Courses

    Introduces the critical study of film, exploring theoretical, historical, and technical concerns while presenting a survey of important film periods and genres. Students will hone critical-thinking, close-analysis, and writing skills. The course will cover a wide variety of films, approaching them from numerous perspectives, considering both the effects films have on individual viewers and their ability to reflect culture.

    Introduces the technical and aesthetic principles behind the production, consumption, analysis, and interpretation of films. The purpose of this class is to help us understand and think about movies critically, as technological, cultural, and artistic products. We will study films in different contexts and discuss the importance of movies as cultural expression.

    Familiarizes students with current trends and major directors in international cinema. Students attend specific films screened in class and/or offered in the International Film Series, and read and write about these films. Prereq., FILM 1502 or 6 hours humanities courses involving critical writing.

    Study of films designed as trilogies, drawing on a wide range of international cinema. Films include Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy (India), Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors Trilogy (Poland), Francois Truffaut's Antoine Doinel cycle (France), and Abbas Kiarostami's Iran Trilogy (Iran). Restricted to FILM/FMST majors. Non-majors will need instructor's consent.

    Historical-aesthetic survey dealing with various national cinemas, taught in conjunction with the appropriate language department. Typical offerings are the French film, the German film, the Russian film, and so on. Also offers a more detailed approach to a more restricted subject, i.e., film comedy, women filmmakers, German expressionist cinema, Italian neorealism. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours within the same term with departmental consent. Non-majors will need instructor's consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) FILM (FILM or FMST) majors only.

    Provides a historical and theoretical introduction tothe documentary film. Examines the historical beginnings of documentary film as well as exploring contemporary documentary practice. Canonical moments of documentary history and lesser known examples of documentary film work will be explored. Prereq., FILM 1502. Recommended prereq., FILM 3051.

    Presents an aerial survey of the history of Western drama as represented in film: Greek drama, the Elizabethans, Ibsen/Strindberg to O'Neill/Williams, Beckett, etc. Prereq., FILM 1502. Recommended prereq., FILM 3051.

    Serious investigation of the horror film genre as well as its origins in, and relation to, works of romanticist literature (e.g., Poe, Shelley). Issues include: the relation of fantasy and reality; gender in horror film; psychological issues raised by the films; historical issues generatedby the genre. Prereq., FILM 1502. Recommended prereq., FILM 3051.

    Studies the relationships between European film, art, and culture. Offered each summer in a different European city (viz, Rome, Paris, London, Athens, Barcelona). There will be regular in-class lectures, film screenings, field trips, and on-site teaching. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours. Recommended prereq., introductory film and art history courses. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts.

    Second only to jazz, some critics regard the Hollywood musical as the greatest American popular art form of the 20th century. This course proposes a historical, formal, and theoretical approach to the musical through its several iterations, from the classical, to the revisionist, to the unusual, placing the changes in the genre's form, structure, and ideology in the context of America's changing social, political, and religious values. Prereq., FILM 1502 and FILM 3051.