Film Theory P. Morrison

Rabb 233; x62147 [email protected]

Course Description

An introductory course on the theoretical principles that structure the production and reception of film. We will pay particular attention to issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Course Objectives:

(i) To introduce students to the basic theoretical principles that inform the production and reception of film; (ii) To train students in the close and careful analysis of the formal dimensions of film; (iii) To explore the ideological and political ramifications of film; we will pay particular attention to issues of class, race, gender, and sexuality.

Tentative Syllabus

Jan. 18: Introduction

Jan. 22: The Genius of the System (1) Curtiz, Casablanca “The Production Code” (1930) Bordwell. “An Excessively Obvious Cinema” Christensen, “Studio Authorship, Corporate Art”

Jan. 29: The Genius of the System (2) Scott, Blade Runner Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 Lang, Metropolis Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus” Zizek, “I or He or It (the Thing) Which Thinks”

Feb. 5: Auteurism (1) Welles, Citizen Kane Barthes, “The Death of an Author” Foucault, “What is an Author?” Sarris, “The Auteur Theory Revisited” Wollen, “The Auteur Theory”

Feb.12: Auteurism (2) Fellini, 8 ½ Miller, 8 1/2 Allen, Play It Again, Sam Vertov, “Film Directors: A Revolution”

Feb. 26: Image (1) Hitchcock, Rear Window Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave” Bazin, “The Ontology of the Photographic Image” Sontag, “On Photography” Deleuze, from Cinema II: The Time-Image

March 5: Image (2) Powell, Peeping Tom Lacan, “The Mirror Stage” Metz, “Identification, Mirror” “Disavowal, Fetishism”

March12: Sound Kelly and Donen, Singin’ in the Rain Silverman, from The Acoustic Image Chion, from The Voice in Cinema Clover, “Dancin’ in the Rain”

March 12: Narrative and Montage (1) Eisenstein, The Battleship Potemkin Eisenstein, “The Dramaturgy of Film Form” Todorov, “The Structural Analysis of Narrative” Gunning, “The Cinema of Attractions”

March 19: Narrative and Montage (2) Hitchcock, Rope Aristotle, from Poetics Kuleshov, “The Principles of Montage” Miller, “Anal Rope”

March 26: Gender Wilder, Sunset Boulevard Berger, from Ways of Seeing Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” Doane, from The Desire to Desire

April 9: Race Crosland, The Jazz Singer Recommended viewing: Griffith, The Birth of a Nation Fanon, “Black Skin, White Masks” Rogin, “Blackface, White Noise” Dyer, from White

April 16: Sexuality Minnelli, Tea and Sympathy Sedgwick, from Epistemology of the Closet Freud, “On Fetishism” Freud, from Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Rich, from New Queer Cinema

April 23: The Genius of the System (3) Disney, The Lion King Disney, The Lion King 1 1/2 Barthes, “The Great Family of Man” Horkheimer and Adorno, “The Culture Industry” Bourdieu, from Distinction

Course Requirements: Attendance and participation; a seminar presentation; a final paper (22-25 pages).

Success in the course requires nine hours of work for every three hours of class time.

If you are a student with a documented disability on record here at Brandeis and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you, please speak to me as soon as possible.

The readings and movies will be posted on LATTE.