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FS45ZA: LANDSCAPES OF FILM B (2020-2021)

Last modified: 05 Aug 2021 13:04


Course Overview

This course will invite students to explore the ways in which films engage with and represent a variety of landscapes, and how, in turn, landscape can influence both the production and the creation of meaning in mainstream, underground and art films of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will study films from around the world alongside theoretical and critical writing on film, landscape, space and place.

Filmmakers to be studied may include, among others: Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion, Joel and Ethan Coen, John Curran, Tacita Dean, Werner Herzog, Im Kwon-taek, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Terrence Malick, Philip Noyce, Lynne Ramsay, Andrei Tarkovsky, Agnes Varda and Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 4
Session Second Sub Session Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Mr Alan Macpherson

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Film And Visual Culture (FS) (Studied)
  • Either Programme Level 3 or Programme Level 4
  • Any Undergraduate Programme (Studied)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

This course will invite students to explore the ways in which films engage with and represent a variety of landscapes, and how, in turn, landscape can influence both the production and the creation of meaning in mainstream, underground and art films of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Studying films from around the world we will look at ways in which various landscapes may have been appropriated cinematically for their emotive qualities: to connote feelings of desolation, oppression or plenitude; loneliness, fear or joy. We will also look at landscapes as sites of specific cultural history. But as the course progresses, drawing on contemporary research in cultural and human geographies, and elsewhere, we will explore the ways that studying film can assist in our ability to conceive landscape not only as a static or symbolic entity, but as a highly mobile, interactive site in which history, experience and materiality converge in the ongoing production of space and meaning. In this way, we will consider how film articulates John Wylie’s provocative claim that ‘landscape is tension’.

This interdisciplinary course will draw on writings from film and cultural theorists, philosophers, artists and social scientists. Filmmakers to be studied may include, among others: Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion, Joel and Ethan Coen, John Curran, Tacita Dean, Werner Herzog, Grant Gee, Im Kwon-taek, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Philip Noyce, Lynne Ramsay, Walter Salles, Andrei Tarkovsky, Agnes Varda and Andrey Zvyagintsev.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 31 August 2023 for 1st half-session courses and 22 December 2023 for 2nd half-session courses.

Summative Assessments

Seminar Assessment Mark 20%

Group Presentation and Reflective Report 40%

Essay 40%

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ProceduralEvaluateStudents will be able to use appropriate methodologies and synthesise ideas drawn from a variety of sources
ReflectionEvaluateStudents will develop the ability to manage their time and workload effectively
ConceptualUnderstandStudents will be exposed to interdisciplinary methods
ConceptualEvaluateStudents will learn to evaluate the role of landscape across multiple film styles
ConceptualAnalyseStudents will develop the ability to engage in critical thinking
ConceptualEvaluateStudents will be able to identify key claims and summarize arguments
ReflectionApplyStudents will develop the ability to participate in reflective discussion
ProceduralUnderstandStudents will gain experience of a range of writing styles
ProceduralCreateStudents will gain experience of presenting to a group
ReflectionCreateStudents will learn to write clearly and construct coherent arguments
ProceduralApplyStudents will develop the ability to work independently and in groups
ConceptualAnalyseStudents will be introduced to theories of landscape, space and place

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