ENGL 180 - Film Analysis

3 Credits: (3 lecture)

Course Description
This course investigates film as an art form in its historic, aesthetic, philosophic, and technical aspects in order to help the student read, appreciate and analyze this contemporary medium of expression.

Prerequisite ENGL 101 or permission of professor.

Bordwell, David, et al. Film Art: An Introduction. 13th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2022.

Recommended (especially for English Majors):

Holman, C. Hugh, and William Hannon. A Handbook to Literature. 6th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1992.

Seldon, Ramon, and Peter Widdowson. Contemporary Literary Theory. 3rd ed. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1993

Objectives
The student will be able to:

A. Gain a working knowledge of cinematic terms and expressions.

B. Define narration and its implications in the cinematic medium.

C. Identify major theoretical developments in the historical chronology of film.

D. Apply contemporary literary criticism to the cinematic medium.

Content
A. Students will study the development of cinema from the late 19th century to the present.

B. Students will explore the major film theories and techniques.

C. Lectures, discussions, presentations, and readings will focus on enhancing the student’s ability to synthesize his/her own experience with the text being viewed and more formal critical theories.

D. Specially chosen films will exemplify material read and discussed.

Student Evaluation
A. Three critical papers will be completed by each student during the semester.

B. Each student will maintain a film journal, which will include response statements.

C. Class participation on read or viewed material is expected from all students.

D. Short presentations will be given by all students several times during the semester.

E. A mid-term exam may be given and a final exam will be given.

Bibliography
A. Books

Benayoun, Robert. The Films of Woody Allen. New York: Harmony Books, 1987.

Doherty, Thomas. Pre-Code Hollywood. New York: Columbia UP, 1999.

Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory or Afro-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Geduld, Harry M. Film Makers on Film Making. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967.

Halliwell, Leslie. The Filmgoer’s Companion. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.

Heiss, Roy Gerard. The Film Experience: Elements of Motion Picture Art. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.

Jarvic, I. C. Movies as Social Criticism. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1978.

Keehn, Annette. Women’s Pictures: Feminism and Cinema. Boston: Routledge, 1982.

McMurtry, Larry. Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

Pudovkin, Vsevold I. Film Technique and Film Acting. New York: Grove Press, 1960.

Rodowick, David N. The Crisis of Political Modernism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

Rosenbaum, Jonathan. Movies as Politics. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997.

Rosenstone, Robert A. Visions of the Past. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.

Sklar, Robert and Charles Musser, eds. Resisting Images. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990.

Sohn, David A. Film: The Creative Eye. Dayton, OH. G. A. Pflaum, 1970.

Stager, Janet. Interpreting Films. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

B. Non-Print Materials

Being There

Birth of a Nation

Bonnie and Clyde

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Camera 

The Dead Poet’s Society

The Edited Image

The General

The Gold Rush

Good-Bye, Columbus

Metropolis

North by Northwest

Potemkin

Ran

Rashomon

Seven Beauties

Slaughterhouse-Five