Skip to main content

Symposium: Issues in RTVF (398-0-20)

Topic

Existentialism in Film

Instructors

J Michelle Molina
847 4612620
Crowe Hall, 4-142

Meeting Info

University Library Video Theat: Wed 3:00PM - 5:30PM

Overview of class

In the aftermath of the World War I, many artists and filmmakers asked new questions about the relationship between realism and religion. Could one reconcile concrete reality (or realism) with faith in the other-worldly? We study mid-to-late 20th century filmmakers who sought to understand and portray life's many meanings by presenting protagonists who actively take up religious life, or who consider themselves inhabiting a godless and meaningless universe

What dynamics drove the relationships between religion and modernity, faith and ethics, reality and the supernatural, observable phenomena and invisible causes?
How did one make sense of death in a meaningless universe? Was the universe meaningless? Could meaning be found in realism itself?
Within realist film, how can we explain the simultaneity of critique of religion and nostalgia or longing for absent religious meaning?
In studying philosophy and film together, we will discuss the relationship between realism, atheism, Christianity and modernity, as well as the role of Christian symbolism in existentialist literature and film. We will read Kierkegaard, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Freud, watch films made by Robert Bresson, Luis Buñuel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Ingmar Bergman.

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Radio/TV/Film Major and Minor Students until the end of preregistration, after which time enrollment will be open to everyone who has taken the prerequisites.