FILM STUDIES

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr A Marcus

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

An introduction to the history of American cinema, covering films from the inception of cinema, the era of Classic Hollywood and late twentieth century ‘post-classical’ cinema. The course introduces students to a wide range of genres, including melodrama, screwball comedy, the gangster film, science fiction and the western, and to the work of such directors as Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, John Ford, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg among others. Lectures will place the films in the context of the film industry and the social and historical context of America.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures; 1 one-hour tutorial and 2 three-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and in-course assessment: one 1,500-2,000 word essay (40%) and tutorial assessment (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr L Harbidge

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 2 or above who have passed FS 1004 or FS 1005, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course is a compulsory course for entry into both Honours Film Studies. Not available to students who have a pass in FS 2502 Approaches To European Cinema.

Overview

This course examines an exceptionally rich and diverse choice of films from around the world. Studying examples from countries such as Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Japan, students will be introduced to various national cinemas and movements, and will consider the principal aesthetic, cultural and institutional factors influencing the distinguishing features of those cinemas and movements. With an emphasis upon making both connections and disconnections between Other cinemas and Hollywood, this course will encourage students to understand and appreciate the film text as both individualistic art form and intertextual product of an increasingly globalized world. Films to be studied (subject to availability) include: Bicycle Thieves (De Sics), Shoot the Pianist (Traffaut), Live Flesh (Almodovar), The Idiots (von Trier), Sweet Sixteen (Loach)and Audition (Mike).

Structure

3 one-hour lectures; 2 three-hour screenings and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (40%), continuous assessment: essay (30%); exercise (10%); TAM (20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr K Ravetto

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 2 or above who have passed FS 1004 or FS 1005 or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This is a compulsory course for entry into Joint Honours Film Studies and Designated Degree in Film Studies. Not available to students who have a pass in FS 35CF New Hollywood.

Overview

This course examines the influence of the Film School Generation - the first generation of Hollywood filmmakers to be known for their film literacy, and to be motivated by the rise of auteurist criticism, US independent filmmaking and the French New Wave - on contemporary American filmmaking. The course will draw upon various theoretical frameworks including modernism/postmodernism, realism/stylization and authorship, and filmmakers to be studied include Scorsese, Coppola, Altman, Lynch and Fincher.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial per week and 2 three-hour screenings.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%). In-course assessment: one 1,500-2,000 word essay (40%) and tutorial assessment (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above who have passed FS 2502; European Cinema or FS 2503; Other Cinemas, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

Not available to students who have a pass in FS 30CE Film Theory. This course is compulsory for students intending to take Film Studies as a Joint Honours option.

Overview

This course examines the major theories of film, from early modernist discussions of cinema to the upheavals of the 1960s and the development of poststructuralist, feminist, Marxist and post-colonial modes of analysis. It will track the unfolding of film's theorisation, from the texts of Eisenstein and Benjamin, through the theories of Kracauer and Bazin and the structuralist and poststructuralist reaction to them. In addition, the course will explore more recent developments in film theory, examining 'new media' responses to digitisation and the potential 'End of Cinema'. The theories in question will be considered both as an expression of philosophical positions and in terms of their capacity to illuminate - and interrogate - film texts.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture and 1 two-hour seminar per week plus 2 three-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and in-course assessment: one 2,000-2,500 word essay (30%), one 1,000 word exercise (10%) and seminar work (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr S Ward

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above. Admission subject to approval by the Head of School.

Overview

The course will focus on the representation of key 'cinematic cities' such as New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Berlin, examining the relationship between the cinema and the urban environment and focusing on specific thematic issues. These include: the city and cinematic visions of utopia/dystopia; the city and the figure of the detective/flâneur/flâneuse; the city as site of cultural encounter and social conflict; the city as a site of globalisation; the city and consumption; the city and the development/reworking of cinematic tradition.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture and 1 one-hour seminar per week plus 2 three-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and in-course assessment: one 2,000-2,500 word essay (40%) and seminar work (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr K Ravetto

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above or by approval of the Head of School.

Overview

This course traces the history of the image of the femme fatale that has shaped the way we look at and represent sexuality, our notions of fashion, gesture, and social-political roles. The course will explore the transformations of the femme fatale as an icon of feminine decadence in early cinema to a sexually aggressive figure, and a parodic figure in late 20th century film. It will scrutinize the sexual positioning of the feminine in relation to the modern aestheticized sexual discourse by tracing the reconfiguration of the femme fatale as an icon for sexual ambiguity as she appears in images of camp, classic film noir and those dark feminine figures present in the 1980's and 1990's thriller genre.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week plus 2 three-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and in-course assessment: one 2,000-2,500 word essay (40%), and seminar work (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4, or by permission of the Head of School.

Overview

One of the most significant contemporary cinematic movements, the martial arts film is a spectacular form that foregrounds issues of stardom and performance. This course examines the key components of the contemporary Hong Kong martial arts genre from the 'new wave' of the 1960s through to the international blockbusters of the early 21st Century. Looking at a series of important stars such as Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Stephen Chow, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, this course considers the spectacle of the performing body in martial arts cinema, and explores key concepts such as technological mediation, gender and sexuality, authenticity, voyeurism, and globalisation. The course also examines the shifting paradigms of martial arts performances, motivated by changes in global economics and the development of digital technology.

Structure

2 two-hour seminars per week and 2 three-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: 1 essay 2,500-3,000 words (80%), and seminar assessment mark (20%).

Resit: Continuous assessment: 1 essay 2,500-3,000 words (80%), and seminar assessment mark (20%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr L Harbidge

Pre-requisites

Available only to Programme Year 4 students in Film Studies who have at least 15 credits from Level 3 Film courses, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

Not available to students who have a pass in FS 40EB Comedian Comedy.

Overview

Examining the development of comedy through vaudeville, stand-up, television and film, this course traces the predominant features of comic performance across British and American culture. Students will draw upon a range of critical and theoretical paradigms to examine such issues as the implications of comedic form for performance style; audiences; laughter; the comic persona; comedy narratives; and representations of class, gender, ethnicity and race. Students will undertake detailed analysis of a range of comedy genres (including vaudeville, stand-up, sketch, sitcom, the mockumentary, comedian comedy and romantic comedy) and examine the personas of such diverse performers as Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Jim Carey and Ricky Gervais. Films/performances to be screened (subject to availability) include Richard Pryor Live, Fawlty Towers, Friends, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Punch-Drunk Love.

Structure

2 two-hour seminars per week and 2 three-hour screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: 1 two-hour written examination (40%) and in-course assessment: 1,000 word exercise (10%); 3,000 word essay (30%); presentation work (10%); seminar assessment (10%).

Resit: For honours students only: candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to resit the course at the earliest opportunity.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This is a 6 week course.

Overview

Following the shift in perspective from modernist to postmodernist views of the subject, the course will draw on science fiction films made since the 1970s to explore: firstly, the ways in which being human has been understood in terms of an opposition to technology, and secondly, the ways in technology has been humanised, thus blurring the opposition. The course will draw on technoscience and cyberspace studies which will be used in conjunction with classical and post-classical film theories of the narrative subject, mobilising questions of gender, sexuality and race. Films to be studied:- Westworld, Alien, Terminator 2, RoboCop, Twelve Monkeys, Ghost in the Shell, eXistenZ and the Matrix (subject to availability).

Structure

2 two-hour seminars per week; and 2 three-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: 1 essay 2,500-3,000 words (80%) and seminar work (20%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr S Ward

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4, or by permission of the Head of School.

Overview

The course follows WEnders's career as a director from his early films (Alice in the Cities and Wrong Movement) through to his later more 'mainstream' success (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire and Buena Vista Social Club), investigating his palce within New German Cinema, his ambivalent attitude towards America and Germany, his presentation of masculinity, as well as his relationship and the cinematic tradition and more generally to the history of visual culture (not just film, but also photography and architecture).

Structure

2 two-hour seminars per week and 2 three-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: 1 essay 2,500-3,000 words (80%), and seminar assessment mark (20%).

Resit: Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours students in Joint Honours Film Studies.

Notes

The field work aspects of this course may pose difficulties to some students with disabilities. If this arises, alternative arrangements will be made available. Any student wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Overview

This course will provide students with guidance on writing a dissertation on a topic approved by the Head of School.

Structure

Required field work: visits to other libraries by individual students.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Dissertation (100%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.