Art U795.01 - Topics in the History of the Motion Picture: Aesthetics of Film
M, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room 1223, 3 credits, Prof. Pipolo [27053] [Cross-listed with Theatre U714]

This course offers an introduction to the study of film aesthetics through the close analysis of work representing a wide range of film directors, historical periods, stylistic schools, and national cinemas. Among the topics explored in the course are narrative and nonnarrative formal systems, the filmmaker's use of mise-en-scene, editing, and sound, and the film text's relation to history and ideology. The course introduces students to some of the major theories and methods of film analysis and criticism. No previous experience in film studies is required, and students from a variety of academic backgrounds are welcome. 

Art U895.01 - Seminar: Selected Topics in the History of the Motion Picture: Illusions and Betrayals in Latin American Film
Th, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room L19, 3 credits, Prof. Glickman [35382]. [Cross-listed with Theatre U815.02]

The history of Latin America, from one point of view, is a series of grand illusions followed by profound disappointments. Nothing better illustrates this theme than Latin American film, both in the hyperbole of its style and the ambitions sweep of its subject matter. Each class will examine films that reflect different aspects of local culture. Following a loosely chronological and geographic order (concentrating mostly on Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba), the most important events that shaped Latin American cinema will be identified. The films will cover some of the following topics: myths and countermyths; national identity and ideology; saints, matriarchs, and prostitutes; the legendary Gauchos from the Pampas; deconstructing the Mexican revolution; myths surrounding Eva Peron; metaphors of violence and repression; the romantization of African slavery in Brazil and Cuba. Course requirements: Weekly brief response papers. One final paper in English or Spanish on the main topics or authors covered in class or included in the bibliography. (A syllabus is available in the Certificate Programs Office)

Art U895.02 - Seminar: Selected Topics in the History of the Motion Picture: Issues of Race and Gender in the History of American Cinema 
Th, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room 1223, 3 credits, Prof. Wallace [29941]. [Cross-listed with Theatre U815.03]

For over a century narrative feature films have tended to render African Americans either invisible or so offensively trivialized and stereotypical that the concept of racial alterity continues to represent a kind of historiographical lacunae in cinema studies. By way of correction, this course will focus upon those comparatively rare occasions when the African American presence and/or problematizations of race were foregrounded in American cinema prior to the l960s. 

We will begin with the popular novels and plays of Thomas Dixon in relation to the stagy Edison version of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903), and the importance of the multiple versions of Stowe's text on stage and film. We will also consider the reception of the fight films of the first black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson (1910) and the rare comedic footage of Bert Williams in A Natural Born Gambler (1916) against the background of American racism and imperialism as epitomized by D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) and the "race films" (particularly those of Oscar Micheaux) in the wake of anti-Birth protests. 

We will then examine the development in the portrayal of blacks in cinema that came with the onset of the sound era, such as Dudley Murphy's musical shorts, St. Louis Blues and Black and Tan, as well as King Vidor's Hallelujah, all produced in 1929. In addition to race representations from abroad, Broadway, and infusions of European cosmopolitanism, the most prominent racial text in the U.S. at this time was John Stahl's Imitation of Life (1934), starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers. We will continue on to the black cast films of the World War II years, Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather (1943) and four problem films of 1949 (Home of the Brave, Intruder in the Dust, Lost Boundaries, and Pinky). This period was followed by the McCarthy era, which represented a serious shutdown in terms of progressive Hollywood filmmaking. This survey of issues of race and gender in American cinema will conclude with a consideration of Douglas Sirk's version of Imitation of Life (1959) in the context of the debates around representation, gender, race, and psychoanalysis it has helped spawn in feminist film criticism. (A complete course description is available in the Certificate Programs Office)

French U872 - Literature/Cinema/Music (in English)
Th, 2:00-6:00 p.m., Rm. GN-4048, 4 credits, Prof. Brown [35265]

First and foremost, the course will examine the aesthetic properties held in common by three arts--literature (non-iconic/representational), music (non-iconic/non-representational), and cinema (iconic/ representational) -- whose texts unfold across a certain period of time. We will begin by studying some of the structural and psychological principles of music, along with theories by such scholars as Leonard B. Meyer and John Shepherd. We will also consider the role music has played in the aesthetic theories of certain writers and poets, from Stephane Mallarm‚ to T. S. Eliot. Literary texts from poets such as Theophile Gautier, Mallarme, and Jean Tardieu to novelists such as Marcel Proust and Alain Robbe-Grillet will serve as models for the application of various types of musical thought to literature. A similar study will be done to illustrate how the various tools of the cinema, such as editing, shot composition, etc., can be mobilized within a quasi-musical aesthetics, and we will consider the theoretical work of Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, among others. We will also consider the aesthetic modifications necessitated by the adaptation of literary works, whether novels or plays, to the screen. Another major area of study in this course will be the intersection of musical and mythic structures, in particular as elaborated by Claude Levi-Strauss in Le Cru et le cuit. Finally, the course will also consider some of the interactions that can exist between a film and its musical score. 

Theatre U714 - Aesthetics of Film
M, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room 1223, 3 credits, Prof. Pipolo [27053] [Cross-listed with Art U795.01]

This course offers an introduction to the study of film aesthetics through the close analysis of work representing a wide range of film directors, historical periods, stylistic schools, and national cinemas. Among the topics explored in the course are narrative and nonnarrative formal systems, the filmmaker's use of mise-en-scene, editing, and sound, and the film text's relation to history and ideology. The course introduces students to some of the major theories and methods of film analysis and criticism. No previous experience in film studies is required, and students from a variety of academic backgrounds are welcome. 

Theatre U815 - Seminar in Film Studies: British Cinema and Theatre in the Thatcher and Post-Thatcher Era 
T, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room 1223, 3 credits, Prof. Quart [25157]

This course focuses on films made during the Thatcher and post-Thatcher era with an emphasis on the films of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, two very stylistically different, realist directors, and the films and plays of David Hare, arguably Britain's major contemporary playwright. We will explore the place of these films and plays in British cinematic and theatrical history (British political theatre of the 80s and 90s -- Benton, Barker, Churchill) and their relationship to English culture and society (e.g., the politics and culture of Thatcherism). We will also analyze the different formal strategies these three artists use to shape their respective visions: their use of language/silence, visual motifs, camera placement, mise-en-scene, editing, and most importantly, Loach and Leigh's very distinct uses of a realist aesthetic. To deepen our analysis, the class will look at clips from earlier British realist films. Among the films to be studied are Loach's Raining Stones and Riff Raff -- films that evoke a submerged working class perspective on the horrors of Thatcherism; Leigh's Meantime, Naked, and Secrets and Lies -- complex comic/pathetic explorations of social class, individual behavior, and marital relationships; and Hare's Plenty, Map of the World, Skylight -- intricately layered works that eloquently provide a critique of the Thatcherite ethos. We will explore the class dimension of all of their works as well as what it means to be a political artist. We will screen and analyze clips from the films during class. Students will be expected to participate in discussion, write two critical papers -- one short, one long -- and to screen most of the films before class. (A complete course description is available in the Certificate Programs Office)

Theatre U815.01 - Seminar in Film Studies: Film/Art:Performers and Performance
W, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room 1223, 3 credits, Prof. Dickstein [35386]

This course will examine a crucial but neglected genre of film history: works that explore the nature of performers and performance, including films set in the theatre (All About Eve ), in Hollywood (Sunset Boulevard ), in the music hall of an earlier era (Renoir's French Cancan), even the circus (Ophul's Lola Montes), as well as films contrasting different forms of high and low performance (Carne's Children of Paradise, Bergman's The Naked Night, Renoir's The Golden Coach) and other key films by filmmakers like Chaplin (The Circus), Fellini (La Strada), and Bergman (Persona) who have endlessly reflected on the nature of performing art and the lives of performers, and used this theme as a vehicle for aesthetic statement and disguised autobiography. Many of these rank with the best films ever made on any theme. Through them we will examine how the performer's world has been used not only as a reflexive allusion to film itself but as a metaphor for art in general and for the vicissitudes of existence. Among the additional films that might be screened and discussed are: Sternberg's The Blue Angel, Lubitsch's To Be or Nor To Be, La Cava's Stage Door, Bacon & Berkeley's 42nd Street, RKO Astaire-Rogers musicals like Top Hat, Swing Time, or Shall We Dance, and finally Szabo's Mephisto, which examines the political dimension of a performer's life in Nazi Germany. The course will also involve primary and secondary readings on film, theatre, and performance. (A complete course description is available in the Certificate Programs Office) 

Theatre U815.02-Seminar in Film Studies: Selected Topics in the History of the Motion Picture: Illusions and Betrayals in Latin American Film
Th, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room L19, 3 credits, Prof. Glickman [35382]. [Cross-listed with Art U895.01]

The history of Latin America, from one point of view, is a series of grand illusions followed by profound disappointments. Nothing better illustrates this theme than Latin American film, both in the hyperbole of its style and the ambitions sweep of its subject matter. Each class will examine films that reflect different aspects of local culture. Following a loosely chronological and geographic order (concentrating mostly on Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba), the most important events that shaped Latin American cinema will be identified. The films will cover some of the following topics: myths and countermyths; national identity and ideology; saints, matriarchs, and prostitutes; the legendary Gauchos from the Pampas; deconstructing the Mexican revolution; myths surrounding Eva Peron; metaphors of violence and repression; the romantization of African slavery in Brazil and Cuba. Course requirements: Weekly brief response papers. One final paper in English or Spanish on the main topics or authors covered in class or included in the bibliography. (A syllabus is available in the Certificate Programs Office)

Theatre U815.03 - Seminar in Film Studies: Selected Topics in the History of the Motion Picture: Issues of Race and Gender in the History of American Cinema
Th, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room 1223, 3 credits, Prof. Wallace [29941]. [Cross-listed with Art U895.02]

For over a century narrative feature films have tended to render African Americans either invisible or so offensively trivialized and stereotypical that the concept of racial alterity continues to represent a kind of historiographical lacunae in cinema studies. By way of correction, this course will focus upon those comparatively rare occasions when the African American presence and/or problematizations of race were foregrounded in American cinema prior to the l960s. 

We will begin with the popular novels and plays of Thomas Dixon in relation to the stagy Edison version of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903), and the importance of the multiple versions of Stowe's text on stage and film. We will also consider the reception of the fight films of the first black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson (1910) and the rare comedic footage of Bert Williams in A Natural Born Gambler (1916) against the background of American racism and imperialism as epitomized by D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) and the "race films" (particularly those of Oscar Micheaux) in the wake of anti-Birth protests. We will then examine the development in the portrayal of blacks in cinema that came with the onset of the sound era, such as Dudley Murphy's musical shorts, St. Louis Blues and Black and Tan , as well as King Vidor's Hallelujah , all produced in 1929. In addition to race representations from abroad, Broadway, and infusions of European cosmopolitanism, the most prominent racial text in the U.S. at this time was John Stahl's Imitation of Life (1934), starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers. We will continue on to the black cast films of the World War II years, Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather (1943) and four problem films of 1949 (Home of the Brave, Intruder in the Dust, Lost Boundaries, and Pinky). This period was followed by the McCarthy era, which represented a serious shutdown in terms of progressive Hollywood filmmaking. This survey of issues of race and gender in American cinema will conclude with a consideration of Douglas Sirk's version of Imitation of Life (1959) in the context of the debates around representation, gender, race, and psychoanalysis it has helped spawn in feminist film criticism. (A complete course description is available in the Certificate Programs Office)