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FILM 331 APPROACHES to FILM STUDIES Instructor: Asuman Suner, Professor Spring 2018 Tuesday 12:40-15:30 FASS 1099

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FILM 331 APPROACHES to FILM STUDIES Instructor: Asuman Suner, Professor Spring 2018 Tuesday 12:40-15:30 FASS 1099 FILM 331 APPROACHES TO FILM STUDIES Instructor: Asuman Suner, Professor Spring 2018 Tuesday 12:40-15:30 FASS 1099 Course Description This course is organized around the question of how to make sense of films as complex cultural texts in the context of broader film culture. To this end, the course investigates several key approaches to Film Studies that include the technology-based, industry-based, and style-based approaches; auteur and genre theories; psychoanalytic and feminist theories; approaches highlighting ideology and politics of cinema; as well as approaches directing attention to audiences, movie-going practices and the reception of films. Readings: Textbook: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction, London: I.B. Tauris, 2012. Articles assigned for each week will be available through SUCourse. Films are available at the Reserve Desk of the Information Center. Assignments and Grading: The course grade will be based on 2 short papers (25 points each); one take-home exam paper (40 points); and attendance and participation (10 points). Due dates for papers: PAPER 1: March 20 PAPER 2: April 24 TAKE-HOME EXAM PAPER: May 15 Late papers will be accepted (with 10 points grade reduction) in the next class following the paper dead-line (and NO LATER THAN THAT!). Paper Topics: Paper 1 (March 20): The suggested films assigned for February 27 (Maps to the Stars, Café Society, The Artist, and Hail Caesar!) are all recent works that critically reflect upon Hollywood cinema. Choose two films from this list; compare and contrast them on the basis of the following questions: Which era of Hollywood film industry is depicted in each film? What are the major characteristics of these eras? How these characteristics are represented in the films? (Make sure to READ all the related sources in the syllabus before writing your paper). 2 Paper 2 (April 24): Go to a film festival and watch a film (!F Istanbul: 15-25 February; Istanbul Film Festival: 6-17 April). Alternatively, you can attend a special screening program (e.g., screenings organized by universities or museums). As the least favorable option, you can watch a film at a commercial movie theatre. (Make sure to include the print-out of a picture of yourself taken in front of the festival/screening avenue at the end of your paper!) Describe the film you watched (indicate its title, director, country and year of production). Briefly summarize its story (2-5 sentences). How would you describe the film in terms of genre conventions? How would you characterize its cinematic style? To what extent are its characteristics consistent with the categories of “festival film,” “independent film,” “blockbuster” etc.? Write about the specific movie-going practices and rituals that you observe at the festival/screening site. How was your reception of the film informed by the cultural context that you watched it? Did you enjoy the experience of attending a festival / screening? Why or why not? (Make sure to READ all the readings of April 17 and April 24 before writing your paper). Take-Home Exam Paper (May 15): Take-Home Exam questions will be announced on April 24 via SuCourse. Exam papers will be returned on May 15. There will be two questions in the exam. In each question, you will be asked to make a comparison between two or more films from the syllabus on the basis of the issues that are covered in the lectures and the readings. FORMAT INSTRUCTIONS FOR PAPERS: Papers must be presented in hard-copy form during the class. An electronic copy of the paper should also be presented as e-mail attachment on the same day until 16:30. Papers must be between 3-5 pages (excluding the pages containing pictures); 1.5 spaced, Times New Roman, 12 Font. If you include pictures, present them on a separate page at the end of your paper. Your name and student number should appear on the FIRST page of the paper. Write the full paper topic and the names of the films that you examine at the top of your paper. Make sure to include full references of the sources that you use. Papers must be STAPLED. Do NOT present your paper in a plastic folder. 3 Course Schedule February 6 Orientation February 13 Film Culture Readings: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema, pp. 1-9 February 20 Technology Based Approaches Film: Early works of cinema Readings: David Cook, A History of Narrative Film (Third Edition). New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1996, pp. 1-19 Dina Iordanova, “Digital Disruption: Technological Innovation and Global Film Circulation,” in Dina Iordanova and Stuart Cunningham (eds.) Digital Disruption: Cinema Moves On-Line. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies, 2012. Alex Fischer, “IMDb Helps Me Sleep at Night: How a Simple Database Changed the World of Film,” in Dina Iordanova and Stuart Cunningham (eds.) Digital Disruption: Cinema Moves On-Line. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies, 2012. February 27 Industry Based Approaches Film: Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, USA, 1950) Suggested Films: Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, Canada/USA, 2014), Café Society (Woody Allen, USA, 2016), The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, France, 2011), Hail Caesar! (Joel and Ethan Coen, USA, 2016). Readings: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema, pp. 11-84 Gomery, Douglas. “Hollywood as Industry,” in John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (eds.) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. March 6 Genre Theory Film: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, USA, 1953) Suggested Film: La La Land (Damien Chazelle, USA, 2016) Readings: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema, pp. 116-146 Susan Hayward, “Musical” in Key Concepts in Cinema Studies. London: Routledge, 1996. March 13 Auteur Theory Film: Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1960) 4 Suggested Film: Redoubtable (Michel Hazanavicius, France, 2017) Readings: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema, pp. 85-115 David Sterritt, The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 1-59. Jill Forbes, “The French Nouvelle Vague,” in John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (eds.) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Suggested Readings: Richard Neupert, A History of the French New Wave Cinema. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2002. March 20 DUE DATE FOR PAPER 1 Film Style Film: The Graduate (Mike Nichols, USA, 1967) Suggested Film: Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, USA, 1967) Readings: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema, pp. 11-48. March 27 Psychoanalytic and Feminist Film Theory Film: Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1954) Suggested Films: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, USA, 1953), Frozen (Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, USA, 2013), Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia, 2012), Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey, UK, 1977) Reading: Shohini Chaudhuri, Feminist Film Theorists. New York: Routledge, 2006, pp. 15-29 and pp. 31-44. Scott Curtis, “The Making of Rear Window,” in John Belton, (ed.) Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. London: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Tania Modleski, “The Master’s Doll House,” in The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory, New York: Routledge, 1998, 73-85. Jeanne Allen, “Looking Through ‘Rear Window’: Hitchcock’s Traps and Lures of Heterosexual Romance,” in Female Spectators: Looking at Film and Television, ed. D. Pribram, London: Verso, 1990. Turim, Maureen. “Gentlemen Consume Blondes,” in Patricia Erens (ed.) Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1990. Arbuthnot, Lucie and Gail Seneca. “Pre-text and Text in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Patricia Erens (ed.) Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. 5 Suggested Reading: Sophie Mayer, Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema. London: I.B.Tauris, 2016. April 3 SPRING BREAK April 10 Politics and Ideology of Cinema Film: Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, USA, 2012) Suggested Film: I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, Britain, 2016) Readings: Kellner, Douglas. “Hollywood Film and Society,” in John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (eds.) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Martha Lauzen, “Kathryn Bigelow: On Her Own in No-(Wo)Man's-Land,” Camera Obscura 26 (3): 2011. Marouf Hasian, “Zero Dark Thirty and the Critical Challenges Posed by Populist Postfeminism During the Global War on Terrorism,” Journal of Critical Communication Inquiry 34(3): 2013. Ken Loach, “If You Are Not Angry What Kind of a Person Are You?” The Guardian, 15 October 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/15/ken-laoch-film-i-daniel-blake-kes-cathy- come-home-interview-simon-hattenstone Jonathan Romney, “Film of the Week: I, Daniel Blake,” Film Comment, 21 December 2016. https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-week-daniel-blake/ Suggested Reading: Douglas Kellner, Cinema Wars: Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush-Cheney Era. Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2010. April 17 Reception Theory, Audience Research Film: Skyfall (Sam Mendes, USA, 2012) Suggested Films: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015) Readings: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema, pp. 147-223. Henry Jenkins, “Reception Theory and the Audience Research,” Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams (eds.) Reinventing Film Studies. London: Arnold, 2000. 6 James Chapman, Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films, London: I.B. Tauris, 2007, pp. 1-48. Klaus Dodds, “Popular Geopolitics and Audience Dispositions: James Bond and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb),” Transactions 31(2): 2006. Suggested Readings: Susanne Kord and Elisabeth Krimmer, Contemporary Hollywood Masculinities Gender, Genre, and Politics. New York: Palgrave: 2011. Robert G. Weiner, B. Lynn Whitfield and Jack Becker (ed.) James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The Films are Not Enough. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. April 24 Changing Patterns of Movie Going, Film Watching, and Festival Culture DUE DATE FOR PAPER 2 TAKE-HOME EXAM QUESTIONS WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT SUCOURSE Film: Boyhood (Richard Linklater, USA, 2014) Readings: Geoff King, New Hollywood Cinema, pp.
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