Focus on Film History and Theory 1

Display Schedule

Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
311FFHT1 ZK 2 36PS English winter

Subject guarantor

Petra DOMINKOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s)

Petra DOMINKOVÁ

Learning outcomes of the course unit

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

Mode of study

lecture

Prerequisites and co-requisites

-

Course 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)

Recommended or required reading

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.

BORDWELL, David, THOMPSON, Kristin. Film Art: An Introduction. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2010. Print.

BORDWELL, David, THOMPSON, Kristin. Film History: An Introduction. The McGraw Hill Higher Education, International Edition, 2003. Print.

BORDWELL, David, STAIGER, Janet, THOMPSON, Kristin. 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: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. 370 s.

BORDWELL, David. On the history of film style. 2nd printing. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. x, 322 s.

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

Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Edited by BRAUDY, Leo, COHEN, Marshall. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.

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

COOK, David A. A History of Narrative Film. New York: W. W. Norton, 2016. Print.

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.

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.

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.

MOANCO, 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.

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

ŠKOVERCKÝ, 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.

THOMPSON, Kristin. Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique. 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.

Assessment 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%

Schedule for winter semester 2020/2021:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2020/2021:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans