English 368--History of
Film, Part I:
From the 1890s to World War
II
Fall 2002
Centenary College of Louisiana
304 Jackson Hall
Tu 2:00-4:30 and Th 2:00-4:30
Instructor: Jefferson Hendricks
Office: 307D Jackson Hall
Office hours: M 1:30 - 3:30 and T-W-TH 1:15-1:50
Office ph.: 869-5086
Email: jhendric@centenary.edu
Homepage: www2.centenary.edu/home/jhendric
Texts:
-
Belton, John. American Cinema/American Culture.
NY: McGraw Hill, 1994.
-
Cook, David. A History of Narrative Film.
3rd ed. NY: Norton, 1996.
-
on-line readings (hyperlinked)
Course Objectives:Film History I is
designed to enable you:
-
to gain a working knowledge of early film history,
from the silent cinema through the 1930s;
-
to develop your cinematic literacy--in other words,
to teach you to recognize and use the basic technical and critical vocabulary
of motion pictures;
-
to understand how the technology of the cinema relates
to film art;
-
to understand the place of "Hollywood" in world film
culture;
-
to grasp the role of genre in American film history,
and to recognize how some of the most popular genres express American social
and cultural tensions;
-
to develop a more sophisticated conception of "realism"
as it relates to motion pictures;
-
to question your own role as a passive spectator,
and increase your ability to watch films actively and critically.
Grading:
| Quiz/Exams 20% |
Critical essay
20% |
| Final Exam 30% |
Work Ethic
30% |
*** Here are some models of essays that might help you write about certain
topics. You are expected to write one out-of-class 1000-word essay
(about 4-5 typed pages). While research is not absolutely expected,
it will normally help your essay if you are able to support your points
with passages from published (print or online) critical works.
-- 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"]
Study Guide Outlines:
Attendance and class participation:
This class emphasizes discussion. Therefore, you need to be
in class and prepared to talk intelligently and passionately. Absences
will hurt your class participation grade. You may make up for absences
and also obtain extra credit by writing 1-page reviews of approved out-of-class
films.
General On-Line Resources for Film History Before WWII: 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."
English 378:
Course Schedule
Week One -- Aug 19-23:
"Introduction to Course:
Reading Classical Hollywood Cinema"
Film:
-
Tu Aug 20: Introduction to Class
-
Th Aug 22: The Lumiere Brothers; Georges
Melies; Thomas Edison
Readings:
-
Cook, "Origins," pp. 1-31.
-
Belton, "Introduction," "Part I: The Mode of
Production," pp. 1-2; "The Emergence of the Cinema as An Institution,"
pp. 3-20.
On-Line Resources for Week One:
Week Two -- Aug 26-30:
"D.W. Griffith and the Beginnings
of Classical Hollywood Cinema"
Film:
Readings:
-
Cook, "International Expansion, 1907-1918,"
pp. 32-58; "D. W. Griffith and the Consummation of Narrative Form,"
pp. 59-101.
-
Belton, "Classical Hollywood Narration," pp.
21-40; "Genre and the Genre System," pp. 115-117; "Silent Film Melodrama,"
pp. 117-134.
On-Line Resources for Week Two:
Week Three--Sep 2-6:
"German Expressionist Cinema
of the Twenties"
Film:
Readings:
-
Cook, "German Cinema of the Weimar Period,
1919-1929," pp. 102-129.
On-Line Resources for Week Three:
Week Four--Sept 9-13:
"Radical Politics, Modernist
Style: Russian Silent Film"
Film:
Readings:
-
Cook, "Soviet Silent Cinema and the Theory
of Montage, 1917-1931," p. 130-195.
On-Line Resources:
Week Five--Sept 16-20:
"Chaplin, Keaton, and Hollywood
Silent Comedy"
Film:
Readings:
-
Cook, "Hollywood in the Twenties," pp. 196-238.
On-Line Resources:
Week Six--Sep 23-27:
"The Transition to Sound"
Film:
Readings:
-
Cook, "The Coming of Sound and Color, 1926-1935,"
pp. 239-273.
On-Line Resources:
Week Seven--Sept. 30-Oct. 4:
"Genre, Auteurism, and the
American Studio System:
Howard Hawks"
Film
-
Th Oct 3: No Class--Fall Break
Readings:
-
Cook, "The Sound Film and the American
Studio Film," pp. 274-306.
On-Line Resources:
Week Eight--Oct 7-11:
"Genre, Auteurism, and the
American Studio System:
Screwball Comedy, Part I
Film:
Readings:
-
Belton, (review "Classical Hollywood Narration,"
pp. 21-40); "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style," pp. 41-60.
On-Line Resources:
-
Screwball
Comedy--An Exhausting History--very fine indeed
-
Screwball
Comedy--An Overview--Michael Mills @ The Palace
-
Screwball
Comedy page--Michael Mills
-
"It's
Fun...But It Takes Courage: Remembering Frank Capra's America"--(Annalee
Newitz, Bad Subjects, 1994)
-
"The
Charm of Morality: Frank Capra and his Cinema,"--Lorraine Mortimer,
Continuum:
The Australian Journal of Media & Culture (1994)
-
"A
Capra Moment" -- Stanley Cavell
-
"Frank
Capra: It Happened One Century"--Diane MacIntyre, The Silents Majority
-
"It's
a Grim Life, Actually"--article on Capra by Frank Swislow
-
Frank
Capra, Director--good fan site by Alyssa
-
Elizabeth's
Frank Capra page--good poster site
-
Frank
Capra page--Erik Weems, with good links
-
"A
Tribute to Frank Capra --from the Mining Co.
-
It Happened
One Night--review/summary by Tim Dirks, Greatest Films
-
The Awful
Truth--review/summary by Tim Dirks, Greatest Films
-
"Make
Way for Tomorrow and The Awful Truth: Leo McCarey and
the Sacred Region of Romantic Love" -- Damien Bona
-
Mini-biography
of Cary Grant
Week Nine--Oct 14-18:
"Genre, Auteurism, and the
American Studio System:
Screwball Comedy, Part II"
Film:
Readings:
-
Belton, "The Studio System," pp. 61-82;
"American Comedy," pp. 135-163
On-Line Resources:
Week Ten--Oct 21-25:
"Politics in Depression-Era
Hollywood:
Representing the Upper and
Working Classes"
*** Essay due Monday, October 21
by 2:00 pm to Becky Palmer, Humanities Secretary (Jackson Hall 307)
Film:
Readings:
On-Line Resources:
Week Eleven--Oct 28-Nov 1:
A Special Treat in Halloween
Week:
A Visit with independent
filmmaker Jon Jost
Film:
-
Tu Oct 29: Jon
Jost visits to show his recent work
Readings:
On-Line Resources:
Week Twelve--Nov 4-8:
"Genres in the Thirties:
The Thriller and the Musical"
Film:
Readings:
-
Cook, "Europe in the Thirties,"
pp. 347-391.
On-Line Resources:
Week Thirteen--Nov 11-15:
"Genre, Auteurism, and the
American Studio System:
Screwball Comedy, Part III:
Preston Sturges"
Film:
Readings:
-
Belton, "The Star System," pp. 83-114.
On-Line Resources:
Week Fourteen--Nov. 18-22:
"Genre, Auteurism, and the
American Studio System:
John Ford"
Film:
Readings:
-
Belton, "The Making of the West," pp. 206-230.
On-Line Resources:
Week Fifteen--Nov 25-Nov 29:
THANKSGIVING BREAK: NO CLASS
Week Sixteen--Dec 2-6:
Two Classics
Film:
Readings:
-
Cook, "Orson Welles and the Modern Sound Film,"
pp. 393-420.
On-Line Resources:
Final Exam
TBA