French Film (375-0-20)

Topic

Writing Cinema Between the World Wars

Instructors

Christopher Paul Bush
847/491-5493
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-135

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 3-410: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

In this course we will study literary and critical writings about cinema during the 1920s and 30s, learning about the global circulation of films and of ideas about cinema in the historical context of the period. In addition to France, we will also consider (and students will have the opportunity to do research on) texts and films from elsewhere in Western Europe, the Soviet Union, East Asia, and Latin America.

We will read several classics of early film theory that try to define cinema and its potential as an art and/or a mass medium. Beyond film criticism in the narrow sense, these texts ask broader questions about the relationship between art and technology, entertainment and politics, perception and reality. We will also read several works of poetry and fiction that responded in formally innovative ways to the experience of cinema.

Films may include: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Kid (1921), A Page of Madness (1926), Un Chien andalou (1929), São Paulo, Symphony of a Metropolis (1929), A Propos de Nice (1930), and An Amorous History of the Silver Screen (1931). Literary authors may include Blaise Cendrars, Patricia Galvão, and Carlos Oquendo de Amat; critics and scholars: Walter Benjamin, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Epstein, Miriam Hansen, Imamura Taihei, and Liu Na'ou.

Class Materials (Required)

All readings and films will be provided via Canvas.

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area