and Visconti's La terra trema; Senso by Boito and Visconti; Il gattopardo by Tomasi di Lampedusa and Visconti; Porte aperte by Sciascia and Amelio; La Ciociara by Moravia and De Sica. The course will conclude with an autobiography (1975), Padre Padrone by Ledda and the Taviani Brothers. Discussions of one to two weeks for texts, depending on length, will be followed by a week of classes devoted to each film. Films will be shown during a scheduled weekly screening time and also be available on library reserve for individual consultation. Topics to be addressed will include film in its relation with the sister arts (literature, painting, music), the directors in their identity as auteur, and Italian cultural issues, such as ideals and disillusionments of the Unification, government corruption, class structure, regional identity (Sicily, Sardinia), gender issues, and the family. Class conducted in Italian; prerequisite 5 semesters of Italian or equivalent. TR 12:00 - 1:30 Lecture KIRKHAM, Victoria FILM 426 - Chekhov on Stage and Screen Cross-listed: RUSS 426 "What's so funny, Mr. Chekhov?" This question is often asked by critics and directors who still are puzzled with Chekhov's definition of his four major plays as comedies. Traditionally, all of them are staged and directed as dramas, melodramas, or tragedies. Should we cry or should we laugh at Chekhovian characters who commit suicide, or are killed, or simply cannot move to a better place of living? Is the laughable synonymous to comedy and the comic? Should any fatal outcome be considered tragic? All these and other questions will be discussed during the course. T 5:30 - 8:30 Lecture ZUBAREV, Vera Film production courses, related courses, and graduate courses FILM 009 - Race & Popular Cinema Cross-listed: ASAM 009, AFAM 009 From the mainstreaming of performers such as Eddie Murphy and Ice Cube to the recent fixation on Japan, American cinema would seem to have become truly multicultural. By examining films across a spectrum of genres and from a range of time periods, we will explore film as a medium for reflecting and constructing attitudes about racial difference and related social issues such as the value of tradition, the defining of national character, and anxieties about sex and sexuality. As an Academically Based Community Service Course, we will be exploring some of these films with a partner class of local high-school students. Students will produce a series of critical responses to films as well as a larger research project in conjunction with our high school partners. Thus, students will “learn by teaching” while considering film as a determining force in culture as well as its value as a teaching tool. TR 1:30 - 3:00 Lecture M 3:00 - 5:00 Screening SADASHIGE, Jacqui FILM 116 - Screenwriting Workshop Cross-listed: ENGL 116 This course will look at the screenplay as both a literary text and a blue print for production. Several classic screenplay texts will be critically analyzed (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, PSYCHO, etc.) Students will then embark on writing their own scripts. We will intensively focus on: character enhancement, creating "believable" cinematic dialogue, plot development and story structure, conflict, pacing, dramatic foreshadowing, the element of surprise, text and subtext and visual story-telling. Class attendance is mandatory. Students will submit their works-in-progress to the workshop for discussion. M 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture LAPADULA, Marc FILM 503 - MLA: Love, Politics and Myth in Popular Cinema Cross-listed: WSTD 503 Looking at such popular English language films as Titanic, The Piano, Reds, Cold Mountain, Gone with the Wind, and others, this course explores images of romantic love set against the background of often turbulent political times. Using Homer's the Illiad and the Oddysey and Dante's The Divine Comedy as a classical and medieval frame, respectively, for romantic love in a "dangerous time," and the writings of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Carl Kerenyi, Luce Irigary, and others, the course explores the relationships amoung romantic love, spiritual transformation, individuation and cultural and political evolution. M 6:00 - 8:40 Lecture MACKEY-KALLIS Susan FILM 593 - Proseminar in Contemporary Film Theory Cross-listed: ARTH 593 This seminar will survey the major developments in contemporary film theory (1960-present), addressing how filmmaking practices and Cinema Studies have been influenced by semiotics, psychoanalysis, marxism, decolonization, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-modernism and the emergence of new media. After surveying the historical trends within film theory, the course will then examine the role of theory in the study of film today. Are we, as some critics have recently claimed, "after Theory"? What stake does Cinema Studies have in fighting for, or against, the continuation of film theory as an essential component of the discipline? Attendance at weekly screenings is required. W 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture BECKMAN, Karen (office hours: MW 1:00 - 2:00, 209 Jaffe) COMM 439 - Media Criticism, ZELIZER, M 2:00 - 5:00 COMM 819 - The Politics of Representation, SENDER, M 7:00 - 10:00, T 6:00 - 9:00 ENGL 012 - Writing Seminar in Film, BURRI, R 6:30 - 9:30 ENGL 117 - The Arts and Popular Culture, DECURTIS, R 1:30 - 4:30 ENGL 119 - Performance Arts Criticism, KANT, M 2:00 - 5:00 ENGL 292 - Topics in Film Studies, LESSARD, T 6:30 - 9:30 FNAR 061 - Film Video I, Staff, check for times FNAR 062 - Film Video II, SWEENEY, W 4:00 - 7:00 FNAR 063 - Documentary Video, KREIDER, M 4:30 - 7:30 FNAR 064 - Interactive Video, CHAN, T 7:00 - 10:00 FNAR 252 - Printmaking: Relief/Screen, PEASE, MW 1:00 - 4:00 FNAR 267 - Animation, Staff, TR 1:30 - 4:30 FNAR 271 - Photography I, Staff, check for times FNAR 272 - Photography I, Staff, check for times FNAR 275 - Color Photography I, Staff, check for times FNAR 277 - Photo III: Visual Diary, YOUNG, T 12:00 - 3:00 FNAR 287 - Color Photography II, GALLERY, R 5:00 - 8:00 FNAR 289 - Mixed Media Animation, Staff, TR 9:00 - 12:00 FNAR 340 - Digital Photography, WOODIN, F 1:00 - 4:00 SARS 253 - Media and Society in South Asia, NOVETZKE, TR 3:00 - 4:30 SPAN 397 - History Spanish American Culture, SALESSI, TR 1:30 -3:00 THAR 120 - Introduction to Acting, FERGUSON, TR 10:30 - 12:00 THAR 121 - Introduction to Directing, SCHLATTER, TR 10:30 -12:00 THAR 131 - Concepts of Lightning, WHINNERY, MW 3:00 - 4:30 THAR 170 - Voice for the Actor, BORTHWICK-LESLI, W 2:00 - 5:00 THAR 350 - Rehearsal and Perfomance: "Deep Sleep", MALAGUE, TBA VLST 101 - Eye, Mind and Image, HOLOD/BRAINARD, TR 10:30 - 12:00

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