COURSE SCHEDULE

 


week 1
| week 2 | week 3 | week 4 | week 5 | week 6 | week 7
week 8 | week 9 | week 10 | week 11 | week 12 | week 13 | week 14 | week 15

ERES = Availabe from the Electronic Reserve System at Washington University. For complete bibliographical information, click here.
Week 1: Introduction I
W 9/1
  • Introduction and screening of M (1931, dir. Fritz Lang)
Week 2: Introduction II
M 9/6
  • Labor Day: No screening
W 9/8
  • Anton Kaes, M
Week 3: Modernity / Mise-en-Scene
M 9/13
  • Screening: Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang)
W 9/15
  • Bordwell / Thompson, "Chapter Six: Mise-en-Scene" (175-228)
  • Thomas Elsaesser, Metropolis
Week 4: Mobilization / Editing
M 9/20
  • Screening: Berlin, Symphony of a City (1927, dir. Walter Ruttmann)
W 9/22
  • Bordwell / Thompson, "Chapter Eight: Editing" (294-346)
  • Siegfried Kracauer, "Montage." [ERES]
  • Anton Kaes, "The Cold Gaze: Notes on Mobilization and Modernity." [ERES]
  • Ernst Jünger, "Total Mobilization." [ERES]
  • Ernst Jünger, "Photography and the ‘Second Consciousness’" [ERES]
Week 5: Lustmord and the Pleasures of Looking
M 9/27
  • Screening: Der Totmacher (1995, dir. Romuald Karmakar)
W 9/29
  • Mara Tartar, Lustmord (3-64)
  • Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (in Braudy / Cohen, 837-848)
Week 6: Lustmord and the Power of Narrative
M 10/4
  • Screening: Se7en (1995, dir. David Fincher)
W 10/6
  • Maria Tartar, Lustmord (153-184)
  • Bordwell / Thompson, Chapter Three: Narrative as a Formal System" (68-106)
  • Tom Gunning, "Narrative Discourse and the Narrator System" (in Braudy / Cohen, 470-481)
Week 7: Surveillance / Cinematography
M 10/11
  • Screening: Rear Window (1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
W 10/13
  • Bordwell / Thompson, "Chapter Seven: Cinematography" (229-293)
  • Michel Foucault, "The Eye of Power." [ERES]
  • Peter Weibel, "Pleasure and the Panoptic Principle." [ERES]
  • Lev Manovich, "Modern Surveillance Machines: Perspective, Radar, 3-D Computer Graphics, and Computer Vision." [ERES]
Week 8: Sound (and Silence)

M 10/18

  • Screening: M (1931, Fritz Lang)
W 10/20
  • Bordwell / Thompson, "Chapter Nine: Sound in the Cinema" (347-388)
  • Christian Metz, "Aural Objects" (in Braudy / Cohen, 366-369)
  • Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Alexandrov, "Statement on Sound" (in Braudy / Cohen, 370-372)
  • Mary Ann Doanne, "The Voice in the Cinema" (in Braudy / Cohen, 373-385)
  • Claudia Gorbman, "Film Music." [ERES]
  • ESSAY 1 due
Week 9: Justice and the Politics of Exception
M 10/25
  • Screening: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961, dir. Stanley Kramer)
W 10/27
  • Giorgio Agamben, "Der Ausnahmezustand als Paradigma des Regierens." [ERES]
  • Carl Schmitt, "Definitions of Sovereignty." [ERES]
Week 10: Questions of Authorship
M 11/1
  • Screening: Fury (1936, dir. Fritz Lang)
W 11/3
  • Anton Kaes, "Lang’s Fury and the Cinema of Exile." [ERES]
  • Stephen Crofts, "Authorship and Hollywood." [ERES]
  • Andrew Sarris, "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962" (Braudy / Cohen, 561-564)
  • Peter Wollen, "The Auteur Theory" (in Braudy / Cohen, 565-580)
Week 11: Authorship, Art Cinema, and Genre Film
M 11/8
  • Screening: Scarlet Street (1945, dir. Fritz Lang)
W 11/10
  • Tom Gunning, The Films of Fritz Lang. 1-11 & 307-339. [ERES]
  • Thomas Schatz, "Film Genre and the Genre Film" (in Braudy / Cohen, 691-702)
  • Rick Altman, Film / Genre. 1-29. [ERES]
  • David Bordwell, "The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice" (in Braudy / Cohen, 774-782)
Week 12: Making Faces: Peter Lorre and the Accents of Exile
M 11/15
  • Screening: Mad Love (1935, dir. Karl Freund)
W 11/17
  • Gerd Gemünden, "From ‘Mr. M’ to ‘Mr. Murder’: Peter Lorre and the Actor in Exile." [ERES]
  • Hamid Naficy, An Accented Cinema. 10-39. [ERES]
  • Leo Braudy, "Acting: Stage vs. Screen" (in Braudy / Cohen, 429-435)
  • Paul McDonald, "Film Acting." [ERES]
Week 13: The Lost One
M 11/22
  • Screening: Der Verlorene (1951, dir. Peter Lorre)
W 11/24
  • Thanksgiving Break: No class
Week 14: Recalling (Weimar) Film History
M 11/29
  • Screening: Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam (1957, dir. Robert Siodmak)
W 12/1
  • Siegfried Kracauer, "Introduction" & "Murderer Among Us." (From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of German Film). [ERES]
  • Thomas Elsaesser, "Weimar Cinema’s impersonations" & "Expressionist film or Weimar cinema? With Siegfried Kracauer and Lotte Eisner (once more) to the movies." [ERES]
  • Tom Gunning, "Film History and Film Analysis: The Individual Film in the Course of Time." [ERES]
  • Dudley Andrew, "Film and History." [ERES]
Week 15: Murderer Among Us?
M 12/6
  • Screening: M (1931, dir. Fritz Lang) & M (1951, Joseph Losey)
W 12/8
  • Final Discussion