How to Watch Movies? Reading the Cinematic Text

obligatory courses

The aim of this course is to acquaint students with concepts and interpretative tools needed for an academic analysis of film, in reference to specific national contexts.

The aim of this course is to acquaint students with concepts and interpretative tools needed for an academic analysis of film, in reference to specific national contexts. On the examples of selected films, students will learn, first and foremost, how to analyse such technical aspects as the construction of the mise-en-scène (the combined cognitive and visual impact of the choice of actors, costume design, use of props and background settings), the uses of music, camera framing and film editing (the combined affective and ideological impact of sound and image selection, constructions of time and space), as well as the spheres of convergence between literary and filmic story-telling (the cognitive and ideological uses and abuses of camera-focalization, narrator and/or character constructs in relation to filmic genres). This focus on the technicalities of film production will be combined with discussions on the cultural contexts of film productions, so as to underscore the interdependence of film and national/socio-political issues.

Filmography to be selected by a teacher.

Critical Works:

Corrigan, Timothy and Patricia White. The Film Experience: An Introduction. (Boston and New York; Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2004)

Hill, John and Pamela Church Gibson (eds) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)

Kolker, Robert. Film, Form and Culture (Boston and New York: McGraw Hill, 2006)

Knowledge

- a student acquires a greater awareness of the complexity and plurality of the systems of culture

- a student extends his knowledge of the codes of culture which determine the contacts between representatives of different cultures, especially in the context of English-speaking countries

Skills

- a student acquires the ability to use the discourse and the methodologies necessary to analyse film

- a student can interpret, analyze and synthesize the linguistic, cultural, social, historical and economic dimensions of selected phenomena

- a student can recognize cultural symbols and use the codes of culture in contacts with representatives of English-speaking countries and in interpersonal communication in general

Social competences

- a student consciously participates in his/her national culture, respects the cultural heritage of Europe, and understands the diversity of world cultures

- a student assumes an attitude of tolerance toward others, understands the specificity of culturally conditioned behaviors, respects individual opinions

Permanent assessment based on attendance, participation and final test.