History, Development and Characteristic of Genres

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Name of lecturer(s)

Petra DOMINKOVÁ

Learning outcomes of the course unit

At the end of the course, students will understand the specifics of each genre as well as a term „genre“ on itself. They will be able to define each genre and outline its development. As such, the course does not teach students to write scripts for genre films, but it should help them to do so significantly.

Mode of study

lecture

Prerequisites and co-requisites

MIDTERM ESSAYS ARE DUE

Week 7 [Monday, 8th of November]

Topic: (Not a) genre: film noir

Discussion: NIGHT AND THE CITY (Jules Dassin, Great Britain, 1950, 96’)

Reading: Place-Peterson + Schrader.

Week 8 [Monday, 15th of November]

Topic: Road Film

Discussion: BADLANDS (Terrence Malick, 1973, 95’)

Reading: Creekmur.

Week 9 [Monday, 22nd of November]

Topic: Horor

Discussion: HEREDITARY (Bari Aster, 2018, 127’)

Reading: Carroll.

Week 10 [Monday, 29th of November]

Topic: Sci-fi

Discussion: ARRIVAL (Denis Villeneuve, 2016, 117’)

Reading: Sontag.

Week 11 [Monday, 6th of December]

Topic: Parody and pastiche

Discussion: JOHEUNNOM NABBEUNNOM ISANGHANNOM (The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Kim Jee-woon, South Korea, 2008, 138’)

Reading: Dentith.

Week 12 [Monday, 13th of December]

Topic: Feedback

Colloquium

Course contents

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the characteristic of certain genres, namely melodrama, western, horror, science fiction, gangster, war film, musical, road movie and parody. One lesson will be devoted to film noir, which is sometimes wrongly understood as a genre. After an introduction to the genre, each lesson will focus on one of the genres (with a particular focus on the US cinema), and students will have the opportunity to watch a number of excerpts from films, and will also watch 10 feature films on their own. The emphasis will be on the narrative, the „iconography“ of different genres, and the use of the spoken word.

Recommended or required reading

Altman, Rick. “A Semantic/syntactic Approach to Film Genre.” Cinema Journal 24, no. 3 (Spring 1984), p. 6–18.

Belton, John. American Cinema/American Culture. Rutgers University, 2012. p. 195–219.

Carroll, Noel. “The Nature of Horror.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 46, no. 1 (Autumn 1987), p. 51–59.

Creekmur, Corey K. “On the Run and on the Road: Fame and the outlaw couple in American cinema.” In: The Road Movie Book, ed. by Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark. Taylor and Francis ,1997, p. 90–109.

Dentith, Simon. Parody. Taylor and Francis, 2000, p. 1–38.

Elsaesser, Thomas. „Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama.“ In: Gledhill, Christine (ed.): Home is Where the Heart is. London : BFI, 1994. p. 43–69.

Kozloff, Sarah. Overhearing Film Dialogue. Berkeley, Los Angeles : University of California Press, 2000.

Langford, Barry. Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond. Edinburgh University Press, 2005.

Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. “Minnelli and Melodrama.” In: Nichols, Bill (ed.): Home is Where the Heart is. London : BFI, 1994. p. 190–194.

Place, Janey, and Lowell Peterson. “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir.” In: Movies and Methods (vol. 1), ed. by Bill Nichols. University of California Press, Los Angeles 1976, p. 325–338.

Schrader, Paul. „Notes on Film Noir.“ In: Film Noir Reader, ed. by Silver, Alain, and James Ursini. Limelight Editions, New York 2001, p. 53–64. Also available here: http://i.mtime.com/Noir/blog/1433838/

Sontag, Susan. “The Imagination of Disaster.” Available at: https://www.commentary.org/articles/susan-sontag/the-imagination-of-disaster/

Assessment methods and criteria

Class Attendance/Participation: I expect students to attend all classes. If a student is sick or has another duty (e.g. needs to be present on the shooting), s/he needs to apologize to the professor ahead, otherwise the absence is treated as unexcused. A student with the extensive absences, i.e. five and more (whether excused or unexcused) will be asked to do an extra work for the class and may fail the course if s/he does not fulfill the extra assignment.

Participation to class discussion will be taken into account in the final grade. Participation means a meaningful contribution in the classroom, utilizing the resources and materials presented to students as part of the course. Students are required to actively, meaningfully and thoughtfully contribute to class discussions and all types of in-class activities throughout the duration of the class. Meaningful contribution requires students to be prepared, as directed, in advance of each class session. Particularly, students will read the text(s) required for each lesson and will come to the class prepared with an excerpt from the text and comments how it refers to the film seen. All students will be ready to discuss the readings in the class. Lively discussion is expected.

Students are expected to ask clarification questions if they cannot follow the instructor’s or other students’ line of thought or argumentation.

The use of electronic devices is not allowed unless it is explicitly required by the professor (that may happen in some specific situations). Students are expected to take notes by hand unless the student is entitled to the use of computer due to his/her academic accommodations. In such cases the student is required to prove the need. If a student is seen by a professor using any electronic device regardless the explicit ban, s/he will get the “Warning.” If the situation occurs again, a student will get a worse grade automatically (i.e.

B instead of A, C instead of B, etc.). The third occurrence may lead to the failing from the course. (A paragraph above DOES NOT apply to on-line teaching, of course.)

Presentation: Around half of the class time (i.e. 45 minutes) will be devoted to discussion. We will discuss the film and the reading(s) that are assigned for that very day. While all the students will be familiar with the film and the reading(s), one student will have a special task to be a “leader of discussion”. S/he will prepare the handout for each student that will include the close analysis of the film based on the reading (not exclusively, student may add whatever else s/he will find important for understanding the film) OR the presentation (using Powerpoint, Prezi or any other tools). The handout/presentation will include AT LEAST 5 questions for class. Those questions should be rather complicated, can be even controversial, encouraging the students to think about the film more intensively (not “Did you like the film?). Since everybody in class will be prepared, the “leader” will encourage all students to talk. The student's presentation will last around 45 minutes.

The handout/presentation should NOT include the factual information as is the names of the cast and crew (with exception of director and DP when relevant), the number of awards and prices the film get, the names of the production/distribution companies associated with the film, the titles of the director’s other films etc, unless it is particularly relevant. You should instead focus on YOUR OWN analysis and/or interpretation of the film (with the help of readings assigned) and perhaps also on the additional reviews/analysis of that film available at Internet. The goal is to get us talking about the certain traits of film style and how it demonstrates itself in the particular film.

!! Send me the handout or presentation at least 24 hours before the class begins! !!

A student will not write a midterm essay on film s/he has a presentation on.

Midterm essay: Students themselves will choose the topic for the paper, while focus should be on genre films. Students may choose any film they wish, just need to inform me ahead, in case the films chosen is not the one we have seen in class. Papers have to be typed and may be sent via email. Due date is not negotiable. If a student must request an extension, she/he has to do it before the paper is due. All sources (films, books, articles, interviews, websites etc) have to be cited: any time student quotes or paraphrases someone else’s work she/he has to give her/him credit, otherwise it is understood as plagiarism, that is unacceptable and will cause student‘s failing from the assignment and may lead to failing from the overall course as well. The in-class presentation (October-25) is the part of the assignment and makes 10 % of a grade. Essay will have 1.400 words (about 5 pages double-spaced) minimum. Plagiarism is unacceptable, and if any part of the assignment is plagiarized you will receive a failing grade for the essay and may fail from the overall course. Late submission of the essay will result in an automatic fail on the assignment. Due: Nov 01

A student will not write a midterm essay on film s/he has a presentation on.

Colloquium: Oral exam that will verify the students understand the material covered in the course. One lesson will be partially devoted to the repetition of what we have learnt and what possibly may occur in the colloquium. Will take place: Dec 13

Assessment and final grade:

The final grade will be calculated as follows: Class Attendance and Participation (25%); presentation (25%); midterm essay (25%); colloquium (25%)

Course web page

https://classroom.google.com/c/Mzk3NTc1NjE4NjUw?cjc=s2c62jw

Note

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Further information

This course is an elective for all students of this school

Schedule for winter semester 2021/2022:

• Week view
• List

Schedule for summer semester 2021/2022:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing_1920 (required optional subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing 2020 (required optional subject)