| LEC # | TOPICS | REQUIRED FILMS | SUPPORTING FILMS (clips shown in class) | REQUIRED READINGS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. The silent era | ||||
| 1-2 | Introduction Keaton | Porter, Edwin. S. The Great Train Robbery. (view film) Griffith, D. W. The Lonedale Operator. (view stills) ———. A Beast at Bay. (view film) Keaton, Buster. One Week. (view film) ———. Cops. (view film) ———. The General. (view film) | Cook. A History of Narrative Film. 4th ed. pp. 1-41, 51-85. ———. 3rd ed. pp. 177-182. Mast. From A Short History of the Movies. | |
| 3-4 | Chaplin | Chaplin, Charlie. The Immigrant. (view film) ———. Easy Street. (view film) ———. Modern Times. | Agee. "Comedy's Greatest Era." | |
| 5-6 | Film as a global and cultural form: german film | Murnau, F. W. The Last Laugh. | Cook. Chapters 4-5. | |
| II. Hollywood genres | ||||
| 7-8 | Hollywood in the 1930s: sound comedy | Capra, Frank. It Happened One Night. | Ball of Fire: Stanwyck character meets Cooper and the other professors. The Lady Eve: Stanwyck character comments on the women trying to get the attention of Fonda. | Cook. Chapters 7-8. |
| Quiz | ||||
| 9-10 | Hitchcock | Hitchcock. Shadow of a Doubt. | Strangers on a Train: climactic fight on merry-go-round. | |
| 11-12 | The musical | Donen, Stanely, and Gene Kelly. Singin' in the Rain . Fosse, Bob. Cabaret. | Love Me Tonight: "Isn't It Romantic?" 42nd Street: "Young and Healthy." Top Hat: "Cheek to Cheek." | Braudy. "Genre: The Conventions of Connection." |
| 13-14 | The western | Ford, John. The Searchers | My Darling Clementine: Wyatt and Clementine at the church dedication. High Noon: opening ballad with villains riding through town. | Cook. Chapter 12. |
| 15-16 | Film in the 1970s | Altman, Robert. McCabe and Mrs. Miller. | Five Easy Pieces: an order of toast. The Long Goodbye: detective Marlowe shoots a friend who got away with murder. | Cook. pp. 845-868. |
| III. International masters | ||||
| 17-18 | Renoir and poetic realism | Renoir, Jean. Grand Illusion. | Boudu Saved From Drowning: Boudu leaves his own wedding party on the river. | Cook. pp. 303-326. |
| Hour test | ||||
| 19-20 | Italian neorealism | De Sica, Vittorio. Bicycle Thieves. | Rome, Open City: child saboteurs return home to their parents. | Cook. pp. 355-368. |
| 21 | Fellini | Fellini, Federico. 8 ½. | La Strada: Zampano the strongman. Nights of Cabiria: near drowning of Cabiria and rescue. La Dolce Vita: statue flying over Rome. | Cook. pp. 531-555. |
| 22 | Summary perspectives: film as art and artifact | |||
| Final exam | ||||
Table of Contents
Films and Readings
Films and Readings
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This page includes the films and readings for each week, and a list of additional recommended readings.
Most hyperlinks on the films point to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The first few films (pre-1923) are in public domain, so where a legitimate online copy could be found, it has been linked instead and noted.
Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. 3rd ed. Kingston, MA: R. S. Means Company, 1996. ISBN: 9780393969399.
Agee, James. "Comedy's Greatest Era." In Agee on Film. Vol. 1. New York, NY: McDowell, 1958, pp. 2-19.
Mast, Gerald. "The Comics: Mack Sennett and the Chaplin Shorts." In A Short History of the Movies. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 76-92. ISBN: 9780226509822.
———. "Movie Czars and Movie Stars." In A Short History of the Movies. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 118-128. ISBN: 9780226509822.
Braudy, Leo. "Genre: The Conventions of Connection." In Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 443-468. ISBN: 9780195025033.
Brophy, Stephen. "Bicycle Thieves is a poignant neorealist work." The Tech, May 5, 1995.
On Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller: Lethem, Jonathan. "The Greatest Death Scene." The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2007.
On John Ford's The Searchers: Stone, Robert. "The Search Party." The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2007.
Thorburn, David, "Television as an Aesthetic Medium." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 4, no. 2 (June 1987): 161-173.
———. "Television Melodrama." In Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. Edited by Horace Newcomb. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195301168.
———. "Web of Paradox." The American Prospect 9 no. 40, September 1, 1998 - October 1, 1998.