Since its origin in the late nineteenth century, cinema has had a powerful impact on our ways of visualizing and knowing the world. This course will help students understand how films work and work on us and introduce students to the wide-ranging efforts of theorists to know cinema since its beginnings. Our emphasis will be on narrative film, but we will also explore experimental, documentary, and animated works. We will examine a wide range of films from many parts of the world. Through exposure to the great variety of filmmaking and writing about cinema, from the silent era to the digital revolution, students will receive a comprehensive introduction to the formal features of film and to the major debates that inform film studies. Two eighty-minute class meetings and one evening film screening per week.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2025Independent reading course.
Fall and spring semester. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025