Courses

Winter 2009 Courses


For a list of Winter 2009 course offerings, please click here.

Film Studies 1 (4 units): Introduction to Film Studies
Sheldon Lu
LECTURE: MW 2:10 - 3:00
FILM VIEWING: M 6:10 - 9:00
DISCUSSION SECTIONS:

  • Section 1 (W 6:10 - 7:00), CRN 35259
  • Section 2 (W 7:10 - 8:00), CRN 53858
  • Section 3 (R 2:10 - 3:00), CRN 53859
  • Section 4 (R 4:10 - 5:00), CRN 53860
  • Section 5 (R 4:00 - 5:00), CRN 53861
  • Section 6 (R 5:10 - 6:00), CRN 53862
  • Section 7 (R 5:10 - 6:00), CRN 53863
  • Section 8 (W 4:10 - 5:00), CRN 53864

Description of Course: The course aims to introduce students to various aspects of film studies, including film analysis, film history, as well as film (especially genre and auteur) theory. The main focus of the course, however, is on film analysis, particularly on the technical and narrative analysis of feature films that will entail a close viewing of the films. The course introduces students to the technical aspects of film, including cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, and sound; it also offers a survey to film history as well as important international movements, including early cinema, Soviet Montage, German Weimar Cinema, neorealism around the world (incl. India), the U.S. film noir, and "New Asian" cinema. We shall be examining, among other topics, the social, cultural, and political contexts of film as a medium as well as of particular films. The main objective for the course is for students to be able to view films critically, to develop a systematic and convincing interpretation of the film out of this critical viewing, and to articulate this analysis in a well-constructed and persuasive essay. Not open to students who have completed HUM 10. GE credit: ArtHum, Wrt.

Course Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Film viewing - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Prerequisite: None.

Textbook: Stephen R. Prince, Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film.

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Film Studies 125 (4 units): Frank Capra Films
Eric Smoodin, CRN: 53688
LECTURE: TR 3:10 - 4:30
FILM VIEWING: W 6:10 - 9:00

Description of Course: Rather than studying one type of film (the western, the musical, the melodrama, etc), we will be studying the movies of one filmmaker: Frank Capra, who was one of Hollywood's most important directors from the 1930's to the 1960's. We will watch the films he made to determine if there is, indeed, such a thing as a "Capra film," and to analyze the differences between his movies as well as their similarities. We will place our analyses of these films against an examination of the American film industry from the period, as we study production practices, audiences, censorship, and the relationships between the cinema, filmmakers, and such institutions as education, the government, the military, and print journalism. GE credit: ArtHum, Wrt.

Prerequisite: Course 1.

Course Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Film viewing - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour

Textbooks: Instructor will prepare a reader for students to pick up.

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