Film 331

Film Theory Prior to 1950

PF120

Summer 2008

MW 11:00-2:00; MW 2:00-4:00

Instructor:	Murray Leeder
Office Location:	SS209
Office Phone:	NA
E-Mail:	murray.leeder@nucleus.com
Web Page:
Office Hours:	By appointment please

Additional Information

Attendance and informed participation are essential components of this course and will help determine your final grade. Students must come to class prepared to discuss the readings.

Course Description

This class is designed to increase students' knowledge of and appreciation for the origins of Film Theory through exposure to its early practitioners.

Objectives of the Course

To generate appreciation for early film theory, as well as the critical tools necessary in reading and evaluating theory. A particular emphasis will be placed on exploring the continuing importance of early thinkers to modern film theory.

Textbooks and Readings:

Film Theory and Criticism. Sixth Edition. Edited by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Dudley Andrew. The Major Film Theories: An Introduction. London: Oxford University Press, 1975.

A small course pack

Assignments and Evaluation

First writing assignment: To be distributed in class. 20%

 

This is a take-home test, to be distributed on July 14^th, due on July 21^st.

 

Major research essay. 40%. The purpose of this essay (6-8 pages in length) is to locate a contemporary (roughly the last twenty years) scholar in Film Studies who is revisiting one of the people we look at in this course. Examples might include Philip Rosen on Bazin, Lev Manovich on Vertov, Daniel Frampton on Münsterberg or Rachel O. Moore on Eisenstein, though there are many, many other possibilities to be discovered in academic film journals and books. The student is expected to seek out an appropriate example of this in library books or journal articles, summarize the contemporary scholar's use of the original theory, and judge how effective he or she finds this use to be.

 

This is a research assignment, and will be judged on the depth and substance of the student's research and the historical insights that emerge from it.

 

Presentation. 20%. To be held on the last class, a summary of research for the major research essay. Should be 15-20 minutes in length.

Participation and attendance. 20%

It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.
Note: Please hand in your essays directly to your tutor or instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Registrar-scheduled Final Examination:   No

Please note: If your class is held in the evening, the Registrar's Office will make every attempt to schedule the final exam during the evening; however, there is NO guarantee that the exam will NOT be scheduled during the day.

Policy for Late Assignments

Assignments submitted after the deadline may be penalized with the loss of a grade (e.g.: A- to B+) for each day late.

Writing Skills Statement

Faculty policy directs that all written assignments (including, although to a lesser extent, written exam responses) will be assessed at least partly on writing skills. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Writing skills include not only surface correctness (grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) but also general clarity and organization. Research papers must be properly documented.

If you need help with your writing, you may use the Writing Centre.  Visit the website for more details: www.efwr.ucalgary.ca

Grading System

The following grading system is used in the Faculty of Communication and Culture:

A+ (96-100); A (92-95); A- (86-91); B+ (81-85); B (77-80); B- (71-76);
C+ (65-70); C (62-64); C- (59-61); D+ (55-58); D (50-54); F (0-49)

 

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS 106, efwr.ucalgary.ca) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Ethics

Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines.  Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research.  For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see

The Faculty of Communication and Culture Research Ethics site: http://www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/ethics

or the University of Calgary Research Ethics site: http://www.ucalgary.ca/research/compliance/ethics/info/undergrad/

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

 

All readings are from Film Theory and Criticism unless otherwise noted.

 

Class One                  July 2

 

Introductory remarks / Early cinema

 

Selections from Colin Harding and Simon Popple. In the Kingdom of Shadows: A Companion to Early Cinema. London: Cygnus Arts. 1996. 13-17, 25, 36, 103, 128. In course pack.

 

Introduction to The Major Film Theories

 

Section 1: The Euro-American Formalist Tradition

 

Class  Two                July 7

 

Birth of a Nation (1915, D.W. Griffith)

 

Münsterberg, Hugo. "The Means of the Photoplay." 411-418.

 

"Hugo Münsterberg." 14-26 in The Major Film Theories

 

Class Three               July 9

 

Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau)

 

Arnheim, Rudolf. "The Complete Film." 183-6. "Film and Reality." 322. "The Making of a Film." 326

 

"Rudolf Arnheim." 27-41 in The Major Film Theories

 

Class Four                 July 14

 

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)

 

Balázs, Béla. "The Close-up," "The Face of a Man." 314-321.

 

"Béla Balázs and the Tradition of Formalism." 76-101 in The Major Film Theories

 

This day the students will be given a take-home essay assignment.

 

Section 2: Soviet Montage

 

Class Five                 July 16

 

The End of St. Petersburg (1927, Vsevolod Pudovkin)

 

Pudovkin, Vsevolod. "On Editing" 7-12.

 

Class Six                   July 21

 

October: Ten Days that Shook the World (1927, Sergei Eisenstein)

 

Eisenstein, Sergei. "Beyond the Shot," "The Dramaturgy of Film Format" 13-40.

 

"Sergei Eisenstein" 42-75 in The Major Film Theories.

Take-home essay to be handed in this day.

Class Seven               July 23

 

The Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)

 

Vertov, Dziga. "Kinoks: A Revolution" and "The Man with a Movie Camera." Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1984. 11-21, 82-85. In course pack.

 

Section 3: Realism

 

Class Eight                July 28

 

Diary of a Country Priest (1950, Robert Bresson)

 

Kracauer, Siegfried. "Cult of Distraction." The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1995. 323-328. In course pack.

 

Kracauer. "Basic Concepts," and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." 143-153.

 

"Siegfired Kracauer." 106-133 in The Major Film Theories

 

Class Nine                 July 30

 

Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio de Sica)

 

Bazin, André. "The Ontology of the Photographic Image," "The Myth of Total Cinema" and "De Sica: Metteur-en-scène."

 

"André Bazin." 134-178 in The Major Film Theories

 

Class cancelled          August 4

 

Section 4: Marxism

 

Class Ten                  August 6

 

Triumph of the Will (1935, Leni Riefenstahl)

 

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." 791-811.

 

Section 5: Surrealism and Avantgardism

 

Class Eleven              August 11

 

Entr'acte (1924, Rene Clair)

Un Chien Andalou (1929, Luis Bunuel)

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren)

 

Deren, Maya. "Cinematography: The Creative Use of Reality" 187-198

 

Ferry, Jean. "Concerning King Kong." The Shadow and Its Shadow: Surrealist Writings on the Cinema. Ed. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books. 2000. 11-165.

 

Goudal, Jean. "Surrealism and Cinema." French Film Theory and Criticism: A History/Anthology, 1907-1939. Vol 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1988. 353-361. In course pack.

 

Presentations on research essays will be done this day.

 

Class Twelve             August 13

 

The Fall of the House of Usher (1927, Jean Epstein)

 

Presentations on research essays will continue this day if necessary. Final papers are due.