2005 Film Theory and Criticism

My Darling Clementine

English 373S:

Film Theory and Criticism

Jefferson Hendricks
Centenary College of Louisiana

Policies and Requirements

Links for Writers

Film Links

Three Colors Trilogy

Texts and Syllabus

Jim Kitses and Gregg Rickman, The Western Reader (WR)
Annette Insdorf, Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski (KK)

Syallabus

Week 1:               How to Read a Film: Elements of Film Theory and Criticism

Tu   Aug 23         Introduction to Course

Th   Aug 25

Film: Sherlock, Jr. (USA, 1924. Dir. Buster Keaton)

Required reading:

"The Quest for Cultural Identity: Why Do People Go to the Cinema?" -- Gideon Bachmann, Kinema
"The Philosophy of Film" -- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"Buster Keaton" -- Dan Callahan, Senses of Cinema
"Buster Keaton" -- Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
"Film Criticism" -- Wikipedia
"Film Theory" -- Wikipedia
"Film Theory" -- Ira Konigsberg, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism

Background reading:

"Film" -- Wikipedia
"Sherlock, Jr." -- John M. Miller, Turner Classic Movies
A Tribute to Buster Keaton -- Janiss Garza, ClassicMovies.com

Week 2: Elements of Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narrative Form and Content

Tu Aug 30

Film: The Apartment (USA, 1960. Dir. Billy Wilder)

Required reading:

"Billy Wilder: The Chiaroscuro Artist" -- Anna Dzenis, Senses of Cinema
"Billy Wilder" -- Richard Armstrong, Senses of Cinema
"Billy Wilder" -- Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Background reading:

"The One Who Liked it Hot" -- Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
"Billy Wilder, 1906-2002" -- Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
Billy Wilder -- The German-Hollywood Connection

Th Sep 1

Required reading:

"The Apartment" -- Bowsley Crowther, New York Times (1960)
"The Apartment" -- David Cornelius, EFilmCritic.com
"The Apartment" -- Dan Jardine, Apollo Guide
"The Apartment" -- Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
"The Apartment" -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The Apartment" -- Tim Dirks, Greatest Films
"The Apartment" -- Hal Erickson and Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Background reading:

"Screen Comedy" -- Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
"Comedy, Part III (1959-Present)" -- Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
Billy Wilder: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library

Week 3: Elements of Film: Cinematography and Editing

Tu Sep 6

Film: The Age of Innocence (USA, 1993. Dir. Martin Scorsese)

Required reading:

"Martin Scorsese" -- Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
"Martin Scorsese" -- Marc Raymond, Senses of Cinema
"The Age of Innocence" -- Lucia Bozzola and Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
"Creative Visions: (De)Constructing the Beautiful in Scorsese's The Age of Innocence" -- Karli Lukas, Senses of Cinema

Background reading:

"Seeing Through the Image: Cinematography" -- Timothy Corrigan, The Film Experience
"Motion Picture Photography" -- Infoplease
"Martin Scorsese: The Vicar of Cinema" -- A.O. Scott, Slate.com
study guide to The Age of Innocence -- Film Education.org (pdf file)
an analysis of The Age of Innocence from a screenwriting pov -- Dramatica.com
Martin Scorsese: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library

Th Sep 8

Film: Klute (USA, 1971. Dir. Alan J. Pakula)

Required reading:

"Klute" -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"Klute" -- Karli Lukas, Senses of Cinema
"Klute" -- Pete Croato, FilmCritic.com

Background reading:

"Detective/Mystery Films" -- Tim Dirks, Greatest Films
"Film noir: 'You sure you don't see what you hear?'" -- Raffaele Caputo, Contiuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture
Gangster, Detective, Crime, and Mystery Films: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library

Week 4: Elements of Film: Film Sound

Tu Sep 13

Film: The Conversation (USA, 1974. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Required reading:

"Francis Ford Coppola" -- Michael Sragow, Salon.com
"Francis For Coppola" -- Christopher Frayling, BBC (interview with Coppola)
"Back From the Brink" -- Geoffrey Macnab, Guardian Unlimited (interview with Coppola)

Background reading:

"American Films of the Seventies" -- Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
"An Introduction to Film Sound" -- Jane Knowles Marshall, FilmSound.org
"The Sound of Sound: A Brief History of the Reproduction of Sound in Movie Theaters" -- Rick Altman, Cineaste

Th Sep 15

Required reading:

"The Conversation" -- Brenda Austin-Smith, Senses of Cinema
"Notes on The Conversation" -- Megan Ratner, Senses of Cinema
"The Conversation" -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The Conversation" -- Gerald Peary, American Movie Classics Magazine
"Citing the Sound: The Conversation, Blow Out, and the Mythological Ontology of the Soundtrack in '70s Film" -- Jay Beck, Journal of Popular Film and Television

Background reading:

"Sync Tanks: The Art and Technique of Postproduction Sound" -- Elizabeth Weis, Cineaste
"Designing a Movie for Sound" -- Randy Thom, FilmSound.org
FilmSound.org

Week 5: Film Theory and Criticism: "Realist" Theories of Film

Tu Sept 20

Film: In This World (United Kingdom, 2002. Dir. Michael Winterbottom)

Required reading:

"Michael Winterbottom" -- Deborah Allison, Senses of Cinema
"André Bazin" -- Wikipedia
"That Most IrritatingQuestion: Images and Reality" -- Pierre Sorlin, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television

Background reading:

André Bazin home page -- John Lynch
Outline on Bazinian Realism -- Jeremy Butler, U. of Alabama
"André Bazin Revisited: Andre Bazin: Part 1, Film Style Theory in its Historical Context" -- Donato Totaro, Off-Screen
"André Bazin Revisited: Andre Bazin: Part 2, Style as a Philosophical Ideal" -- Donato Totaro, Off-Screen
"André Bazin: Re-reading Bazin's Ontological Argument" -- Prakash Younger, Off-Screen
"The Validity of the Image" -- Robert Kolker, The Altering Eye: Contemporary International Cinema

Th Sep 22

Required reading:

"In This World" -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"In This World" -- Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune
"In This World" -- Ty Burr, Boston Globe
"In This World" -- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Background reading:

"Michael Winterbottom Talks About His Tragic Road Movie, In This World" -- Howard Feinstein, IndieWire
"World in Motion" -- Jessica Winter, The Village Voice
"The Underside of Globalization: On Michael Winterbottom's In This World" -- Chris Darke, Open Democracy
"Tremble of Truth: Dogme 95, Ideology, and the Genealogy of Cinematic Realism" -- Hunter Vaughn, U. of Oxford

Week 6: Film Theory and Criticism: Formalist and Semiotic Theories of Film

Tu Sep 27

Film: Beau Travail (France, 2000. Dir. Claire Denis)

Required reading:

"Claire Denis: An Interview" -- Aime Ancian, Senses of Cinema
"Desire is Violence: An Interview with Claire Denis" -- Chris Darke, Sight and Sound
"Claire Denis Interviewed by Jonathan Romney" -- The Guardian

Background reading:

"Identity Politics: Issues in the Films of Claire Denis" -- Travis MacKenzie Hoover, Cinema Scope

Th Sep 29

Required reading:

"Poetic Labor: Beau Travail" -- Jonathan Romney, The New Statesmen
"Beau Travail: Some Call It Loving" -- Helen Bandis, Senses of Cinema
"Beau Travail" -- Charles Taylor, Salon
"Unsatisfied Men: Beau Travail" -- Jonathan Rosenbaum
"Melville Unbound: Love, Rage and Exile in Claire Denis’ Beau Travail" -- Brendan Bernhard, LA Weekly

Background reading:

Week 7: Film Theory and Criticism: Feminist and Psychoanalytical Theories of Film

Tu Oct 4

Film: Peeping Tom (United Kingdom, 1960. Dir. Michael Powell)

Required reading:

"Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger" -- Adrian Danks, Senses of Cinema

Background reading:

Th Oct 6

Required reading:

"Peeping Tom" -- Laura Mulvey
"Peeping Tom" -- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
"Shudder Bug: Peeping Tom Looks at the Primal Screen" -- Peter Keough, The Boston Phoenix
"Who's Looking at Who? Peeping Tom -- Cinema's Visual Pleasures and Discontents" -- Derek Baldwin
links to reviews of Peeping Tom -- The Powell and Pressburger Pages

Background reading:

"Reading Guide to Mulvey on Cinema and Psychoanalysis" -- Dave Harris

Week 8:

Tu Oct 11

***** Essay #1 (1000 word analysis) due in Jackson Hall 307 before you leave for Fall Break

(Mid-term grades due by noon Wed. Oct. 12)

Th Oct 13: No Class: Fall Break

Week 9: Film Genre: The Western, I

Tu Oct 18

Film: My Darling Clementine (USA, 1946. Dir. John Ford)

Required reading:

"John Ford" -- Richard Franklin, Senses of Cinema
"Introduction" to John Ford Interviews -- Gerald Peary
"Westerns" -- Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Th Oct 20

Required reading:

"John Ford" -- Robert C. Sickels, St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
"My Darling Clementine" -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"My Darling Clementine" -- Tim Dirks, Greatest Films
"My Darling Clementine" -- Grant Tracey, Images
"Westerns" -- Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
"The Western" -- Daniel Yezbick, St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture

Background reading:

John Ford: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library

"Shot-By-Shot: My Darling Clementine" -- Nathan Williams
review of Searching for John Ford by Joseph McBride -- Allen Barra, Salon.com

"The Man who Invented Westerns Explored the American Character - Film Director John Ford" -- Lloyd Eby, Insight on the News

Week 10: Film Genre: The Western, II

Tu Oct 25

Film: Rio Bravo (USA, 1959. Dir. Howard Hawks)

Required reading:

"Howard Hawks" -- David Boxwell, Senses of Cinema
"Howard Hawks" -- Baseline's Encyclopdia of Film
Howard Hawks bio -- Petri Liukkonen
"The Western: An Overview" -- Gary Johnson, Images

Background reading:

"Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood" -- Todd McCarthy

Th Oct 27

Required reading:

"Rio Bravo" -- Grant Tracey
"Western Film" -- Tim Dirks, The Greatest Films
"Genre and the Western" -- Emediate
"Hawks on Film, Politics, and Childrearing" -- (An Interview with) Constance Penley, Saunie Salyer, and Michael Shedlin, Jump Cut

Background reading:

"Howard Hawks, Critical Guinea Pig" -- Jaime J. Weinman, Something Old, Something New
Howard Hawks: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library

Week 11: Film Genre, The Western, III

Tu Nov 1

Film: Unforgiven (USA, 1992. Dir. Clint Eastwood)

Required reading:

"Clint Eastwood: 'Scraps of Hope'" -- Henry Sheehan, Film Comment
"Clint Eastwood" -- Deborah Allison, Senses of Cinema

Background reading:

Th Nov 3

Required reading:

"'Maybe He's Tough But He Sure Ain't No Carpenter': Masculinity and In/competence in Unforgiven" -- Janet Thumim (WR)
"Unforgiven" -- Tim Dirks, Greatest Films
"'We All Have it Coming, Kid: Clint Eastwood and the Dying of the Light" -- Tim Groves, Senses of Cinema
"The Un/forgiven Director" -- Tim Groves, Screening the Past
"Eastwood: 'Go Ahead, Punk; Go Ahead, Clint'" -- Greg Wahl, Images

Background reading:

Week 12: Film Genre: The Western, IV

Tu Nov 8

Film: The Ballad of Little Jo (USA, 1993. Dir. Maggie Greenwald)

Required reading:

"Women and the Western" -- Pam Cook (WR)
"Saloon Girls and Ranchers' Daughters: The Woman in the Western" -- Blake Lucas (WR)

Background reading:

Th Nov 10

Required reading:

"Our Heroes Have Sometimes Been Cowgirls: An Interview with Maggie Greenwald" -- Tania Modleski (WR)
"An Examplary Post-Modern Western: The Ballad of Little Jo" -- Jim Kitses (WR)
"The Ballad of Little Jo" -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The Ballad of Little Jo" -- B. Ruby Rich
"The Ballad of Little Jo" -- Linda Lopez McAlister