COURSE SCHEDULE

Introduction

8/28 Introduction: "What are national cinemas? Why should we study them?"
     

Early Cinema in Europe

9/3 Screening: Compilation of Early French and British Films
9/4 Reading: Cinema & Nation 63-119
  Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 3-23
9/9 Reading: Gunning, "Primitive Cinema: A Frame-up?"*
     

Avant-Garde Cinema and German Expressionism

9/10 Screening: Luis Buñuel, An Andalusian Dog (France, 1929)
    F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu (Germany, 1922)
9/11 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 95-105, 136-151
9/16 Reading: Barlow, "Introduction: The Expressionist Sensibility"*
     

Soviet Montage Cinema

9/17 Screening: Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (Soviet Union, 1925) [8 pm]
9/18 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 159-174
9/23 Reading: Eisenstein, "The Dramaturgy of Film Form"*
  Reading: Eisenstein, "Methods of Montage"*
     

Early Sound Cinema in Europe

9/24 Screening: Fritz Lang, M (Germany, 1931)
9/25 Reading: Gomery, "Tri-Ergon, Tobis Klangfilm, and the Coming of Sound"*
  Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 211-219, 248-259
9/30 Reading: Burch, "Fritz Lang: German Period"*
  Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 374-382
     

French Poetic Realism

10/1 Screening: Jean Renoir, Grand Illusion (France, 1937)
10/2 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 112-123, 344-352
10/7 Reading: O'Shaughnessy, Jean Renoir (sel)*
    PAPER #1 DUE
     

Italian Neorealism

10/8 Screening: Roberto Rossellini, Open City (Italy, 1946)
10/9 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 123-130, 353-361
10/14 Reading: Zavattini, "Some Ideas on the Cinema"*
  Reading: Bazin, "An Aesthetic of Reality: Neorealism"*
     

Japanese Cinema in the 1950s

10/15 Screening: Kenji Mizoguchi, Sansho the Bailiff (Japan, 1954)
10/16 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 413-422, 714-721
10/21 Reading: Sato, "On Kenji Mizoguchi"*
     

European Art Cinema in the 1960s (I)

10/22 Screening: Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless (France, 1960)
10/23 Reading: Bordwell, "Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice"*
  Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 567-575
10/28 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 576-586
  Reading: Hillier, "Introduction to Cahiers du Cinema"*
     

European Art Cinema in the 1960s (II)

10/29 Screening: Ingmar Bergman, Persona (Sweden, 1967)
10/30 No Class  
11/4 Reading: Soila et al., Nordic National Cinemas 189-232*
  Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 490-497, 537-550
     

New German Cinema in the 1970s

11/5 Screening: Werner Herzog, Aguirre (Germany, 1972)
11/6 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 614-627
11/11 Reading: Peucker, "In Quest of the Sublime"*
  Reading: Cinema & Nation 260-277
     

Latin American Cinema / Third Cinema

11/12 Screening: Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, 1968)
11/13 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 427-435, 740-749
11/18 Reading: Solanas and Gettino, "Towards a Third Cinema"*
  Reading: Gabriel, "Towards a Critical Theory of Third World Films"*
     

The Cinemas of Sub-Saharan Africa

11/19 Screening: Ousmane Sembene, Xala (Senegal, 1974)
11/20 Reading: Vierya, "African Cinema: Solidarity and Difference"*
  Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 667-672
    PAPER #2 DUE
11/25 Reading: Fischer, "Xala: A Study in Black Humor"*
     

Indian Cinema

11/26 Screening: Mira Nair, Salaam Bombay! (India, 1988)
11/27 Thanksgiving: No Class
12/2 Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 398-409, 678-690
     

New Chinese Cinemas

12/3 Screening: John Woo, The Killer (Hong Kong, 1989)
12/4 Reading: Williams, "Space, Place, and Spectacle"*
  Reading: Oxford History of World Cinema 693-714
12/9 Reading: Cinema & Nation 278-297
     
12/16 Final Exam: 10:30 -12:30

Top of Page