FILM 101: Introduction to Cinema
Cross-listed: ENGL 091
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.
CORRIGAN Timothy
MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
M 4:30 - 7:00 Screening

FILM 102: Reading Film
Cross-listed: ENGL 092
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.
CORRIGAN Timothy
MWF 12:00 - 1:00 Lecture
W 4:30 - 7:00 Screening

Three to five courses in (generic, national, thematic, or other) film traditions, of which at least one must be in non-American cinema. if the student so chooses, all five electives may be taken in the category of "cinema studies" to satisfy the minor.

FILM 115: Jane Austen and Popular Culture
Cross-listed: ENGL 101
This course provides students with an introduction to English through the study of a single author: Jane Austen. At once acutely aware of popular culture and a product of it, Austen read and wrote in popular forms, from Gothic horror to raucous satire. Her love of popular theater enters into her work constantly, her facility for writing dialogue making possible successful screen adaptations of every one of her novels. During the semester, we'll read four of Austen's novels, most likely Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion. We'll also see approximately eight films, from faithful adaptions of her novels to films like Clueless and Brigette Jones' Diary. In the first few weeks of the course, we'll read Austen in the context of the popular culture of her own time -- in the circulating libraries of resort towns like Bath, on the London stage, and in response to the twenty-three year war with France that dominated nearly all of her adult life. The second part of the course will then turn, particularly though not exclusively through the medium of film, to Austen as contemporary cultural phenomenon -- from the soldiers during the first world war who read her obsessively in the trenches, to the fans who made the Austen film industry possible, to the authors and directors who have found inspiration in her work, to the fan fiction that displaces her author to heroine of her own work. Required work: three responses, two essays, and a final examination.
GAMER Michael
MWF 1:00 - 2:00 Lecture

FILM 116-401: Screenwriting Workshop
Cross-listed: ENGL 116-401
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.
LAPADULA Marc
M 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture

FILM 116-402: Screenwriting Workshop
Cross-listed: ENGL 116-402
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.
LAPADULA Marc
M 11:00 - 2:00 Lecture

FILM 118: Iranian Cinema: Gender, Politics, Religion
Cross-listed: AMES 118/418
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.
MINUCHEHR Pardis
R 1:30 - 4:30 Lecture

FILM 166: Russian and East European Film
Cross-listed: RUSS 165
The purpose of this course is to present the Russian and East European contribution to the world cinema in terms of film theory, experimentation with the cinematic language, and social and political reflex. We discuss major themes and issues such as: the invention of montage, the means of visual propaganda and the cinematic component to the communist cultural revolutions, party ideology and practices of social-engineering, cinematic response to the emergence of the totalitarian state in Russia and its subsequent installation in Eastern Europe after World War II; repression, resistance and conformity under such a system; legal and illegal desires; the nature of the authoritarian personality, the mind and the body of the homo sovieticos; sexual and political transgression; treason and disgrace; public degradation and individual redemption; the profane and the sublime ends of human suffering and humiliation; the unmasking of the official "truth" as a general lie.
VAINGURT Julia
MW 4:30 - 6:00 Lecture

FILM 194: Mysteries in Film: Visual Narrative, Deceit, and Murder
Cross-listed: COML 194
This course examines a wide range of mystery films in order to explore the relationship between the literary genre of detective fiction and the medium of film as visual narrative. Ever since Sherlock Holmes brilliantly articulated the importance of interpreting visual clues for the detective, vision and visuality have been considered the detective's most important sense and tool. Various film adaptations of detective stories have faithfully followed this view both through the character of the central detective and the visual reconstruction of the story, while others play on this golden rule (sometimes even overtly making fun of it) - suggesting that what you see is not always what you get. In addition to theoretical readings in genre studies and film criticism, the required materials for the course include 15 movies, including classics, such as The Bishop Murder Case and The Maltese Falcon, more recent hits Chinatown and Seven, detective films set in pre-modern worlds The Name of the Rose, Cadfael, parodies Clue, Murder by Death, as well as non-Western films Rashomon, Tell Me Something.
KAWANA Sari
R 6:00 - 9:00 Lecture

FILM 201: Documentary
Cross-listed: ENGL 291
Documentary Film will introduce students to the theory, history and ethics of the film genre corrupted by "reality television". We will explore such recent, thought provoking documentaries as "Bowling for Columbine" and "Spellbound" as well as documentaries that influenced and inspired those films. We will explore numerous issues confronted by documentary filmmakers by viewing representative films and discussing the issues each poses. These issues--including re-enactment, fair treatment of the subjects, politics and ethics--have confronted documentarians since the beginning of cinema. The themes we are studying are particularly timely against a backdrop of recent questioning of just how far members of the media can go and what they can do to get their "stories". Among the filmmakers to be considered are Robert Flaherty, Leni Riefenstahl, Jean Rouch, Alain Resnais, Fred Wiseman, the Maysles brothers, Emile de Antonio and Errol Morris. Weekly screenings are mandatory.
KATZ John
TR 12:00 - 1:30 Lecture
T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening

FILM 202-401: 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.
KATZ John
TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture
T 5:00 - 7:30 Screening

FILM 212: Comedy in World Cinema
Cross-listed: ENGL 294
The course will be concerned with the nature of comedy, how it is manifested in film and how it encompasses various modes, like: satire, irony, parody and the grotesque. Films screened will be representative of the comic traditions: the slapstick silent comics (Chaplin, Keaton); screwball comedies (Hawks, Capra, Sturges); the French stylists (Rene Clair, Jacques Tati); contemporary American comedies (from the Marx Bros. to Woody Allen); and international comedies (Bunuel, Almodovar, Terry Gilliam).
PERLMUTTER Ruth
M 2:00 - 5:00 Lecture and Screening
W 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture

FILM 221: Indian Cinema and Society
Cross-listed: SARS 205/505
This course will meet for three hours to view and discuss a variety of films/videos in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu (with English subtitles), and English, which bring up issues of social, political, and cultural
significance. Readings for the course will include articles in various fields ranging from film studies and communication to sociolinguistics and women's studies. Discussions will focus on cinema as a means of expression and as an instrument for social change, examining the various ways in which films both reflect and influence contemporary culture.
KRISHNAN Hariharan
TR 12:00 - 1:30 Lecture

FILM 223: 20th Century Chinese Literature and Cinema
Cross-listed: AMES 276
The last few decades have witnessed an explosion of cultural creativity in the Chinese-speaking world. This class introduces students to twentieth-century Chinese culture, through the lens of film and literature. It is the only class at Penn that studies what some scholars have recently come to call "Cultural China": the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and diaspora communities all over the world, including North America. From the beginnig of this century, Chinese thinkers and artists have struggled with the question of what it means to be Chinese. At the same time that the class focuses on post-national communities in the Chinese diaspora, we will also examine how some key literary and cinematic texts address and wrestle with nationalism. Other issues to be addressed include gender studies and postcoloniality. Texts to be studied include stories by Lu Xun, Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing), and Maxine Hong Kingston. Films to be shown include the popular (among them Chungking Express and at least one martial arts film) and the lesser-known (City of Sadness and Yellow Earth). Students will also be required to attend film screenings. LU Tina
MWF 11:00 - 12:00 Lecture

FILM 224: Voices (of Others) in Israel
Cross-listed: AMES 154
While the American tradition sanctifies the "pursuit of happiness," Israeli consciousness does not. The "tug of war" between the individual's right to seek happiness on the one hand, and the commitment to collective, national causes on the other, is an overarching theme in the 54 year-old existence of Israeli literature and culture. This struggle between passion and obligation evolves in different forms through cinematic and literary works, crosses lines of gender and genre, age and ethnic background. The
constant shadow of war made "terrible flowers of love blossom" (Amichai), but led to a culture and art of perpetual repression of desire. This course will introduce studnets to works of fiction, poetry, and film created by Israeli men and women from 1948 onward. Films includes works by M. Bat Adam, U. Barbash, D. Karpel, and Mizrahi.
GOLD Nili
TR 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture

FILM 252: The Devil's Pact in Literature, Music and Film
Cross-listed: GRMN 256
For centuries the pact with the devil has signified humankind's desire to surpass the limits of human knowledge and power. From the reformation chap book to the rock lyrics of Randy Newman's Faust, from Marlowe and Goethe to key Hollywood films, the legend of the devil's pact continues to be useful for exploring our fascination with forbidden powers.
RICHTER Simon
MW 12:00 - 1:00 Lecture

FILM 340: Italian History and Film
Cross-listed: ITAL 300
Modern Italy has added to the traditional belle arti of painting, sculpture and architecture new fields like fashion, industrial design and film. "Made in Italy" has come to stand all over the world for quality workmanship and fine design. Yet this same country has been involved in the last hundred years in two terrible world wars, a brutal fascist dictatorship, violence both political and criminal and a flood of emigration. In this course we will review that history, its triumphs and disasters, by combining film and written tests. Both media are equally important and ought to enrich each other. The weekly film is part of that work and you will be expected to do the assigned reading as well. This course will be open to seniors and juniors, and sophomores (with special permission).
MARCUS Millicent and STEINBERG Jonathan
MW 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture || T 4:30 - 7:00 Screening

FILM 346: French Film Noir
Cross-listed FREN 380
MET Philippe
T 3:00 - 6:00 Lecture and Screening
R 3:00 - 4:30 Lecture

FILM 432: Fate & Chance in Literature and Film
Cross-listed: RUSS 432
Be a winner -- manage all your situations and don't let pure chance govern your life! With a chain of literary characters as a vivid illustration, you will explore a mysterious world of fate and chance and learn about various interpretations of the forces ruling human life. Slavic and Greek mythology, as well as folklore and modern literary works of Russian and Western writers and cinematographers will assist you in your journey to the world of the supernatural. Screenings will include Tarkovsky's Mirror and Zeffirelli's and Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet.
ZUBAREV Vera
T 5:30 - 8:30 Lecture

FILM 591: International Film Theory/Italian
Cross-listed: ITAL 591
MARCUS Millicent
W 5:00 - 7:30 Lecture
F 2:00 - 5:00 Screnning