Syllabus2

=Schedule of Readings, Screenings, and Assignments=

LM = //Looking at Movies//, Barsam and Monahan DVD = //Looking at Movies// DVD EC = //Engaging Cinema//, Nichols

Week One: Ways of Looking at Movies

 * 1/11**: Introductions


 * 1/12**: Screening: //Juno// (Jason Reitman, 2007)


 * 1/13:** Read LM, Ch.1 (1-25); Watch DVD, Ch. 1 (Film Analysis)

Week Two: Film Form

 * 1/18:** Read LM, Ch. 2 (28-57); Watch DVD, Ch. 2 (Form and Content)

Questions for discussion: Which film(s) do you find most accessible? Why? Given its time in cinema history, which film is most formally inventive? What is uniquely cinematic in these films? What forms of expression do they use that are unavailable to other art forms?
 * 1/19**: Screening: //A Trip to the Moon// (Georges Melies, 1902, France); //The Man with the Movie Camera// (Dziga Vertov, 1929, USSR); //Meshes of the Afternoon// (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, 1943, USA)


 * 1/20**: Read LM, Ch. 3 (60-78)

Week Three: Narrative Form

 * 1/25**: Read LM, Ch. 3 (78-82, 95-98); EC, Ch. 4 (136-153); Watch DVD, Ch. 3 (The Western)


 * 1/26**: Screening: //Stagecoach// (John Ford, 1939)


 * 1/27**:Watch DVD, Ch. 4 (all parts); Check out this [|website that documents all the locations in the film] with pictures of what they look like today

Week Four: Mise en Scene

 * 2/1:** Read LM, Ch. 5


 * 2/2**: Screening: //The Apartment// (Billy Wilder, 1960)


 * 2/3**:DUE:[| Take-home quiz over Ch. 5]; Watch DVD, Ch. 5

Week Five: Cinematography

 * 2/8**: Read LM, Ch. 6


 * 2/9**: Screening: //Days of Heaven// (Terence Malick, 1978)


 * 2/10**: DUE: Take-home quiz over Ch. 6; Watch DVD, Ch. 6

Week Six: Editing

 * 2/15**: Read LM, Ch. 8


 * 2/16**: Screening: //Notorious// (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)


 * 2/17**: Watch DVD, Ch. 8; DUE: Take-home quiz over editing: In either "Bartholomew's Song" or "Spam-ku," identify an example of how editing does each of the three following things:
 * 1) manipulates a temporal relationship
 * 2) establishes a spatial relationship between shots
 * 3) establishes rhythm

Week Seven: Sound

 * 2/22**: DUE: Formal Analysis Paper Proposal; Read LM, Ch. 9; read [|An Analysis of the Stealing the Key Sequence in Notorious, by Marilyn Fabe]


 * 2/23**: Screening: //Citizen Kane// (Orson Welles, 1941)


 * 2/24**: Watch DVD, Ch. 9; read [|Scene Analysis of The Big Heat]

Week Eight: Midterm Review

 * 3/1**: DUE: Formal Analysis Paper; Read [|"Synthesis: Citizen Kane" essay]; Bring [|Citizen Kane review handout]


 * 3/2**: Screening: //Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography//


 * 3/3**: Midterm Exam

Spring Break

Week Nine: Documentary

 * 3/15**: Read EC, Ch. 3


 * 3/16**: Screening: //High School// (Frank Wiseman, 1968)


 * 3/17**: Quiz due: Answer the following questions, based on your reading of Ch. 3 in //Engaging Cinema//.
 * 1) What mode of documentary film is //Visions of Light//? Explain.
 * 2) Bill Nichols classifies //The Man with a Movie Camera// as a reflexive documentary. What other mode could it also exemplify? Explain.
 * 3) Bill Nichols argues that persuasiveness is a goal of documentary film. Does it make sense to think of observational documentaries such as //The War Room// and //High School// as persuasive? Why or why not?

Week Ten: Ideology

 * 3/22**: Read EC, Ch. 6 (232-246, esp. pp.242-244 on the Hollywood blacklist); Ch. 8 (pp. 287-310 on ideology)


 * 3/23**: Screening: //On the Waterfront// (Elia Kazan, 1954)


 * 3/24**:

Week Eleven: Genre/Ideology/Editing

 * 3/29**: Read EC, Ch. 7


 * 3/30**: Screening: //Bonnie and Clyde// (Arthur Penn, 1967)


 * 3/31**:

Week Twelve: Film and Race

 * 4/5**: Read EC, Ch. 9


 * 4/6**: Screening: //Do the Right Thing// (Spike Lee, 1989)


 * 4/7**: DUE: Written (typed) response to Bill Nichols comments on //Do the Right Thing// in EC

Week Thirteen: Film and Gender - Masculinity

 * 4/12**: Read EC, Ch. 10


 * 4/13**: Screening: //Raging Bull// (Martin Scorsese, 1980)

How do you respond to Jake as a character? What is your response to the film's violence? What perspective do you think the movie offers on violence? On Jake's character? On masculinity?
 * 4/14**: Read [|Raging Bull overview and discussion questions.]

Week Fourteen: Film and Gender - Feminism

 * 4/19**: Read EC, Ch. 11


 * 4/20**: Screening: //Gilda// (Charles Vidor, 1946)


 * 4/21**:

Week Fifteen: Final Presentations/Review
// Don't forget to complete a **[|course evaluation] **. //
 * 4/26**: Presentations: //I Am Sam//, //American Beauty//, //Pulp Fiction//

Don't forget to complete a **[|course evaluation] **
 * 4/27**: Presentations: //Apocalypse Now//, //Jaws//, //The Pianist//

Don't forget to complete a **[|course evaluation] **
 * 4/28**: Presentations: //Silence of the Lambs//, //The Graduate//

Exam

 * 5/6**: Final Exam 9:45 - 11:45 (Friday)