Spring 2023 Film Courses
ENG 180 Great Movies
001 Great Movies: Paranoid Pictures MWF 10:00 am - 10:50 am Alfonso John Zapata
002 Great Movies: Fresh Horror TR 11:00 am - 12:15 pm Clay Cleveland Shields
003 Great Movies: Bizarre Noir MWF 1:00 pm - 1:50 pm Henry Philip Knollenberg
A course introducing students to films of various genres and styles, from both historical and contemporary filmmakers, investigating a particular issue or theme. Topics vary by semester and are chosen by faculty to give a broad-based understanding of important cinematic works, trends, and the creative processes behind this important, collaborative artform. As with all Arts and Creativity classes, this class will require students to produce an artistic artifact.
UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry Arts & Creativity
HJS 180 / MCL 180 Holocaust Film
001 TR 9:30 am - 10:45 am Sheila Elana Jelen
An exploration of the history of Holocaust film, beginning in the immediate aftermath of the war and continuing until the present day.
UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry Arts & Creativity
GWS 201 Gender and Popular Culture
001 TR 11:00 am - 12:15 pm Elizabeth Winifred Williams
201 Fully Online Asynchronous Frances Beatrice Henderson
202 Fully Online Lukas Darrh Lake Bullock
203 Fully Online Asynchronous Gregory Wayne Serrano
204 Fully Online Asynchronous Lee Dorian-Anthony Mandelo
This course examines the role of popular culture in the construction of gendered identities in contemporary society. We examine a wide range of popular cultural forms -- including music, computer games, movies, and television -- to illustrate how femininity and masculinity are produced, represented, and consumed.
UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry Arts & Creativity
CPH 202 Public Health Through Popular Film
MW 1:00 pm - 1:50 pm Sarah C. Vos
This course will provide students with an introductory understanding of public health concepts through critical examination of popular cinema and instruction in basic public health principles, disease principles, and behavioral and social interactions related to the movie topics. A combination of lectures, readings and film viewing will enable students to understand the relationship between behavioral, environmental, biological and other risk factors with disease, injury or other health outcomes. The effect of social, economic and health systems context will also be examined. In addition, students will learn to distinguish between fact and fiction with regard to the science and activities of public health as portrayed in cinema. CPH 202-001 meets in-person on Mondays and Wednesdays. Friday's class will be taught asynchronously online.
UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry in Social Sciences
ENG 280 Introduction to Film
001 MWF 1:00 pm - 1:50 pm Kevin J.B. O'Connor
002 MWF 2:00 pm - 2:50 pm Kevin J.B. O'Connor
003 TR 9:30 am - 10:45 am Hannah Elise Schultz
004 TR 11:00 am - 12:15 pm Hannah Elise Schultz
005 PART-OF-TERM COURSE T 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm Alan M Nadel
An introduction to the study of films as narrative art and cultural documents. The course involves viewing and analyzing films from different genres and investigating a unified theme or set of topics. Students will learn how to view films closely, how to relate films to their contexts, and how to employ the basic terms and concepts of film analysis. Attention will be paid to student writing, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to use supporting evidence. Viewing films outside of class is required.
UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities
GWS 300 Topics in Gender and Women's Studies
001 Topics in GWS: Gendered Desire in Rom-coms MWF 12:00 pm - 12:50 pm Jeorg E Sauer
Prereq: WS 200 or WS 201 or permission of instructor. Credit from this course applies to the following programs: Undergraduate Selected topics in women's studies with special attention to those of contemporary relevance. May be repeated to a maximum of nine credits under different subtitles.
GWS 301 Crossroads: Subtitle Required
002 Crossroads: Gender & Film in Appalachia TR 11:00 am - 12:15 pm Carol Ann Mason
Applies to the UK Core requirements: Community, Culture and Citizenship in US. Credit from this course applies to the following programs: Undergraduate. Specific topics will vary, but all courses taught under this title focus on the contributions, interplay, intersections, constructions, history, and confrontations that the social categories and lived experiences of gender, race, and class produce in the United States. Examines opportunities for civic responsibility and social justice. May be repeated up to a maximum of 9 credit hours under different subtitles; allow multiple registrations during same semester.
UK Core requirements: Community, Culture and Citizenship in US.
MCL 343 Global Horror
001 TR 9:30 am - 10:45 am Nels J Rogers
002 TR 11:00 am - 12:15 pm Nels J Rogers
Global Horror is an introduction to the horror film that traces the genre's development from its origins in European literature to a global film phenomenon in the 21st century.
UK Core: Global Dynamics, Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities
CHI 321 Introduction to Contemporary Chinese Film
TR 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm Liang Luo
The course offers an overview of major films, directors and actors in the contemporary PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It examines the genres of Chinese film better known in the US, including the Hong Kong action film, fifth-generation mainland cinema and Taiwanese urban dramas. The course will provide an understanding of contemporary Chinese cinema through analyses of the content and style, poetics and politics of films/ filmmakers/film movements, that reflect the Chinese cultural value system and differing Chinese aesthetics vis-a-vis Western and Hollywood views. All films are screened with English subtitles.
COM 312 Learning Intercultural Communication Through Media and Film
001 TR 9:30 am - 10:45 am Alan D Desantis
002 TR 11:00 am - 12:15 pm Alan D Desantis
THIS COURSE HAS AN ADDITIONAL FEE OF $9.00. This course examines intercultural and co-cultural divides using a skills-based approach. Students will be exposed to cultural communication situations and will apply skills using lecture, discussion, and various media (e.g. news, radio, film, blogs), equipping them with more effective skills for communicating with other groups, communities, and cultures.
UK Core requirements: Community, Culture and Citizenship in US
ENG 384 Literature and Film
TR 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm Emily E Shortslef
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent. This course explores the relationship between two creative traditions, literature and film, focusing on film adaptations of literary works for the screen. Subjects can include the adaptation of works by a particular writer such as Shakespeare or Jane Austen, or it may range more widely among the thousands of innovative cinematic reinventions of literary texts, e.g. Richardson's Tom Jones, Altman's Short Cuts. In some semesters the course may focus on a particular topic or genre and its treatment in both literary and cinematic texts, or on a particular moment when cinema and literary writers exerted a strong mutual influence (such as Hollywood in the 1920's). Viewing films outside of class is required. Open to students from any major.
PHI 393 Philosophy of Film
001 TR 9:30 am - 10:45 am Brandon C Look
This course will examine the aesthetics of film from the early 20th Century to the present. Instead of using films to discuss philosophical issues, we will discuss the philosophical issues that film as an aesthetic medium raises. The aesthetic-for us, medium of film- is thus understood as irreducible to the traditional division in philosophy between practical philosophy (ethics, political philosophy) and theoretical philosophy (epistemology, metaphysics). The aesthetic brings with it its own set of rules, chief among them is the idea that it's rules cannot be set out in advance of its product. We will thus be discussing art (film) as what generates a new theoretical discourse about it at each turn. The theoretical discourse, however, is in lively conversation with the product it seeks to understand and must change as the object itself evolves. What is more, film products themselves constitute their own proper critique of their own tradition in the sense that, for instance, the depth of field shot followed on from the formal constraints of the montage technique. This course will also have a practical component. Each student will create a short film (on a selected topic) which will then be shown to the class as a whole and subjected to (friendly) critique in class by all as well as in writing by a group of students. The film will then be reworked to address suggestions, reshown again so that others may comment upon it both in writing and in their own films. In this way, students will both be able to make theoretical and practical comments on each other's work. UK Core requirement: Intellectual Inquiry Arts & Creativity
SPA 371 Latin American Cinema
001 Latin American Cinema: LA Cinema MWF 12:00 pm - 12:50 pm Matthew J. Losada
In this course we will learn the basics of film studies, watch Latin American films and discuss their political and cultural contexts. We will follow certain themes—among them the representation of gender and of the social margins—that run through these works as we study how classical film told its stories while employing genre conventions to situate its viewers and how filmmakers of the 1960s and ‘70s developed new ways of engaging with their viewers in order to transform Latin American reality. We will also sample work by more contemporary filmmakers who again search for new forms with which to engage with a reality of normalized economic precarity and the globalization of film spectatorship. The course is taught entirely in English. No prior coursework in film is required and no knowledge of the Spanish language is expected. The films will be viewed outside of class, in Spanish with English subtitles. SPA 371 fulfills the General Education / UK Core Inquiry in the Humanities requirement.
UK Core Inquiry in the Humanities requirement.
AAS 400-009 Rhetoric & Pop Culture: Black Lives Matter Movement. Meets with WRD 410-003
TR 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm Brandon Marcell Erby
This course seeks to understand the rhetoric associated with the Black Lives Matter Movement by addressing how the aims and values of the movement are composed for and received by various audiences and stakeholders. In doing so, we will consider the goals of Black Lives Matter as a social movement and explore how its messages are distributed throughout popular culture. We will cover topics such as policing, mass incarceration, sports, politics, gender, and sexuality, and will examine essays, songs, music videos, podcasts, television shows, documentaries, and films.
BTH 405 Honors Bioethics on Film
M 10:00 am - 11:50 am Sara Rosenthal
Credit from this course applies to the following programs: Undergraduate. This 3-credit course uses a variety of films (some documentaries) to examine core bioethics issues and principles comprising Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-Maleficence and Justice. Core concepts in Medical Professionalism and Medical Humanism will also be explored. The films selected help to illustrate complex bioethics issues within our current social and medical constructs.
Eng 480 G /AAS 400-004/005 Studies in Film: Popular Africana Film
TR 11:00 am - 12:15 pm Kamahra Ewing
This course examines Africana films produced by Black directors by using the United States as a case study. The focus on African American directors will commence in the early 1900s to the present day. Students will gain an understanding of African American history, how to analyze films through textual analysis to explore visual representations of Africana identity from famous movie directors such as: Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, Melvin Van Peebles, Gordan Parks, Haile Gerima, Julie Dash, and Spike Lee. We will discuss the different aesthetic forms and genres chosen by the filmmakers (i.e. race films, social realism, avant-gardism, etc.) and also look at the types of social critiques the films engage in as they tackle topics such as class, race, gender, migration, assimilation, acculturation, human rights, and modernity. The exploration of film studies, socio-cultural and historical narratives will extend globally through final individual research projects. The course will allow students to develop and creatively practice critical and analytical skills necessary for assessing visual media.
WRD 410-001 Rhetoric & Pop Culture: Alien Cultures
MWF 9:00 am - 9:50 am Dr. Jenny Rice
Stories of UFO abductions, rumors surroundingArea51, recent government "disclosures" of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena--they all reflect how "alien cultures" have become a popular part of everyday life. This course digs into the popular rhetoric of alien cultures, asking:
- How have stories of aliens been represented in popular media?
- How do places use local lore to market themselves for UFO tourism? (Including Kelly, Kentucky's annual “Little Green Men” Festival
- Why have images of "aliens" changed over time?
- What do our own representations of "aliens" tell us about our own culture?
Prereq: Completion of Composition and Communication requirement or consent of instructor.
WRD 410-002 Rhetoric & Pop Culture: The Rhetoric of Science Fiction
Tuesday / Thursday 9:30—10:45 am Tom Marksbury
Not a history, arranged around thematic oppositions of invasion / exploration and virtual / reality. Includes fiction by Octavia Butler and Philip K. Dick and television (Black Mirror, WestWorld) but mostly films from the last thirty years such as Nope, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Terminator 2: Judgement Dau, Interstellar, The Matrix, and The Book of Eli.
Expect two exams, one essay, one video project, and robust discussion.
Prereq: Completion of Composition and Communication requirement or consent of instructor.
WRD 410-003 Rhetoric & Pop Culture: Black Lives Matter Movement. Meets with AAS 400 009.
TR 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm Brandon Marcell Erby
This course seeks to understand the rhetoric associated with the Black Lives Matter Movement by addressing how the aims and values of the movement are composed for and received by various audiences and stakeholders. In doing so, we will consider the goals of Black Lives Matter as a social movement and explore how its messages are distributed throughout popular culture. We will cover topics such as policing, mass incarceration, sports, politics, gender, and sexuality, and will examine essays, songs, music videos, podcasts, television shows, documentaries, and films.
Prereq: Completion of Composition and Communication requirement or consent of instructor.
WRD 412 Intermediate Documentary
Marksbury Tuesday / Thursday 11:00 am—12:15 pm
A hybrid of critical analysis and creative workshop, the class will study a number of documentaries, including work by Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, Errol Morris and Marlon Riggs, which embrace a wide variety of points of view, structures, and editing tactics. Along the way, we will work through the process of constructing two short documentaries of our own.
Two exams, two projects, and a great deal of critical thought and ongoing conversation.
ENG 502 Technology in Literature and Film
Fully Online Asynchronous Matthew W Godbey
This course will explore one of the most popular storylines in fiction and film, and one that is relevant to life throughout our history: humans and their relationships to machines and technology. Literature and cinema have long provided a perfect medium for telling stories about such relationships, for exploring how they intersect with and shape our lives, and for documenting how this has changed over time.
COM 553 Media Theory and Criticism
TR 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm Alan D Desantis
This course focuses on what and how popular culture entertainment media functions to communicate and persuade. Forms to be examined may include films/movies, television programs, music, cartoons, and/or comics. Ultimately, students will be equipped with tools to make educated decisions as critical consumers of the messages conveyed in popular culture entertainment media.
FR630 Roman et Cinema du Maghreb (Novel and Film of the Maghreb)
R 3:30-6:00pm Nisrine Slitine El Mghari
This course looks at the literary, social, and political issues brought to the fore in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Maghribi literature and film. These works bear witness to the different experiences of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia with colonization and repercussion of colonialism, independence, as well as the development of Francophone cultures in North Africa. This course pays particular attention to the ways in which this corpus of literature and selection of films address issues related to language, identity, race, gender, memory, migration, Islamism, and the particular socio-political contexts from which such works emerge. Additionally, the course content will lead us to an investigation of the meaning and implications of the word “Francophonie” and of the transition into littérature-monde.
MCL 592 Research Practicum:
001 Research Research Pra: Film Studies Capstone TBD Molly Blasing
Prereq: Junior standing or higher (or consent of instructor). In this course students engage in directed research designed to broaden and deepen their expertise in a specific research area, and to extend and refine their investigative and research skills. The research work may be performed alone or as a part of a team, and the research focus may include (but is not limited to): an independent topic/project in the students' area(s) of study; a topic/project closely connected with an upper-level seminar in which the students are currently enrolled; or a topic/project within the research agenda of the faculty member offering the course. The research performed in this course will result in a report to be published or presented in an appropriate public research venue (departmental symposium; campus-wide research publication or presentation; professional conference or publication; etc.). Course may be taken for up to 9 credits, with either multiple projects or a longer- term, ongoing single project.
Fall 2022 Film Courses
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A course introducing students to films of various genres and styles, from both historical and contemporary filmmakers, investigating a particular issue or theme. Topics vary by semester and are chosen by faculty to give a broad-based understanding of important cinematic works, trends, and the creative processes behind this important, collaborative artform. As with all Arts and Creativity classes, this class will require students to produce an artistic artifact. Intended as a general humanities course for non-majors. Lecture and section. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement or provide ENG Major Elective credit. Fulfills the UK Core requirement in Arts and Creativity. UK Core: Arts & Creativity |
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In this course we will look at low budget films that broke the box office, created stars, and/ or changed the genre. Throughout the semester you will learn how to analyze films of different genres, discuss film concepts, basic terms and how to employ them in creative work and analysis, while also enjoying films that I classify as “must see” in their genres. We will watch independent low budget horror, drama, action, and comedy films. Each film is historically or culturally notable and was praised by audiences and critics alike. In this course you will be familiarized with popular genres through potentially unfamiliar films and gain insight into the varieties of experiences and perspectives present in film. UK Core: Arts & Creativity |
GWS 201, Gender and Popular Culture, section 202
Instructor: Aria Halliday (Section 202)
TR 11:00am-12:15pm (online; synchronous)
Applies to requirements for undergraduate GWS majors and minors.This course examines the role of popular culture in the construction of gendered identities in contemporary society. We examine a wide range of popular cultural forms -- including music, computer games, movies, and television -- to illustrate how femininity and masculinity are produced, represented, and consumed. UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities
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 ENG 280, Intro to Film, sections 001-005Instructor: Pearl James MW 1-1:50, Friday varies (either 12:00-12:50, 1:00-1:50, or 2:00-2:50)
An introduction to the study of films as narrative art and cultural documents. The course involves viewing and analyzing films from different genres and investigating a unified theme or set of topics. Students will learn how to view films closely, how to relate films to their contexts, and how to employ the basic terms and concepts of film analysis. Attention will be paid to student writing, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to use supporting evidence. Viewing films outside of class is required. Offers UK Core credit for Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities. We will ask: How do films tell stories and convey meaning? What kinds of visual and narrative impact do different aspects of the medium—color, sound, lighting, character, and so on—have on our impressions, emotions, and understanding? Beginning with these formal questions, we will develop a common vocabulary for analyzing films. We will study films from a range of periods, nations, and genres and consider how the art of filmmaking has changed over time. We will go on to ask cultural questions, including the one posed by critic David Denby: “Do movies have a future?” Do recent changes in how movies are delivered (digitally) and marketed (globally) threaten the tradition of film as an artform? Are films status as financial commodities degrading their value as art? Note: section 005 is reserved for students in the Lewis Honors College. UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities
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 JPN 283, Japanese Film, section 001Instructor: Miyabi Goto
TR 2:00-3:15
TThis course examines film to explore the transformations wrought in the post-1945 (re)construction of Japan. Introducing canonical auteurs (e.g., Ozu, Mizoguchi, Iwai, Koreeda) and surveying major genres (e.g., melodrama, thriller, horror, monster), the course engages film that offer a diverse range of perspectives on Japan's historical development. The primary question that the course aims to investigate is: How did film respond to, question, criticize the world surrounding it, and/or possibly anticipate what to come, in the post-1945 Japanese context? No prior knowledge of Japan is required.
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 GWS 301, Crossroads: Barbie & Other Material Girls, section 201Instructor: Aria Halliday
First 8 weeks; asynchronous (fully online)
This is a new course that encourages you to think deeply about the lessons we learn from “feminine” pop culture topics and figures like Barbie, Cinderella, pageants, beauty culture, and rom-coms. We will focus on issues related to gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality; access to popular films like Miss Congeniality, Clueless, and Dumplin’ will be required. UK Core: Community, Culture and Citizenship in the United States
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 HON 301, Honors Advanced Seminar: Science and Ethics on Film, section 006Instructor: Sara Rosenthal TR 2:00-3:15 This 3-credit course uses a variety of films (some documentaries) to examine core research ethics, scientific integrity and societal issues in the history of science across several STEM disciplines. The course covers key scientific figures, consequential studies or discoveries spanning several fields of inquiry. The course includes films about women in STEM as well as race and research. Students will screen a different film each week and take turns leading class discussions on each film. Additional readings and written assignments will complement the film selections for this course. |
 GER 305, German Film Today, section 001Instructor: Nels J Rogers
MWF 1:00 - 1:50
This course explores filmmaking in the German-speaking countries in the 21st century. It is an introduction to the understanding and interpretation of films produced in specific national contexts outside of what is commonly referred to as Hollywood. Our examination will have two parts. An introduction to interpretative strategies used to understand feature length films as one of the dominant modes of storytelling and mythmaking in the contemporary world. And an on-going discussion of the many ways in which issues related to nationality, history, culture, language, and global economics have influenced filmmaking in Germany & Austria. We will view, analyze, compare, discuss, and interpret a representative sampling of contemporary films "made in Germany" while questioning and exploring the very designation German in the context of globalized media markets. UK Core: Dynamics, Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities
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 WRD 312, Introduction to Documentary, section 001Instructor: Thomas A Marksbury
TR 2:00-3:15
This course is designed to investigate the enormous variety of creative approaches the documentary form can tale, and to enable you to make a short documentary for yourself. We begin with the work of others—Spike Lee, Werner Herzog, Barbara Kopple, Errol Morris, Agnes Varda, the Maysles brothers, Banksy, and more—and shift from analysis to pre-production shooting, and final edit of a five-minute project of your own. (No previous experience with film making required.) Along the way we’ll consider several documentary subgenres and hybrids—the essay (Nostalgia for the Light), the autobiography (Tarnation), the portrait of the artist (I Am Not Your Negro), true crime (The Jinx), the mockumentary (Confederate States of America) and the polemic (Why We Fight). Learn a little about the world and a lot about yourself. Lively class discussion, two exams, final project. UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry Arts & Creativity
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 FR 325, French Cinema: French Leading Lady, section 001Instructor: Jeorg E Sauer
MWF 12:00-12:50
The French Leading Lady: This course will examine the idea of the "French leading lady" and the films the actresses have starred in. Course discussions will look to contextualize the actresses representation as subject/object as well as their stardom in France and internationally. Students will gain an understanding of film technique and criticism. Course is taught entirely in French. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours with a different subtitle. Prereq: FR 204
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 ITA 335, Topics in Italian Cinema: Those Strangers Among Us, section 001Instructor: Matteo Benassi
MWF 12:00-12:50
The purpose of this course is to explore the concept of diversity in modern and contemporary globalized society through the medium of film. Societies are becoming or have become already rapidly globalized; barriers are erected and demolished all the time and physical borders bear less and less weight. Filmmakers explore these changes through the medium of cinema, a medium that we can consider the fastest response unit of modern intellectuals, for that intrinsic bond between thought and the eye and the double track of vision and observation. Our starting point will be some very recent Italian cinematography (going back to the early 2000s) that we shall use to study the concept of being foreign and/or different, inside a society. The exploration of global phenomena in Italy will be then used to reach a more general meaning through the comparison between Italian and American society.
The range of movies will vary in genre from comedy to drama to the thriller; the different genres and stories will parallel the construction of the plot in movies and the construction of personal opinion in matters of diversity. Our class discussions and movie screenings will be supported and completed by readings that will help us better understand the concepts and the political and socio-historical context, and by close watching of cinematic techniques, which vehiculates the director point of view. UK Core Requirement: Global Dynamics
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 SPA 372, Spanish Cinema, sections 001-002 Instructor: Carmen Moreno-Nuño
MWF 12:00-12:50
An introduction to the analysis and interpretation of cinema in general and Spanish cinema in particular. Open to majors and non-majors. The course will focus on films from the Spanish schools of cinema which will be studied in their social, political and cultural context and introduce students to basic critical vocabulary. Viewing of films (with English subtitles) outside of class is required. Class lectures in English; discussion sections in English or Spanish depending on the language ability of the student. UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities
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 ENG 384, Literature and Film, section 001Instructor: Emily Shortslef TR 2:00-3:15 Few writers have had their work adapted for the screen as frequently as Shakespeare. In this class we’ll read five Shakespearean plays alongside some of their many film versions. What are the different ways in which filmmakers translate 400-year- old texts into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? How does film compare to theatrical drama as a medium? What does it mean to “adapt” a play? Why does Shakespeare continue to be relevant to contemporary filmmakers and audiences? This course will introduce students to Shakespeare’s work in its historical and dramatic contexts; foster the development of a critical vocabulary and set of strategies for analyzing drama and film; and help students to develop close reading and critical writing skills. Assignments will include short papers and a final exam. |
WRD 410, Rhetoric and Popular Culture: Better Living Through Criticism, section 002
Instructor: Thomas Marksbury MWF 9:00-9:50 A hybrid of reading, viewing, and listening, culminating in a workshop which is aimed to generate your own cultural criticism. The very word “criticism” has degenerated into almost a pejorative, evoking either the arcane and academic or the vaguely belligerent. More than ever, we depend on popular platforms for information, feedback and evaluation of what films, music, television we ought to be consuming. The phrase “everybody’s a critic” has become almost the literal truth—there are more opinions floating around than ever, but in the midst of all this democracy no one seems to be critiquing he critics. Our aims are threefold: 1) to think about what a critical state of mind really is, to cultivate that stance in terms of everyday living, not just the art we enjoy but fasion, sports, food, etc.; 2) to study the work of previous cultural critics in order to appreciate the range and depth of possibilities, approaches, strategies, --and maybe to uncover some fresh new ones; 3) to produce our own criticism, looking into various modes with various methods in order to write (and here that verb covers a number of modalities, including film) responses to various texts. The more varied the better. Expect lots of different readings and viewings, lively discussion, and know that you will emerge with a portfolio of critical writing you can call your own. |
 FR 504, La Nouvelle Vague/New Wave Cinema Instructor: Leon Sachs
R 3:30-6:00
This course introduces students to the mid-twentieth-century "revolution" in French cinema known as the New Wave. In addition to studying the major works of French filmmakers such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, and Agnès Varda, students will read landmark essays that helped define the movement. Among the questions we will explore are the following: How did New Wave filmmakers distinguish themselves from the "cinéma de qualité" (or "Daddy's cinema") that preceded them? In what ways can New Wave film be understood as a form of writing? What is the “caméra stylo”? What is meant by "auteur" cinema? What is the lasting legacy of New Wave cinema? Taught in French.
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ENG 180, GREAT MOVIES: Stories we Love, sections 001-004
ENG 180, GREAT MOVIES: Cheap Thrills: Low Budget Hits, sections 005, 006
