Focus on Film History and Theory 1

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Petra DOMINKOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s)

Martin ČIHÁK, Petra DOMINKOVÁ, Nicholas David HUDAC, Vít JANEČEK, Erik Sherman RORABACK

Department

The subject provides FAMU International

Contents

The main aim of the course is to prepare students to their state exam from film history and theory, therefore its content overlaps with the state exam questions. During the course following themes will be covered:

• Silent cinema and establishment of film language

*The concept of classical, modern, and postmodern cinema

• Soviet montage school and various approaches towards editing
• “Isms“ in cinema (German expressionism, French Impressionism, Surrealism)
• Classical Hollywood Cinema and the stabilization of genres
• New Waves and modern cinema
• New Hollywood: its historical context and consequences
• “Auteur” cinema: its establishment and development; the culture of film festivals from the 60s on
• Principles of Narrative Construction (plot, story, narration, cause-effect, three-act vs. five-act structure)
• Various modes of production and distribution in history and nowadays (production part)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will:

• Understand the history of the cinema since its beginning until the 1970s and its specificity.
• Define certain trends and movements in the history of the cinema until the 1970s, as is “New Wave”, “German Expressionism, “Soviet montage school”, “French Impressionism”, “New Hollywood”, etc.
• Explain the differences between classical, modern, and postmodern cinema and evaluate how each of these “cinemas” approach its subject.
• Analyse narration of any film and explain its peculiarities.
• Define the main genres and understand its development.
• Explain various modes of production.
• Defend – or critique – the concept of auteur.
• Discuss how film festivals changed the filmmaking, its production and distribution.

Prerequisites and other requirements

Willingness to read, think, speak, write and learn about the questions related to film history and theory is the only prerequisites.

Literature

Balázs, Béla. Theory of the Film: Character and Growth of a New Art. London: D. Dobson, 1952. Print.

Bazin, André. What Is Cinema? Montreal: Caboose, 2009. Print.

Bernard, Sheila Curran. Documentary Storytelling. Routledge, 2015.

Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2010. Print.

Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film History: An Introduction. The McGraw Hill Higher Education, International Edition, 2003. Print.

Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson. The Classical Hollywood Cinema. Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960. New York : Columbia University Press, 1985. Print.

Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. Print.

Bordwell, David. On the History of Film Style. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. Print.

Bordwell, David. Poetics of Cinema. New York and London: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Braudy, Leo, and Marshall Cohen. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.

Caldwell, John Thornton. Production Culture. Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television. Duke University Press Books, 2008-

Carroll, Noël. The Philosophy of Motion Pictures. Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.

Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. Columbia University Press, 1994.

Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. Print.

Dancyger, Ken. The Technique of Film and Video Editing. Routledge, 2010.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. University of MinnesotaPress, 1986 + Cinema 2: The Time-Image. University of MinnesotaPress, 1989. Print.

Eisner, Lotte H. The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt. California-Berkeley. University of California Press, 2008. Print.

Falzon, Christopher. Philosophy goes to the movies. Routledge, 2014. Print.

Field, Syd. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. Dell Publishing, 1994. Print.

Hames, Peter. The Czechoslovak New Wave. London, New York: Wallflower Press, 2005. Print.

Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.

Kozloff, Sarah. Invisible Storytellers: Voice-Over Narration in American Fiction Film. University of California Press, 1989.Print.

Kozloff, Sarah. Overhearing Film Dialogue. Ewing, NJ: University of California Press, 2000. Print.

Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton University Press, 2004. Print.

Kracauer, Siegfried. Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. Print.

LeGrice, Malcolm. Abstract Film and Beyond. London. MIT Press, 1977.

Mazierska, Ewa. Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema: Black Peters and men of marble. New York: Berghahn Books, 2008. Print.

McGowan, Todd. The Real Gaze: Film Theory after Lacan. SUNY Press, 2008. Print.

Metz, Christian. Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. University of Chicago Press, 1990. Print.

Monaco James. How to read a film: The Art, Technology, Language, history, and Theory of Film and Media. Oxford University Press, 1977. Print.

Monaco, James. The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. Print.

Nichols, Bill, ed. Movies and Methods ed. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1976 (vol. 1 + vol. 2). Print.

Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. Indiana University Press, 2001.

Peterson, James. Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order: Understanding the American Avant-Garde Cinema. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

Reisz, Karel. The Technique of Film Editing. Routledge, 2009.

Schonnaschein, David. Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema. Michael Wiese Productions, 2001.

Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film. The American Avant-Garde, 1943 – 2000. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Sklar, Robert. Movie Made America. New York: Vintage, 1975. Print.

Škvorecký, Josef. All the Bright Young Men and Women. Baseline Books, 1975. Print.

Thompson, Kristin. Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 1999. Print.

Vertov, Dziga. Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. University of California Press, 1984. Print.

Žižek, Slavoj, ed. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock. Verso, 2010. Print.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Students are expected to attend all classes. Participation to class discussion will be significantly taken into account in the final grade. Final Test on the material covered in the course, 10 questions, each for 5 % of the grade.

The course grade will be calculated as follows:

• Class Participation - 50 %
• Final test – 50 %

Note

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Schedule for winter semester 2024/2025:

• Week view
• List

Schedule for summer semester 2024/2025:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing (Required subjects with the possibility of repeat registration)