Neorealism's Presentation File

Dear all,

the presentation file I used on Tuesday seminar could be downloaded here; please circulate among yourselves; thank you! :

http://pan.baidu.com/s/1gd1ggaJ

Password: mtuh


cheers
Ran

Kurosawa's Dreams & Neorealism?

Ran here:

I'm still thinking of Travis' question about Neorealism; and I hope I remember your question correctly--would it be proper to say we have found some Neorealist impulses in Kurosawa's Dreams, for instance in its first story? I want to briefly explain my ideas; hopefully in a better way. 

first of all, I won't suppose the title "Dreams"--something about fantasy and the imagined world--would totally exclude the possibility that film has realist elements. 

. 

Nevertheless, the first story on the little boy who witnesses the marriage of foxes has its origin from Japanese folklore --it is not something that would happen in the real daily life (either the marriage; or the little boy's encounter with them); the little boy (and the family) is from, obviously, some uncertain ancient time; and the setting is highly controlled, elaborate; costumes are exquisite, beautifully designed (you could offer other examples from the film as well); the story is also based on the very fascinating logic of the folklore; rather than some ordinary events in contemporary life(while it could have some implications for our modern life): we could hardly argue that it is Neorealist (for which I don't think location shooting is the only criteria though).

Some Neorealist films have "open ending"; but it is too simplistic to say any film that has open ending would be Neorealist.  Lots of Hollywood films seem to have open endings as well...

However, I find this question interesting and needs to be discussed because in the Bordwell reading, we have also read about the postwar European modernist cinema--actually we might want to say Kurosawa's films could be related to such a strand of modernism (please refer to the Bordwell reading); at the same time, we want to argue a large number of films from the New Wave movements tend to be wonderful works of Art Cinema (some Neorealist films share some characteristics with Art films)--another concept that we could study in the following sessions. And Korosawa's epic works such as Ran and Seven Samurai --and also Dreams--have now been considered classics of Art Cinema. 


Thanks for Travis' question; I think it also helps me to think about Neorealist films better. 

May 13th FRENCH NEW WAVE

1. Richard Neupert. “Introduction”& p 177-189, A History of the French New Wave Cinema,The University of Wisconsin Press, 2007

http://pan.baidu.com/s/1pJ2RA5P

password:p52o

2. Marilyn Fabe, “Auteur Theory and the French New Wave: François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows”, Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique,

2004

you have downloaded the PDF from the previous seminar

3. Film for Discussion: the 400 Blows, Dir. François Truffaut, 1959, 99 min

[English version available online: http://www.veoh.com/watch/v509066Ysd6QY4C]

the reading on Neorealism

Dear all, 

My copies for this reading is not complete, and please download the file from the following link ;)

sorry for the inconvenience...

David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson, “Postwar European Cinema: Neorealism and its context, 1945-1959”, Film History: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2010, 324-337

link:http://pan.baidu.com/s/1jGHoNxs

password: 1x8i

UPDATED SYLLABUS

Dear all,

We have finalized the syllabus
download link（I fixed the problem!）
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1hqKGCuS
Password: qnec
sorry about its Chinese-interface (it's free, and huge)

 

When you input the password, Click the icon above to download 

And please refer to the updated syllabus for the details of the seminar.

Major changes have been made to the schedule of classes (dates; readings; contents).

Please closely double-check our schedule for Week 5 (May 13)  Week 11& 12 (June 24 & July 1st) & Week 13 (July 8th)

Write me if you have any question ; )

Film Studies: The Basics by Amy Villarejo

ITALIAN NEOREALISM

Dear all,

From the links you could download the WHOLE BOOKs; please do not distribute them outside of our class. Please read/print out the required pages of the book and bring them to the seminar.

Welcome

Dear All,

This is Ma Ran writing.

Welcome to this class on Global Film Culture.

More to follow...