Course detail

The Art of Interpreting Film 1

FaVU-TAIFAcad. year: 2022/2023

This year's edition will focus on Hollywood and European art house films from the 1940s to 1970s. We will cover the USA, France, and Czechoslovakia. Special focus will be placed on the political construction of gender reflected in the films themselves and in film theory of the 1970s to present. The course is by no means a survey course of the history of cinema, but it implicitly follows a chronological line.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Mgr. et MgA. Barbora Lungová

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Offered to foreign students

Of all faculties

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Students will improve their language and communication skills.
By studying theoretical articles about films they will be aware of the variety of interpretaion tools and strategies.
Students will widen their horizons in a discipline which is not customarily taught at a fine art faculty.
The course will cultivate students' critical and analytical abilities.
Students will be trained to understand the essential points of academic texts, but will at the same time learn to coherently voice their opinions and interpretations of a particular film/text in written form.
During the semester, students will write several short tests checking their reading progress.

Prerequisites

Students have to be able to read academic texts in English - the minimul recommened level is upper-intermediate and higher.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Film screenings, discussions, reading academic texts, tests.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Continuous assessment. Students will reflect the assigned reading and films in a written form of short, in-class response papers and a subsequent group discussion.

Course curriculum

1. Hollywood melodrama, musical, and film noir of the 1940s and 1950. Dawid Bordwell and Christine Thompson and their formal analysis of film language.
2. Peter Strickland. The Berberian Sound Studio. Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.
3. Hollywood classical cinema of the 1950s: Hitchcock, family romance, and homophobia. Marnie. Robert J. Corber: In the Name of National Security> Hithcock, Homophobia, and the Political Construction of Gender in Postwar America.
4.Hollywood classical cinema of the 1950s: Hitchcock, family romance, and homophobia. North By North West, The Birds, and Lee Edelman. No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive.
5. 1960s. French New Wave and the Right Bank Films. Allain Ressnais and Marguerite Duras: Hiroshima Mon Amour.
7. 1960s. French New Wave. Jean Luc Goddard. Vivre sa Vie or One or Two Things I Know About Her. Kovacs: Screening Modernism.
8. 1960s. French New Wave. Agnes Varga. Sans toit ni loi.
9. 1960s. Chantal Akerman: Jeanne Dilmann.
10. 1960s. Czech New Wave. Věra Chytilová and The Daisies.
11. 1960s. Czech New Wave. Ester Krumbachová and Killing the Devil (Vražda inženýra Čerta).
12. 1970s. Catherine Breillat. Une vraie jeune fille.

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

Students will be encouraged to improve their analytical and critical skills on the material of mostly european film classics from the 1950s - 1070s. Students should understand better the visual aspects of film - camera work, editing, the narrative subject vs the spectator, the open or hidden ideology behind the film, etc.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Min. 75% attendance at the MS Teams videoconferences, active and relevant participation in discussions regarding the film + accompanying text assigned for the respective week. Apart from spoken discussion, short online writing during the videocinference (chat or some other written form).

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Alexander Dotty: Making Things Perfectly Queer (EN)
Andrea Slováková: Co je nového ve filmové vědě. (EN)
Bordwell and Thompson - Film History (EN)
Bordwell and Thompson: Film Art: An Introduction (EN)
Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (EN)
Robert J. Corber: Cold War Femme. Lesbianism, National Identity, and Holywood Cinema. (EN)
Robert J. Corber: In the Name of National Security. Hitchcock, Homophobia, and (EN)
Robin Wood: Hitchcok's Films Revisited (EN)

Type of course unit

Lecture

13 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. et MgA. Barbora Lungová

Seminar

26 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. et MgA. Barbora Lungová