FALL 2014: CRITICAL FILM ANALYSIS
Lecturer: MA
Ran (maran@lit.nagoya-u.ac.jp)
Class: Thursdays
10:30~12:00
Place: School
of Letters, Lecture Room 131
Office Hour: School of Letters, Rm. 224, appointment by email
Course Blog: http://nu2014cfa.blogspot.jp/
[readings and other course-related materials, notifications would
be updated at the course blog]
This course is designed to engage students
with vital research perspectives in film studies on theory, method
and analysis. Building upon the study of a body of world films, we would navigate
the students through several crucial strands of film theories and
help to cultivate the students’ ability in applying theories in appropriate
contexts to facilitate the film analysis. Film theories we
would cover shall include but are not limited to classical/post-classical
narrative, thematic and auteur criticism, genre, psychoanalysis, gender
studies, new media theory and so forth.
Evaluation:
30%
Attendance & contribution
to class discussion/presentation
30% Reading
Journal Assignment (x2)
10%
In-class Quiz
30%
Final Paper
Course Assignments:
Reading
Journal Assignment: Due on
Nov. 6th / Dec 18th
For each month
between October to December, students are expected to
submit one reading journal assignment reflecting upon their reading progress in
the previous month. They are required to review, evaluate and even critique
concepts and arguments by referring to both the required and reference readings
(from the previous month) and write a 500~800 word journal; further relevant analysis of film
shots/scenes/aesthetics/styles etc. will be encouraged but not a must. Details will be offered later in class.
Final
Paper: Due on Feb 2nd 1,000~1,500 words. (If you wish, you can go over the word
limit.)
Please engage with at
least two readings or texts from the required or supplementary reading/viewing
lists. It
should include a bibliography and use the MLA citation style. Topic of the
paper followed by one paragraph of justification and two essay references
should be submitted and discussed on Jan 22
at the essay workshop.
Note on Plagiarism:
Plagiarism:
A writer who presents the ideas of words of another as if they were the
writer’s own (that is, without proper citation) commits plagiarism. Plagiarism
is not tolerable in this course or at Nagoya University. You should avoid
making quotes or drawing on figures from nowhere—you must provide sources of
reference for quotation and/or citations you use in the paper. This applies to
images and media clips as well. Failure to observe this would risk being
charged of plagiarism. In this University, plagiarism is a disciplinary
offence. Any student who commits the offence is liable to disciplinary action.
SHEDULE OF CLASSES (It doesn't show films we are to watch)
WEEK 1/OCT 2ND Introduction
Required
Reading for the Semester:
Elsaesser, Thomas & Buckland, Warren. “Film Theory, Methods,
Analysis”, Studying Contemporary American
Films: a Guide to Movie Analysis, Bloomsbury Academic, 2002, p1-25
Villarejo,
Amy. Film Studies: the Basics,
Routledge, 2nd edition, 2013
I. BASIC THEORETICAL TOOLKITS AGAINST
THE GRAND FILM HISTORY
WEEK
2/OCT 9TH: the Basics to Film Studies & Discussion Session
Required
Reading:
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin
“the Shot: Mise-en-Scène” &“the Relation of Shot to Shot:
Editing”, Film Art: and Introduction
(7th Edition), University Of Wisconsin Press, 2003, p176-225, p294-344
“Introduction” &
Astruc, Alexandre “What is Mise-en-Scène”, Cahier du Cinema--the 1950s: Neorealism,
Hollywood, New Wave. Eds. Jim Hiller. Harvard University Press, 1985. P5-14
& p266-269
WEEK
3/OCT 16TH Lecture on the Cinema of Attraction
Required
Reading:
Gunning, Tom. “The Cinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde”, Wide Angle, Vol.8,
Issue 3-4, p 63-70
“Attraction”, the Routeledge
Encyclopedia of Film Theory, eds. Edward Branigan & Warren Buckland,
Routledge, 2014, p 45-49
Reference
Reading:
Musser, Charles. “Rethinking Early Cinema:
Cinema of Attractions and Narrativity”, The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded, eds. Wanda
Strauven, Amsterdam University Press, 2006, p389-416
WEEK 4 /OCT 23RD
Lecture on Montage & Discussion
Session on 2 Films:
Required Readings:
Bordwell,
David. “The Idea of Montage in
Soviet Art and Film”, Cinema Journal, Vol. 11,No.2
Spring 1972, p9-17
Eisenstein, Sergei. “The Dramaturgy of Film Form”, Critical
Visions In Film Theory: Classic And Contemporary Readings, eds. Timothy
Corrigan, Patricia White with Meta Mazaj, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011, p262-279
Reference
Reading:
Eisenstein,
Sergei.
“Montage of Attractions: For ‘Enough Stupidity in Every Wiseman’”, trans. Daniel
Gerould, the
Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 18, No. 1, Popular
Entertainments (Mar., 1974), p. 77-85
Stam, Robert. “the Soviet Montage-Theorists” & “Russian
Formalism and the Bakhtin School”, Film
Theory: an Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, 2000, p37-55
II. ALL ABOUT THE AUTEUR: THEME,
NARRATIVE & STYLE
WEEK
5/ OCT 30TH NO CLASS
★ Nov 6th (by 5pm via email) Reading Journal No.1 Due
WEEK 7
/NOV 13TH Lecture & Discussion on Citizen Kane & Orson Welles
Required Readings
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin, “Narrative Form in Citizen Kane”, Film Art: and Introduction (7th Edition), University of
Wisconsin Press,
2003, p99-105
Elsaesser, Thomas & Buckland, Warren. Studying Contemporary American Films: a Guide to Movie Analysis,
p195-204
Reference Reading:
Fabe, Marilyn. “Expressive Realism: Orson Wells’s Citizen Kane”, Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art
of Narrative Film Technique, 2004, p 78-98
WEEK 9
NOV 27TH Lecture & Discussion Session on Auteur
Theory
Required Readings:
Astruc,
Alexandra, “The Birth Of A New Avant-Garde: La Camera-Stylo”, Critical Visions In Film Theory:
Classic And Contemporary Readings, eds. Timothy Corrigan, Patricia White
with Meta Mazaj, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011, p350-354
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin. “Narrative Form in Citizen Kane”, Film Art: and Introduction (7th Edition), University of
Wisconsin Press,
2003, p99-105
Sarris, Andrew. “the Auteur Theory Revisited”, Critical Visions In Film Theory: Classic And Contemporary Readings,
eds. Timothy Corrigan, Patricia White with Meta Mazaj, Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2011, p354-361
Reference Reading:
“Introduction”
& Bazin, Andre. “On the politique des auteurs”, Cahier du Cinema--the 1950s: Neorealism, Hollywood, New Wave. Eds.
Jim Hiller. Harvard University Press, 1985. P5-14 & p248-259
Stam, Robert. “The Phenomenology of Realism”
& “The Cult of the Auteur”, Film
Theory: an Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, 2000, p72-92
III. THIRD CINEMA
WEEK 10 DEC 4TH Lecture
on Third Cinema
Required Readings:
Fernando, Solanas
and Gettino, Octavio. ”Towards a
Third Cinema” In Film and Theory: An Anthology. Eds.
Stam, Robert and Toby Miller. Malden: Blackwell, 2000. p265-286.
Reference Readings:
Gabriel, Teshome H. “Towards a Critical Theory of
Third World Films”, In Film and Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Stam, Robert and Toby Miller.
Malden: Blackwell, 2000. P 298-316
IV. FILM GENRES
Week 11 Dec 11th
Week
12 Dec 18th
Required Readings:
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin, “Film Genres”, Film Art: an introduction (7th
edition), University of Wisconsin Press, 2003, p108-127
Knee, Adam. “the Pan-Asian Outlook of the Eye”, Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries
in Asian Cinema,
Lim, Bliss Cua. “Generic Ghosts: Remaking the New
‘Asian Horror Film’”, Hong Kong Film, Hollywood and the New
Global Cinema: No Film Is An Island. ed. Gina Marchetti
and Tan See Kam, London and New York: Routledge, 2007
Reference Readings:
Xu,Gary. “Remaking Asia, Outsourcing Hollywood”, Senses of Cinema. Feb.2005, Issue 34.
< http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/feature-articles/remaking_east_asia/>
★ Dec
18th ：Reading Journal No.2 Due
Dec 28th~Jan 7th
Winter Break
V.
DEBATING ON DOCUMENTARY
WEEK
16 JAN 15TH Presentation Session on the Cove
Required Readings:
IIan Kapoor, “Troubled Waters: Crashing into the
Cove”, Bright Lights Film Journal, May 2010, Issue 68
<http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/68/68thecove.php#.VBTkpy6SxOY>
Winston, Brain. “Introduction: the
Documentary Film”, The Documentary Film
Book, eds. Brain Winston, BFI & palgrave macmillian, 2013, p1-29
WEEK
17 JAN 22ND Thesis Workshop
FILMOGRAPHY:
Battleship Potemkin, Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1925
Breathless, Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1960
Citizen Kane, Dir. Orson Welles, 1941
the
Cove, Dir. Louie Psihoyos, 2009
the Eye, dir. Pang Brothers, 2002
Man with a Movie Camera, Dir. Dziga Vertov, 1929
Memories
of Underdevelopment, Dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea,
1968
Un Chien Andalou, Dir. Luis Buñuel, 1929
Early films by Lumière
Brothers & Georges Méliès etc.
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