Film Studies

Cinema is truth twenty-four times a second’ (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963). The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the theory, history and criticism of film. We will be discussing different ways of interpreting movies, and applying some of these ideas to various film texts. Some of the analytical models we will employ, such as semiotics or psychoanalysis, will explore the complex language of the medium (how film communicates); others, such as genre and auteur criticism, will examine the ideological relationship between cinema and society (what film communicates). Special emphasis will be placed on the multiple relationships between Hollywood and World Cinema, and between literature and film. There will be screenings throughout the course, and clips from a diverse range of exemplary films will be shown in class.