Sp19 Remakes Syllabus
MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected])
Spring 2019 - MRTS 4415.001: History and Theory of Film Remakes Wednesday 2:00pm - 4:50pm in RTFP 184 Office Hours: Tuesdays 12-2pm in RTFP 224, and by appointment
Course Description: Remakes, they’re so hot right now! From Disney’s live action remakes of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin to the newest incarnations Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Lara Croft in Tomb Raider we see a never ending supply of remakes and reboots made every year, and this year is no different. In this class we will try to understand the cultural and industrial logics behind film remakes from their origins as ‘dupes’ at the turn of the 20th century to their current iteration as reboots in the 21st century. While we will focus on Hollywood film remake practices, we will also spend some time looking at intersections with French, Japanese, and Indian cinema and with other media, like television and video games.
Course Goals and Learning Outcomes: • Students will become familiar with a variety of historic discourses of film remakes. • Students will apply different discourses of the remake to analyses of particular films. • Students will develop their audio-visual literacy through watching and writing about films. • Students will develop their descriptive and analytic writing skills by composing and revising two essays.
Required Materials: • all readings are available online as: • eBooks through the UNT library - embedded “eLibrary” links provided in this syllabus • PDFs on Course Reserves - http://iii.library.unt.edu/search/p?SEARCH=mandiberg • reserves password: r2019s • resources on the web - linked URLs provided in this syllabus • Some films available online when marked with a URL; all other films are available at the Media Library (Chilton Hall 111) • Films marked with [before class] must be watched before class • Films marked with [in class] will be watched mostly during class
Assignments: • Film Notes - These notes should be made while watching the films. Sometimes we will watch films in class; at other times you will need to watch the films in your own time. You can watch with friends and discuss the films, but you must contribute your own descriptions and interpretations (Academic Integrity matters). Things you should think of include narrative, cinematography, acting, mise-en-scène, music, sound, and above all you should be thinking about similarities and differences between the versions you watch. This means that the second film’s notes should be more detailed. These notes are descriptive, but they will help you be analytic later, so thinking about the readings helps! You must hand in the notes each week through Canvas. Possible formats include: paper notebook, digital text file, personal blog, or MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected])
summarized vlog. Other formats must be approved by the instructor. The lowest score will be dropped. Film notes are due on Canvas usually the following Wednesday by 11:59pm. • Annotated Bibliography - An annotation for each reading (200-500 words). Each bibliographical entry provides the citation, a brief summary of the argument, an explanation of connected readings/concepts, and finally it explains the reading’s (ir)relevance to you. (See: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/). To submit your Annotated Bibliography you must reply to the appropriate Discussion Thread on Canvas. I suggest you copy/paste from a stable text file. The lowest score will be dropped. Entries must be posted by 11:59pm on Wednesdays usually the week after readings are listed. • Writing #1 - Compare/Contrast (3-5 pages) - Compare and contrast a remake and its original. Make sure you structure your paper with an argument; this is an essay, not a list of similarities and differences. (GRAD: 5-7 pages) • Writing #2 - two options • (option a) - Remake Analysis (5-7 pages) - Drawing on the course concepts, analyze your chosen remake’s theoretical and/or historical relevance. Why was it re-made at that time and in that way? This might involve thinking about the original’s context, and/ or it might involve thinking about the remake’s new context. (GRAD: 7-10 pages) • (option b) - Remake Proposal (5-7 pages) - Write a written pitch/justification for a remake. Details to come. • Presentation - In addition to writing your second paper you will be making a presentation in the final weeks of the course. Depending on the option chosen, this will be a presentation of the analysis or a pitch of the proposed remake. Presentations are 5-10 minutes. • Writing Revisions - Each paper can be revised using track changes. Details provided later. Formula for Final Grade: Attendance and Participation (10%), Annotated Bibliography (10%), Film Notes (10%), Presentation (10%), Writing #1 (30%), Writing #2 (30%). General Grading Criteria: A. The student demonstrated a firm understanding of course material, and presented clear, well-articulated analysis in written works. The student is able to intelligently employ terms and concepts introduced in class in proving his or her thesis. The student was highly motivated and nearly always participated in discussions. [90-100 = A] B. The student demonstrated accurate comprehension of course material, but the student’s understanding did not go beyond the basic requirements. Ideas are presented in clear and direct manner with few errors. Analysis was incomplete, the thesis was unclear, or there was a gap between the thesis and argument. The student was attentive in class, and often did not participate. [80-89.99 = B] C. The student demonstrated an incomplete understanding of course material. Written ideas and arguments were incomplete, unclear, often inaccurate, and generally needed editing. The student was often distracted in class, and rarely participated. [70-79.99 = C] D. The student showed inadequate comprehension of the basic premise, and core concepts of the course. Writing did not fulfill the assignment, and was constructed poorly. The student often failed to attend class, or inattentively attended class while on a device. [60-69.99 = D] F. Work not submitted; or submitted in a way that fails to fulfill requirements [0-59.99 = F] MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected])
Late or Missed Assignments: Late assignments will receive an automatic F. Exceptions may be granted for religious holy days, for active military service, for official university functions, for pregnancy/parenting under Title IX, and for medical or family emergencies. In the event of emergencies, documentation (e.g., doctor’s note) must be provide within 1 week following the absence. Upon returning to class you have 1 week to reschedule the exam and/or submit the assignment.
Attendance and Participation: Attendance is mandatory. Attendance may be taken at the beginning and/or end of each class. Tardiness and sleeping will result in being marked absent. Four or more unexcused absences will result in a failure for the course. In addition to being in a seat, your grade depends on active participation during class. If you are unable to participate during class please talk to me to work out alternate strategies for participation. Discussing theories during office hours can count as participation!
Questions: If you have any questions, ask them! Short/simple questions are best through email; long/ complex questions are best through office hours. Grades may only be disputed in person during office hours.
Problems: Please talk to me if you have any problems. Email me immediately if readings are no longer available through the eLibrary, or if the links provided are dead. That said, searching for the text through the library portal (or scholar.google.com) will often solve any broken link problems.
VPN: The readings are available digitally, but they often require you to be on campus, or to sign in as if you were on campus so that you do not have to pay for the materials. The most common way this happens is through using a VPN (virtual private network). Detailed instructions on setting up a VPN on your computer, tablet, or phone can be found here: https://itss.untsystem.edu/sites/ default/files/campus_vpn.pdf.
TurnItIn: By taking this course students agree that certain required assignments will be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the terms of use agreement posted on the Turnitin.com site.
Academic Integrity: According to UNT Policy 06.003, Student Academic Integrity, academic dishonesty occurs when students engage in behaviors including, but not limited to cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, forgery, plagiarism, and sabotage. A finding of academic dishonesty may MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected]) result in a range of academic penalties or sanctions ranging from admonition to expulsion from the University. Plagiarism of any sort will not be tolerated. As a minimum, plagiarizing will result in failure for the assignment. It might also result in further sanctions at the university level. Familiarize yourself with the UNT policy at: https://policy.unt.edu/policy/06-003. Disability Accommodations: UNT makes reasonable academic accommodation for students with disabilities. Students seeking accommodation must first register with the Office of Disability Accommodation (ODA) to verify their eligibility. If a disability is verified, the ODA will provide a student with an accommodation letter to be delivered to faculty to begin a private discussion regarding one’s specific course needs. Students may request accommodations at any time, however, ODA notices of accommodation should be provided as early as possible in the semester to avoid any delay in implementation. Note that students must obtain a new letter of accommodation for every semester and must meet with each faculty member prior to implementation in each class.
If you require or think you may require accommodations for disabilities, please register with UNT’s Office of Disability Accommodation at 940-565-4323, Sage Hall Suite 167, or https:// disability.unt.edu/. If you do not register and request we cannot make arrangements to fit your needs. Emergency Notification and Procedures: UNT uses a system called Eagle Alert to quickly notify students with critical information in the event of an emergency (i.e., severe weather, campus closing, and health and public safety emergencies like chemical spills, fires, or violence). In the event of a university closure, please refer to Canvas for contingency plans for covering course materials.
Trigger Warnings: This class requires that you are willing to explore issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion from a critical standpoint within an educational framework. If you are unable or unwilling to do this you should think about enrolling in a different class.
Graduate Level: Students taking this course at the graduate level must fulfill additional requirements that are denoted in this syllabus by the (GRAD) mark. MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected])
Schedule: Week 1 - January 16 - Introduction: Culture, Technology, and Economics • no reading • [in class] Beauty and the Beast (1991) [DVD 12029 Blu-ray] • [in class] Beauty and the Beast (2017) [DVD 17588]
Week 2 - January 23 - Technological and Legal Beginnings (1890s~) • Film Notes #1 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Jennifer Forrest. 2002. “The ‘Personal’ Touch: The Original, the Remake, and the Dupe in Early Cinema.” In Dead Ringers: The Remake in Theory and Practice: pp. 89-126. [eLibrary] • (GRAD) Jennifer Forrest and Leonard R. Koos. 2002. “Reviewing Remakes: An Introduction.” In Dead Ringers: The Remake in Theory and Practice: pp. 1-36. [eLibrary] • [in class] The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (1895) [https://unt.kanopystreaming.com/ video/new-beginnings], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk] • [in class] Workers Leaving the Factory (1896) [https://unt.kanopystreaming.com/video/new- beginnings], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQeIRLxaM4]
Week 3 - January 30 - Adaptations (1900~) • Film Notes #2 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #1 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Thomas Leitch. 2008. Adaptations Without Sources: The Adventures of Robin Hood. Literature-Film Quarterly 36. pp: 21-30. [https://search.proquest.com/openview/ 970209ca8aaefc8e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=5939] • (GRAD) Stephen Knight. 1999. A Garland of Robin Hood Films. Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies Vol. 29, No 3-4: pp. 34-44 [https:// muse.jhu.edu/article/396066/pdf] • (GRAD) Dan Georgakas. 1998. “Robin Hood: From Roosevelt to Reagan.” In Play It Again, Sam: Retakes on Remakes: pp. 70-79. [eLibrary] • [before class] Robin Hood (1922) [DVD 15138] • [in class] Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) [DVD 2308] • (GRAD) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) [MV 13269]
Week 4 - February 6 - Sound From Silence (1927~) • Film Notes #3 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #2 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Ginette Vincendeau. (1988). “Hollywood Babel: The Multiple Language Version” in The Classical Hollywood Reader. [eLibrary] • (GRAD) Nataša Durovicová. 1992. “Translating America: The Hollywood Multilinguals 1929-1933” in Sound Theory: Sound Practice, edited by R. Altman: pp. 138-153. [Course Reserves] • (GRAD) Joseph Garncarz. 2004. “Making Films Comprehensible and Popular Abroad: The Innovative Strategy of Multiple-language Versions.” Cinema & Cie 4: pp. 72-79 [https:// cinemaetciedotnet.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/cinemacie4.pdf] MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected])
• [before class] The Threepenny Opera: Die 3 Groschen-Oper (1931) [https:// unt.kanopystreaming.com/video/threepenny-opera] • [in class] L’opéra de quat'sous (1931) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA5T9s0YmSI]
Week 5 - February 13 - Technology vs. the Auteur (Mid Century Interlude) • Film Notes #4 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #3 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Fischetti, M. A. 1987. “The silver screen blossoms into color: Like it or not, old favorites like the maltese falcon are being colorized; here's how it's done.” IEEE Spectrum 24, 8: pp. 50-55. [https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.1987.6448227] • (GRAD) Gary R. Edgerton. 2010. “‘The Germans Wore Gray, You Wore Blue’: Frank Capra, Casablanca, and the Colorization Controversy of the 1980s.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 27, 4: pp. 24-32. [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/ 10.1080/01956050009602812] • [in class] “Porky’s Bedtime Story” (1937) - black/white version - https:// www.dailymotion.com/video/x6kzdes • [in class] “Tick Tock Tuckered” (1944) - [DVD 12045] • [in class] “Porky’s Bedtime Story” (1992) - colorized version - https://ia600606.us.archive.org/ 12/items/ClassicRareAndCensoredCartoons/072437PorkysBadtimeStoryLtColorized.mp4 • [before class] (selections) A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) DVD 4212 v.1 • [in class] (selections) Floating Weeds (1959) DVD 4212 v.2
Week 6 - February 20 - Writing Workshop • Film Notes #5 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #4 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Writing Workshop - bring what you have to class
Week 7 - February 27 - Bollywood and Alternate Directions • WRITING #1 - DUE BY 11:59pm THROUGH TURNITIN ON CANVAS • Nitin Govil. (2015). “Framing the Copy” in Orienting Hollywood: A Century of Film Culture between Los Angeles and Bombay: pp. 41-75. [eLibrary] (GRAD: Full Book) • [before class] Reservoir Dogs (1992) [DVD 10672] • [in class] Kaante (2002) [DVD 17657]
Week 8 - March 6 - New Hollywood and the Rise of the Sequel (1960s-80s) • Film Notes #6 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #5 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Carolyn Jess-Cooke. 2009. “Before and After the Blockbuster: A Brief History of the Film Sequel” in Film Sequels: Theory and Practice from Hollywood to Bollywood: pp. 15-51. [eLibrary] • (GRAD) Thomas Schatz. 1993. “The New Hollywood” in Film Theory Goes to the Movies, edited by Jim Collins, Hillary Radner, and Ava Preacher: pp. 8-36. [Course Reserves] • [before class] Alien (1979) [DVD 18013 Blu-ray] MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected])
• [in class] Aliens (1986) [DVD 2990]
Week 9 March 11-15 - Spring Break (no class)
Week 10 - March 20 - Technology and Nostalgia (1980s-90s) • Film Notes #7 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #6 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Barbara Klinger. 2005. “Once is Not Enough” in Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home: pp. 135-190. [eLibrary] (GRAD: Full Book) • [before class] Star Wars (1977 etc.) [MV 9755] • [in class] Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope: Special Edition (1997) [DVD 6084]
Week 11 - March 27 - French Connection (1980s) • Film Notes #8 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #7 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Carolyn A Durham. 1998. “Takes on Motherhood, Masculinity, and Marriage: Serreau’s Original, Nimoy’s Remake, and Ardolino’s Sequel” in Double Takes: Culture and Gender in French Films and Their American Remakes: pp. 70-90. [eLibrary] (GRAD: Introduction + Chapter) • [before class] 3 hommes et un couffin (1985) [DVD 17660] • [in class] 3 Men and a Baby (1987) [DVD 17587]
Week 12 - April 3 - Horror Across Borders (1990s-2000s) • Film Notes #9 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #8 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Kevin Heffernan. 2014. “Risen from the Vaults: Recent Horror Film Remakes and the American Film Industry.” In Merchants of Menace: The Business of Horror Cinema edited by Richard Nowell: pp. 61-73. [eLibrary] • (GRAD) Bliss Cua Lim. 2007. Generic Ghosts: Remaking the New ‘Asian Horror Film’ in Hong Kong Film, Hollywood And The New Global Cinema ed. Gina Marchetti and Tan See Kam: pp. 109-125. [Course Reserves] • (GRAD) Valerie Wee. 2014. “Terrifying Images: Visual Aesthetics and Ways of Seeing in Ringu and The Ring.” In Japanese Horror Films and Their American Remakes: pp. 80-98. [eLibrary] • [before class] Ringu (1998) [DVD 1768] • [in class] The Ring (2002) [DVD 2056]
Week 13 - April 10 - Reboots (2000s-2010s) • Film Notes #10 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #9 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas MRTS 4415.001: Film History: Remakes Dr. Stephen Mandiberg ([email protected])
• William Proctor. 2012. “Regeneration & Rebirth: Anatomy of the Franchise Reboot.” Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies 22: pp. 1-19. [https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ scope/documents/2012/february-2012/proctor.pdf] • [before class] Planet of the Apes (1968) [DVD 330] • [in class] Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) [DVD 16820] • (GRAD) Planet of the Apes (2001) [DVD 10109]
Week 14 - April 17 - Presentations (part 1) • WRITING #2 - DUE BY 11:59pm THROUGH TURNITIN ON CANVAS • Presentations (1st half of class)
Week 15 - April 24 - Presentations (part 2) • Presentations (2nd half of class)
Week 16 - May 1 - Revising Workshop • Film Notes #11 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Annotated Bibliographical Entries #10 - due by 11:59pm on Canvas • Revising Workshop - bring what you have to class
Finals Week • REVISIONS - DUE ON MAY 8 BY 11:59pm THROUGH TURNITIN ON CANVAS