BAA Film Studies 11-12 Framework

District Name : Quesnel School District

District Number : 28

Developed by : Fred Rogger

Date Developed : January-February 2006

School Name : Quesnel Secondary School

Principal’s Name : Mike Adams

Board/Authority Approval Date :

Board/Authority Signature :

Course Name : Film Studies 11-12

Grade Level of Course : 11 and 12

Number of Course Credits : 4

Number of Hours of Instruction : 120

Prerequisite(s) : English 10 minimum grade of 60%

Special Training, Facilities or Equipment Required : textbooks, purchase selected films

Course Synopsis :

This course is intended to give students in-depth experience in movie analysis and criticism. It will enable them to understand, analyse, and criticize movies in ways similar to the ways in which they are required to respond to novels, poetry, and short stories in English 11 and 12. Students will study the elements of a motion picture, the roles of various figures involved in the making of a motion picture, the widely recognized genres of motion pictures presently in existence, and a brief history of the motion picture industry in Canada and the world, especially the USA and Europe. Students will then be introduced to several approaches of analysing films; genre study with an emphasis on Film Noir, historical, star analysis, and independent/national cinema. All students will maintain a film journal and make presentations to the class. The course will also help students to improve their writing and presentation skills. The approach supports student skill development and encourages meaningful methods of interpreting and presenting a variety of perspectives on significant issues. We will also look at screenplay format, storyboarding, the Treatment process, and begin the process of writing a script.

Rationale : This course has been developed to further the understanding of the media and the critical role it plays in the lives of our students. One of the most important aspects of media is the movie industry and the history and evolution of cinema itself. This course is designed to give students a better understanding of the movies they watch, and to place the various genres and styles into some sort of historical context for them. The emphasis in the course will be on the critical analysis of ground-breaking films and the influence these movies have had on the industry world wide. We will be also looking at the craft and format of screenwriting and what it takes to develop the skills necessary to write for the big screen.

Film Studies 11/12 and its learning outcomes dovetails effectively with the English Language Arts 11 and 12 IRP.

Mass Media is a key component in English instruction and it specifically includes film directed to a mass audience. Film Studies will extend the process, focussing on the use of mass media (film) as well as analysing its impact on society. As students use electronic communications and examine the nature of information conveyed to the public on the television, in film and in other media, they learn to:

• Examine and evaluate content and audience • Analyze cultural, racial, and gender roles and stereotyping • Communicate effectively using media • Select information and expand their knowledge base • Think critically about the messages surrounding them • Comprehend the role of mass media in society and their personal lives • Understand the place and importance of seminal films in our culture • Evaluate the importance of film as a reflection of culture and issues • Develop a critical eye and hand in analyzing film • Appreciate the written word and art of the screenwriter • Understand the function of narrative in film. • Identify film genres. • Identify aspects of theme, symbol and metaphor in film. • Have a basic understanding of film techniques. • Analyze film content for its social, cultural, and political implications. • Identify historical aspects of film content. • Recognize the importance of film in shaping and reflecting social standards. • Understand and apply screenwriting format

Organizational Structure : The course is divided into sections. This outline is a scant survey of the possibilities in what is really an infinite topic. The films and directors listed are merely pieces of the massive mosaic of world cinema. During the course we will use parts or wholes of some of the films listed and some that are not, and we will focus on the directors whose work is most pertinent to where we are as the course unfolds. We will also, at times, focus on film genres, by exploring how the development and the significance of film genres is an aspect of the film industry that transcends individual directors and specific historical periods. We will then consider the , film noir, horror and musical genre and how their conventions have been adapted and altered over time. The Filmmaker section of the course considers whether films may be understood as the result of the creative force of one person: the director. We will compare several films from the career of a filmmaker to discover if different styles and concerns are revealed to justify the concept of directors as artists, authors and communicators.

1. Introduction to Film History Unit One introduces students to the history of the art form and covers the basic features of film language. We will examine the main structural, technical and stylistic elements of cinema, and how they used to construct narratives and give emotional and intellectual resonance to movies.

• The Silent Era and the move to Hollywood

• Directors Eric von Stroheim, DW Griffith, and Cecille B. Demille

• Films Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, The Gold Rush, The General, The Jazz Singer

2. Early Foreign Film

Unit Two deals with some of the key discussions that have shaped the discipline of film studies. It introduces students to some of the theoretical debates that have influenced film practice and media studies over the last century by focusing on the origins of foreign films, their themes and major pieces and figures.

• : Expressionism, Realism, and Propaganda

• Directors FW Murnau, Leni Rieffenstahl

• Nosferatu, Metropolis, The Triumph of the Will

• USSR: Montage • Directors Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko

• Films Battleship Potemkin, October, Mother, Arsenal

• : Surrealism

• Directors Gance, Dreyer, Renoir

• Films The Passion of Joan of Arc, Grand Illusion, Rules of the Game

3. American Studio Years 1930-45 Unit Three looks at the development of the American studio system and the transition from silent to spoken film.

••• Chaplin, Capra, Marx Brothers, early Hitchcock, Wells

••• Films City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator ,Arsenic and Old Lace, The Searchers, A Night at the Opera, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Citizen Kane

4. Hollywood In Transition 1946-65 Unit Four focuses on the shift in Hollywood towards issues related film-making and the impact of the Red Scare and McCarthyism on the film industry.

• Freedom of Speech, Preminger and the Blacklist, McCarthyism and Message Films, Adaptations and Values, Musicals

• Directors Frankenheimer, later Hitchcock, Kramer, Lumet, Mankiewicz, Minnelli, Preminger, Stevens, Wilder, Zinneman

• Films The Manchurian Candidate, Key Largo, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, Inherit the Wind, 12 Angry Men, Dog day Afternoon, , Guys and Dolls, An American in Paris, Singing in the Rain, Porgy and Bess, Anatomy of a Murder, Shane, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Oklahoma, The Wild One, Rebel Without a Cause, Psycho, The Birds

5. Neo-Realism and the New Wave in National Cinemas 1945-2006 Section Five updates the National Cinemas around the world, considers how film narratives, forms and industries reflect and document the political, social and cultural concerns of the countries in which they are made. We will then focus on the cinemas of Canada and Quebec, and how they may or may not exemplify its regional histories, geographies, and cultures.

• Films include The Vanquished, The Passenger, Before the Revolution, The Bicycle Thief, , Eight and a Half, The Good the Bad and the Ugly,The Damned, Cinema Paridiso, Il Postino, Fahrenheit 451, Shoah, Amelie, , , , The Celebration, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, The Third Man, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Look Back in Anger, Walkabout, Midnight Cowboy, From With Love, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Long Good Friday, 28 Up, The Killing Fields, Trainspotting, Vera Drake, Chinatown, Tess, The Pianist, Closely Watched Trains, Europa, Europa, Throne of Blood, Ran, Runaway Train, Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Paris Texs, Das Boot, ,

• Directors Antonioni, Bertolucci, DeSica, Fellini, Leone, Visconti, Tornatore, Radford, Malle, Truffaut, Lanzmann, Jeune, Bergman, Hallstrom, Vinterberg, Lean, Reisz, Richardson, Roeg, Schlesinger, Sharman, MacKenzie, Young, Leigh, Boyle, Polanski, Kurosawa, Lee, Herzog, Fassbinder, Wenders

6. The Canadian Paradoxes: the Search for a National Cinema, the National Film Board of Canada, Quebec and Hollywood North Unit Six looks at the origins and history of Canadian film and the issues inherent in trying to establish a national cinema in the face of Hollywood power and intransigence. We will also discuss the nature and nationalism of Quebec films, the explosion of Hollywood North, and the role of the National Film Board of Canada.

• Films Nobody Waved Goodbye, Going Down the Road, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, First Blood, The Fly, The History of Violence, The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat, The Grey Fox, , The Fast Runner,

• Directors Owen, Pinsent, Kotcheff, Jewison, Boros, Arcand, Cronenburg, Egoyan,

7. Hollywood Renaissance 1964-2006 Hollywood continued to evolve and push the envelop in making films depicting the cynicism and conflicts of modern life. The use of graphic sex and violence reflected the tensions and divisions in American society against the backdrop of the Cold War and several social revolutions occurring at once.

• Films Annie Hall, MASH, McCabe and Mrs.Miller, The Player, Harold and Maude, Coming Home, Blazing Saddles, The Godfather I, II, III, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, Unforgiven, Mystic River, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Dr.Strangelove, 2001 A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Badlands, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Catch-22, Klute, All the President’s Men, The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man, Night of the Living Dead, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Aviator, Cool Hand Luke, In Cold Blood, Planet of the Apes, Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Dirty Harry, The French Connection, Shaft, Deliverance, The Sting, Death Wish, The Front, Rocky

• Directors Allen, Altman, Ashby, Brooks, Coppola, Eastwood, Kubrick, Malik, Mulligan, Nichols, Pakula, Peckinpah, Penn, Romero, Scorsese, Rosenburg, Brooks, Schaffner, Hopper, Roy Hill, Siegel, Friedkin, Parks, Boorman, Roy Hill, Winner, Ritt, Avildsen

8. The Blockbuster Changes Everything 1975-2006 We will explore the advent of the blockbuster film and mindset, as well as the continuing development of cinema as a reflection of societal change and unease. The collision between art and greed deepens further the contradictions and dichotomy in world and North American cinema.

• The Terminator, Aliens, Blood Simple, Miller’s Crossing, Fargo, Cabaret, American Graffiti, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Alien, Duel, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Serial Mom, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Saturday Night Fever, The Deer Hunter, Airplane, First Blood, El Mariachi, Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, Titus, The Blair Witch Project, Shrek, Ray

CORE ABILITIES DEVELOPED IN THIS COURSE:

• critical thinking • artistic analysis • written communication • time management

Major Topics: 1. Examination of film history 2. Presentation of various film genres 3. Anatomy of a screenplay 4. Nature of direction and film production Course Objectives: 1. Identify key events in film history 2. Demonstrate a basic vocabulary in film studies and criticism 3. Identify the various roles in film production, i.e. director, producer and editor 4. Understand the structure of screenplay 5. Write a film review Evaluation: 1. Attendance 2. Class participation 3. Completion of assignments 4. Midterm, final examinations

Instructional Component :

Film analysis and presentations Script-writing Journal of films watched Research of films, directors, and genres

Assessment Component :

Students will receive four credits when they successfully complete the course requirements.

These will include the following:

Major Projects:

• 10 page script of a Short, or the beginning of a film. • Major Critique of Film, Genre or other important aspect of filmmaking. • Class Presentation of Major Critique • Film Journal • Film exams

Learning Resources : tba