Courses

Winter 2010 Courses 


Film Studies 1: Introduction to Film Studies (4 units)
Sheldon Lu, Professor of Comparative Literature
shlu@ucdavis.edu

Lecture: TR 2:10-3:00, 2 Wellman
Film Viewing: R 6:10-9:00 (evening), 2 Wellman

Discussion Sections:

  • Section 1 (F 9:00-9:50, 130 Physics/Geology) CRN 45104
  • Section 2 (F 10:00-10:50, 140 Physics/Geology) CRN 45105
  • Section 3 (M 3:10-4:00, 207 Olson) CRN 45106
  • Section 4 (M 4:10-5:00, 101 Olson) CRN 45107
  • Section 5 (T 5:10-6:00, 2016 Haring) CRN 45108
  • Section 6 (T 6:10-7:00, 1130 Bainer) CRN 45109
  • Section 7 (W 1:10-2:00, 107 Wellman) CRN 45110
  • Section 8 (W 2:10-3:00, 146 Robbins) CRN 45111

Course Description:
This course aims to introduce students to important aspects of film studies, such as film analysis, film history, film criticism, and film theory. The main focus of the course, however, is on film analysis, particularly on the technical and narrative analysis of feature films. We examine cinematography, editing, acting, mise-en-scene, and sound. We investigate the social, cultural, and political contexts of film as a medium. The course also offers a survey of representative international movements, including early cinema, Soviet Montage, the U.S. film noir, and "New Asian" cinema. The ultimate objective of the course is to allow students to view films critically, to develop a systematic and convincing interpretation of the films they watch, and to acquire the ability to analyze films in well-constructed and persuasive essays. 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

Film Studies 125: Topics in Film Genres - The War Film (4 Units)
CRN 45122

Eric Smoodin, Professor of American Studies
esmoodin@ucdavis.edu


Lecture/Discussion: TR 3:10-4:30, 168 Hoagland
Film Viewing: W 6:10-9:00 (evening), 158 Olson

Course Description:
For more information on the course you may e-mail Professor Smoodin at esmoodin@ucdavis.edu. GE Credit: ArtHum, Wrt.

Prerequisite: course 1.

Textbooks: A Course Reader

Film Studies 176A: Classic Weimar Cinema (4 Units)
CRN 63374

Jaimey Fisher, Associate Professor of German
jrfisher@ucdavis.edu


Lecture/Discussion: TR 12:10-1:30, 1130 Hart
Film Viewing: M 6:10-9:00 (evening), 147 Olson


Course Description: Weimar Cinema - the diverse film culture of 1920s Germany - gave birth or early impetus to some of the most important film genres for global cinema, including horror, film noir, science fiction, and melodrama. The course will chart how it was within the context of Weimar Germany and, above all, its uneasy confrontation with modernity and modernization that the horror film, film noir, science-fiction film, and the melodrama all emerged.

In these cultural products, the class will discuss various topics like: the twentieth-century revolution in aesthetics, the impact of war on society, Expressionism in text and in film, technology and the metropolis, changing gender roles as well as the changing nature of work. Focusing on these questions of modernity and cinema as well as the origins of these film genres, the course will reevaluate the canonical films of this period, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and M as well as address lesser known works like Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, The Last Laugh, and Girls in Uniform. This course will analyze these films but also the varied and variegated scholarly approaches to Weimar Cinema. A study of Weimar cinema, in fact, affords an indispensable occasion on which to engaged with what is probably the most famous single book of film criticism, Siegfried Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler. But the course will not only address Kracauer's canonical work, but also set Kracauer in a mutually illuminating dialogue with Lotte Eisner and Thomas Elsaesser - and thereby offer diverse approaches to film, an approach that will highlight the range of approaches and stakes in film studies. GE Credit: ArtHum, Wrt. Cross-listed with German 176A.


Prerequisite: Humanities 1 or Consent of Instructor.

Textbook: Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler (Revised & Expanded)

Other Film Studies Courses

Anthropology 136: Ethnographic Film (4 Units)
CRN 63751

Alan Kilma, Associate Professor of Anthropology
aklima@ucdavis.edu


Lecture/Film Viewing: TBA

Course Description: TBA

Prerequisite: Anthropology 2.

Textbooks: TBA

Chicana/Chicano Studies 160: Mexican Film and Greater Mexican Identity (4 Units)
CRN 36962

Sergio de la Mora, Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies
sedelamora@ucdavis.edu


Lecture/Film Viewing: TBA

Course Description: This introduction to one of the world’s most dynamic national cinemas will provide you with a taste of classic Mexican films (roughly mid 1930s-early 1950s), its key genres, directors, and the star system, as well as the various waves of “new cinemas” (1960s, 1970s, 1990s-present) that have introduced new talent, cinematic sensibilities and preoccupations to both the established film industry and the independent sector. We will study current trends in contemporary Mexican cinema within a global and transnational context. Among the questions we will consider are the following. Is the current new Mexican cinema moribund? How has independent Mexican cinema changed since the international success of films such as Amores perros (2000) and Y tu mamá también (2001)? What new aesthetic and thematic preoccupations are new Mexican filmmakers taking up? How does past and present cultural policy shape Mexican film production, distribution, exhibition and consumption? The course will emphasize the complex cinematic representations of gender, sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity in relation to broader existential, political and cultural factors.

Prerequisite: Advance knowledge of Spanish is required as some films do not have English subtitles. There may be some reading in Spanish. However, all written assignments will be in English unless you prefer to write in Spanish.

Textbooks: TBA

Japanese 106: Japanese Culture Through Film (4 Units)
CRN 63411

Joseph Sorensen, Assistant Professor of Japanese
jsorensen@ucdavis.edu


Lecture/Film Viewing: TR 4:10-6:00, Wellman 115

Course Description: In this course we will survey a selection of works of Japanese literature in English translation and the films based on them. After briefly discussing basic approaches to film studies and the issue of adaptation in particular, we will focus on how the written word is transformed on the screen. The course introduces a few major writers of 20th-century fiction and also serves as a survey of the major directors in the history of Japanese cinema: Mizoguchi Kenji (1898-1956), Ozu Yasujiro (1903-1963), Kurosawa Akira (1910-1998), Ichikawa Kon (1915-2008), and others. Students will be asked, in a variety of writing assignments, to compare and contrast their own close readings of the novels to the film versions. There is no assumption of prior knowledge of Japanese language, history, or culture. All film screenings will be in Japanese with English subtitles. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.

Prerequisite: Upper-Division standing.

Textbooks:

  • Ooka, Fires on the Plain
  • Abe, Woman in the Dunes
  • Ueda, Tales of Moonlight and Rain
  • Ibuse, Black Rain
  • Tanizaki, Key and Diary of a Mad Old Man
  • Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film