English 369--History
of Film,
Part II:
From World War II to the
Present
Spring 2005
Centenary College of Louisiana
Instructor: Jefferson
Hendricks
Office: 307D Jackson Hall
Office hours: 9:45 - 11:00; 1:15-1:50 T/W/TH and by appt.
Office: 869-5086
Wk 1--Jan. 11-13 | Wk
2--Jan. 18-20 | Wk
3--Jan. 25-27 | Wk
4--Feb. 1-4 | Wk 5--Feb. 8-10 |
Wk
6--Feb. 15-17 | Wk
7--Feb. 22-24 |
Wk
8--Mar. 1-3 | Wk
9--Mar. 8-10 |
Wk
10--Mar. 15-17 | Wk
11--Mar. 22-24 | Wk
12--Mar. 29-31 | Wk
13--Apr. 5-7 |
Wk
14--Apr. 12-14 | Wk
15--Apr. 19-21 | Wk
16--Apr. 26-28
Texts:
- Belton, John. American
Cinema/American
Culture. 2nd ed. NY:
McGraw Hill, 2004.
- Cook, David. A
History of
Narrative Film. 4th ed. NY: Norton, 2003.
- on-line
readings (hyperlinked) -- these
readings are not required and you will not be tested on them unless put
in
the "reading" category; if they are in the "web resources"
category
they are for background reading (which really good students will want
to
do) and for use in your essays
Course Objectives:
Film History II is designed to help you:
- gain a working knowledge of film history
from
World War II to the present, emphasizing Hollywood as the dominant film
system but looking also at major directors and movements from
throughout the world;
- develop your cinematic literacy--in other
words, to teach you to recognize and use the basic technical and
critical vocabulary of motion pictures;
- understand how the technology of the
cinema
relates to film art;
- grasp the role of genre in American film
history, and recognize how some of the most popular genres express
American social and cultural tensions;
- develop a more sophisticated conception
of "realism" as it relates to motion pictures;
- question your own role as a passive
spectator,
and increase your ability to watch films actively and critically.
Grading:
quizzes/in-class
writings 30%
|
2nd four page
essay 20%
|
| 1st four page
essay
10% |
work ethic
20% |
|
final
exam
20%
|
Study Guide Outlines for Exams:
Essays: :
You are required to write two essays this
semester: 1) a 2000 word essay (about 4 typed pages) and 2) a
4000 word essay (about 8 typed pages).
You will be expected in these essays to use both print and
on-line
sources to support your arguments. You should cite at least five
different
sources in the first essay, and at least ten different sources in the
second essay, mixing equally both print and on-line sources.
Essay #1 is due Friday, March 11 by
2:00 pm in Jackson Hall 307.
Essay #2 is due Monday, April 18 by
2:00 pm in Jackson Hall 307.
Sample Essays from Sight and Sound
(these essays
are professional ones, but at least give you a model for which to
strive):
- an essay focusing on a particular
actor -- Manohla
Dargis,
"Ghost in the Machine," Sight and Sound, July 2000 [on
Tom Cruise]
- an essay focusing on a specific film
-- José
Arroyo, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Von Trier?", Sight and
Sound, September, 2000 [on Von Trier's Dancer in
the Dark]
- an essay focusing on a genre and
several films -- Danny
Leigh, "Get Smarter," Sight and Sound, June, 2000
[the contemporary British gangster film]
- an essay focusing on a director and
several films -- Philip
Kemp,
"Ants in His Pants," Sight and Sound, May, 2000 [on
Preston
Sturges]
- an essay focusing on a theme in several films -- Slovoj
Zizek,
"Camp Comedy," Sight and Sound, April, 2000 [on the
"holocaust
comedy"]
Attendance and class participation:
This class emphasizes
discussion. Therefore, you need to be in
class and prepared to talk intelligently and passionately. More
than
a couple of absences will hurt your class participation grade.
General On-Line Resources for Film History from WWII to the
Present:
(Nota
bene:
Not all web sites
are created equally. Learn to evaluate them as you would more
traditional
print resources. The following guide from Cornell
University is
a good initial step in that direction: "How
to
Critically Analyze Information Sources." For a
webliography on
evaluating web sites, see
this site in the UK.)
English
379: Course Schedule
Week One--Jan. 11-13:
"America at War: Hollywood
Fights Fascism"
Tu Jan 11:
Th Jan 13:
- Film: Casablanca
(USA, 1942; Dir. Michael Curtiz. Cast: Humphrey
Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre)
- Reading: Belton,
"Classical Hollywood Narration," pp. 22-44; "Classical Hollywood
Cinema: Style," pp. 45-65; "War and Cinema," pp. 200-224.
Week
Two: Jan. 18-20
"Post-War Depression and American
Existentialism:
Film Noir"
Tu Jan 18:
- Film:
Out of the Past
(USA, 1947. Dir. Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Robert
Mitchum,
Kirk Douglass, Jane Greer.)
- Reading:
Belton,
"The Studio System," pp. 66-90, "The Star System," pp.
91-130; Cook,
"Wartime and Postwar Cinema," pp. 368-384.
Th Jan 20:
- Film:
Sunset Boulevard
(USA, 1950. Dir. Billy Wilder. Cast: Gloria Swanson,
William
Holden, Erich von Stroheim)
- Reading: Belton,
"Film Noir: Somewhere in the Night," pp. 225-247.
Week
Three: Jan. 25-27
"Italian Neo-Realism: De
Sica and Fellini's Faith in Humanity"
Tu Jan 25:
- Film:
The Bicycle Thief
[Ladri di Biciclette] (Italy, 1948.
Dir.
Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo
Staiola)
- Reading: Cook,
"Wartime and Postwar Cinema: Italy...,
1941-1951," pp. 355-367.
Th Jan 27: La Strada
(Italy, 1954. Dir. Federico Fellini. Cast: Anthony
Quinn, Giullieta Masina, Richard Basehart)
- Reading: Cook, "European
Renaissance: West," pp. 531-559.
Week
Four: Feb 1-3
"Masculinity Under Fire:
Politics
and Male Hysteria in Hollywood of the 1950s -- John Wayne and 'The Red
Scare'"
Tu Feb 1:
- Film: Big Jim
McLain
(USA, 1952; Dir. Edward Ludwig. Cast: John Wayne,
Nancy
Olson, James Arness)
- Readings: Belton,
"Hollywood
and the Cold War," pp. 279-301; "Hollywood
in the Age of Television," pp. 304-322.
Th Feb 3:
- Film: The Searchers
(USA, 1956; Dir. John Ford. Cast: John
Wayne,
Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood)
- Readings: Belton,
"The Making
of the West," pp. 248-276.
Week
Five: Feb. 8-10
"The
Musical and Classical Hollywood Cinema"
Tu Feb 8: NO CLASS -- Mardi Gras
Break
Th Feb 10:
- Film: Singin' in The Rain
(USA, 1952; Dirs. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelley.
Cast: Gene Kelley, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor)
- Readings: Belton,
"The Musical," pp. 150-169; Cook,
"Hollywood, 1952-1965," pp. 387-430.
Week
Six: Feb. 15-17
"European Art Cinema from Ingmar
Bergman to the French New Wave"
Tu Feb 15:
- Film:
The Seventh Seal
(Sweden, 1957. Dir. Ingmar Bergman.
Cast: Max van Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar
Björnstrand)
- Reading: Cook,
"European Renaissance: West," pp. 559-572.
Th Feb 17:
- Reading: Cook,
"The French New Wave and Its Native Context," pp. 431-464.
Week
Seven: February 22-24
"Hollywood Renaissance: The
Late Sixties and the Early Seventies"
Tu Feb 22:
- Film:
The Graduate
(USA, 1967. Dir. Mike Nichols. Cast: Dustin Hoffman,
Katharine Ross, Anne Bancroft)
- Readings: Belton,
"The 1960s: The Counterculture Strikes Back," pp. 324-347.
Th Feb 24:
- Film: The Last Picture
Show
(USA, 1971. Dir. Peter Bogdanovich. Cast:
Timothy
Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben
Johnson,
Cloris Leachman)
- Readings: Cook,
"Hollywood, 1965-1995," pp. 845-880.
Week
Eight: March 1-3
"Japan and China: The
Humanist Tradition"
Tu Mar 1:
- Film: Rashomon (Japan,
1950.
Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Toshiro Mifune)
- Readings: Cook,
Chapter 18: "Wind from the East," pp. 731-794.
Th Mar 3:
- Film: To Live
(China,
1994. Dir. Zhang Yimou. Cast: You Ge, Li Gong)
Week
Nine March 8-10
"Filming Social Reality: From
Documentary to Fiction Film"
Tu Mar 8:
Guest
Filmmaker: Jonathan Stack
- 900 Women
(2001, 75 minutes) w/ Q&A with Jonathan Stack
- Filmed
over 9 months at the Louisiana
Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, 900 Women
gives a face and voice to the grandmothers, the mothers, the lifers,
and the
death row inmate that live there; as well as to the institution, and
the women
who work there. Located in the
swamplands of southern Louisiana, LCIW was built in 1977 to house the
growing
population of female convicts at Angola. Today,
under the eye of the same warden, the prison
frequently exceeds
its 900-person capacity. A minimum-,
medium-, maximum-security and death row facility, the women here have
committed
crimes ranging from forgery to multiple counts of murder.
75% of the women are mothers and one fourth
of them are serving sentences longer than 15 years.
The prison has a somewhat surreal and peaceful quality;
there are
no search-light-capped towers or hallways of barbed wire.
From the outside, it looks as if these women
are simply strolling the outdoor walkways of a community college. The deceptively peaceful atmosphere is home
to innumerable stories of imprisonment, frustration, hatred and hope. Six women—including a young high school
student, a pregnant woman, a recovering heroine addict, a prison guard,
and a
woman on death row--share their stories about life on the streets,
abuse,
incarceration, freedom, childbirth, and motherhood.
Th Mar 10: Before the Rain
- Readings: Cook, "European
Renaissance: East," pp. 605-688.
*****
Four page essay due
on Friday, March 11 by 2:00 pm to Becky Palmer, Humanities Secretary,
307 Jackson Hall
Week
Ten: March 15-17
"Post-War British and
Commonwealth Cinema"
Tu Mar 15:
- Film: Kind Hearts and Coronets
(United Kingdom, 1956. Dir. 1949. Dir. Robert Hamer.
Cast: Alec Guiness, Valerie Hobson, Dennis Price)
- Reading: Cook, "New Cinemas
in Britain and the English-Speaking Commonwealth," pp. 481-530.
Th Mar 17:
- Film: Once Were Warriors (New
Zealand, 1994. Dir. Lee Tamahori. Cast: Rena
Owen,
Temuera Morrison)
Week
Eleven: March 22-24
No
Classes: Easter Break
Week
Twelve: March 29-31
"Contemporary International
Cinema: Mexico and Iran"
Tu Mar 29:
- Film: Y Tu Mamá También (Mexico, 2001. Dir. Alfonso Cuaron. Cast:
Ana
López Mercado, Diego
Luna, Gael
García
Bernal)
- Reading: Cook, Chapter 19: "Third
World
Cinema," pp. 795-844.
Th Mar 31:
- Film: Baran (Iran,
2001.
Dir. Majid Majidi. Cast: Hossein Abedini, Zahra
Bahrami)
Week
Thirteen: April 5-7
"Contemporary
International
Cinema: Spain and France"
Tu Apr 5:
- Film: Live Flesh
(Spain, 1997. Dir. Pedro Almodóvar.
Cast:
Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Ángela Molina)
- Reading: Cook, "European
Renaissance--West," pp. 572-581.
Th Apr 7:
- Film: The Dreamlife of Angels
(France, 1998. Dir. Erick Zonka. Cast:
Élodie
Bouchez, Natacha Régnier, Grégoire Colin)
- Reading: Cook,
"The French New Wave and Its Native Context," pp. 465-480.
Week
Fourteen: April 12-14
"Contemporary International
Cinema: Germany
and Denmark"
Tu Apr 12:
- Film: Wings of Desire
(West Germany, 1987. Dir. Wim Wenders.
Cast:
Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Peter Falk)
- Reading: Cook, Chapter 15:
"European Renaissance--West," pp. 607- 681.
Th Apr 14:
- Film: The Celebration (Denmark,
1998. Dir. Thomas Vinterberg. Cast:
Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen,
Thomas Bo Larsen)
- Reading: Cook, "European
Renaissance--West," pp. 559-571.
Week
Fifteen: April 19-21
"Contemporary North
American
Cinema: Spike Lee and Jim Jarmusch"
Tu Apr 19:
- Film: Bamboozled (USA,
2000.
Dir. Spike Lee. Cast: Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada
Pinkett
Smith, Tommy Davidson)
- Reading: Belton, Chapter
16: "Into the Twenty-First Century," pp. 375-411; Cook, "Hollywood
Enters the Digital Domanin," pp. 881-927.
Th Apr 21:
Week
Sixteen: April 26-28
***** Final Essay to be turned in to
Becky Palmer, Humanities Secretary, by 2:00 pm on Monday, April 25
Tu Apr 26:
- Final Review; Evaluations
Th Apr 28: No Class
Final Exam:
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