(Hi)story in Cinema

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Subject guarantor:

Radim HLADÍK

Name of lecturer(s):

Radim HLADÍK

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

In terms of skills, this course is primarily focused not on filmmaking, but on developing academic expertise, such as scholarly reading comprehension, critical spectatorship and thinking, essay writing, and argumentation. However, on the substantive side, a student should learn about the issues of representation of the past by cinematic means. Although the course is not intended as training in practical filmmaking, it aspires to aid in facilitating the development of good filmmakers by fostering in-depth reflection on the possibilities of cinema as a storytelling medium. It will also stress the concomitant responsibility of filmmakers as historians - or historians as filmmakers.

Mode of study:

Seminar

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

None

Recommended optional programme components:

No

Course contents:

Scholars like Robert A. Rosenstone have pointed out that filmmakers often engage with the past much like academic historians do: they tell us stories about it. Feature films set in the past, i.e. the genre of historical films, may have fictional plots, yet they still render the past visually and their narratives provide frameworks for understanding it. In other words, with historical films, history is always a part of the story. In this course, we will examine the idea of cinema as a historiographic or memory medium in its own right. The course is structured so that in the first half of the semester the key notions addressing the cinema?s representational capacity for history are covered through theoretical readings. Students should learn how to use proper analytical vocabulary and identify core problems of historical films. In the second half of the semester, several of the notions will illustrate by examples of cinematic works. Critical spectatorship will be encouraged. Students are expected to apply the acquired theory to concrete issues of cinematic representation of the past.

Recommended or required reading:

Printed material to be found in room nr. 439, 4th floor, FAMU main building.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

None

Assessment methods and criteria:

Attendance: Students are allowed to have two absences. Barring unforeseen circumstances, students should notify the instructor in advance. Exceptional circumstances will be considered, but additional work will be required.

Participation: Students will be expected to contribute to in-class discussions. Each student needs to prepare a brief class topic report once per semester.

Completion policy: To complete the course, a student must comply with the attendance and participation requirements and write a 2-3 pages-long paper on a course-related topic, such as an analysis of a historical film of their choice (a consultation is advisable) or a contemplation of the relation between history, memory, and cinema. The essay can also attempt to use the perspective of the course for a reflection on student's own project as a chapter for the final thesis.

Course web page:

Note:

1. Introduction memory, history, cinema, representation as construction

2. Historians and historical films

Reading: Sorlin, Pierre. „How to Look at an 'Historical' Film.“ In Landy, Marcia. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. Piscataway: Rutgers University Press, 2000

3. Writing vs. showing (hi)story

Reading: White, Hayden. „Historiography and Historiophoty.“ The American Historical Review 93.5 (1988): 1193-1199. Jarvie, I.C. „Seeing Through Movies.“ Philosophy of the Social Sciences 8.4 (1978): 374-397. (Selections)

4. Research, costume drama, experiment

Reading: Rosen, Philip. Change Mummified: Cinema, Historicity, Theory. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. (Selections)

5. Politics of historical films, nostalgia, trauma

Reading: Foucault, Michel. „Film and Popular Memory.“ In Foucault Live: Interviews, 1966-84, 89?106. New York: Semiotext(e), 1989.

6. Other uses: historiography, pedagogy

Reading: Raack, R. C. „Historiography as Cinematography: A Prolegomenon to Film Work for Historians.“ Journal of Contemporary History 18.3 (1983): 411-438. (Selections)

7. Useful inventions

Screening: Glory (Edward Zwick, 1989)

8. Historical character

Screening: Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

9. Reflexivity

Screening: Walker (Alex Cox, 1987)

10. Czechoslovak history: take one

Screening: Riders in the Sky (Jindřich Polák, 1968)

11. Czechoslovak history: take two

Screening: Dark Blue World (Jan Svěrák, 2001)

12. Final class: Review

Schedule for winter semester 2014/2015:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue
Wed	místnost 344 Učebna 7 (Lažanský palác) HLADÍK R. 09:50–11:25 (přednášková par. 1)
Thu
Fri

Date	Day	Time	Tutor	Location	Notes	No. of paralel
	Wed	09:50–11:25	HLADÍK R.	Učebna 7 Lažanský palác		přednášková par. 1

Schedule for summer semester 2014/2015:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Cinema and Digital Media - Screenwriting-2014 (qualification subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing (qualification subject)