Film Studies 2

Cinema is the foremost art of the last 100 years and as viewers we have developed habits of watching that sometimes obscure our awareness of how the art of cinema achieves its effects and tells its stories. Drawing on both film historiography and the well-regarded formal approach of Bordwell and Thompson?s Film Art, this course introduces students to the technologies and techniques of pre-cinema and to developments from the across cinema?s greater than one-hundred year history. We examine the emergence of styles, movements and genres of film in the 20th century as filmmakers and studios attempt to refine and defend their preferred versions of this new art form. Movements examined include early film realities, the early Hollywood style, German expressionism, French impressionism, surrealism, Soviet montage, Italian neo-realism and the classical style of the Hollywood studio system. Genres and the traditions of documentary, experimental and auteur filmmaking are also explored. Students learn to critically analyze and evaluate significant films, movements and genres.