Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 1:00-2:00 or by appointment.Course Syllabus, 2023.(2013)Description This course is an introduction to Art Cinema, its origins, trends and place in the world of film and the culture of streaming, politics and ideology.
Evaluation (1) Essay 10% (2) journal (40%)Class mark 5%Final exam: short answer and in-class essay: 45%
First assignment:For your essay, then, you must compare and contrast at least two films watched in class with two or more films of your own choosing. Remember, you will be judged on the films you choose so choose wisely. Your paper is due on October 16th. Your paper should be between 6 and 8 typed pages double spaced. You may submit your papers to me on-line but YOU MUST confirm that I have received them and can access them. JournalA more informal style of writing, your journal should record notes from class, conversations with fellow students, family, friends et. al. about cinema and its cultural impact. The journal/notebook should also highlight research you have been doing: reading and viewing you will have done in the library or on the net. This is the independent learning section of the course. There is a large section of Art House cinema in our library and students are expected to become familiar with some of them. Students with access to Netflicks will find a good selection there as well. You will be expected to write reviews and summaries of their themes, plots, performances and style and to make comparisons with other films you have seen. You should try to write/ compose at least three entries per week. The length of these entries depends on your writing skills, but try to avoid point form. Set a goal of one to two pages per week. Remember that the journal is also a writing and communicating exercise. Do not fear the blank page, as no one learns how to write well overnight. You must, however, try to critique the celebrity culture that has largely been the background of your movie-going experience. Try to step back from it and critique its negative qualities while appraising the merits of film and film culture in general.NOTE: The Journal is to be handed in on the exam day in December. ExamYour final exam will be both short answer and in-class open book essay, i.e. class notes but no ChatBot assistance. You will be given 6 or more questions on the last day of classes from which you will choose and write two short answer and one essay question.
Attendance Attendance is mandatory. Students who miss more than three classes without an excuse from the Registrar will be awarded a Golden F by the academy. Texts and Films There will be a series of class handouts both paper and digital. Students should also consult professor Donovan’s web page for the course. Note: some films may be subject to change.Recommended Texts, On-line sites and resources.
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thomson's Students should read a brief history/ Outline of Art House Cinema on–line or from one of the many introduction to film books on-line or in our library: the tastes often vary as to which films are superior, but most historians and critics agree on who gets into the club, so to speak. Criterion Films is the go to film App (subscription is $ 20 a month) for those interested in greater concentration and detail. Most of their selections are comprehensive but they do let in films whose artistic merits are sometimes suspect. Remember it is an American site out of New York and the vast majority of films are foreign or World Cinema. They would argue of course for film as event— Barbie being the most recent example of this— but American independent and Art House cinema has always had a deep struggle to get attention because of Hollywood. Many cinephiles might accept as a truism that art house film was simply a reaction to the commercialization of art and the commodification of culture that Hollywood was intent on from the beginning with its unholy alliance of American super charged laissez-faire capitalism and art. While this reductionism does speak to a wider truth about the general nature of our popular culture, the mass medium, and the culture industry, there are some pitfalls in its generalizations, not least of which is the fact that many great works of classic art house film have come out of the Hollywood studio system. We need only mention most of the films of Orson Welles and many of the movies of Alfred Hitchcock to make our point. It can be argued too that these were accidents or subversive works of art disguised as mainstream entertainment. Some American critics have argued that Hollywood absorbed most of what art cinema had to offer when it first made its cultural impact in the 1940’s 50s and 60s through national (though foreign) movements such as Italian neo-realism, French new wave and Czech new wave to mention a few. The websites of International film festivals are useful for information and historical surveys and summaries. There are hundreds of film festivals world wide but the most influential are: Toronto (to be a Homer about it), Sundance (Robert Redford founded), Venice, Berlin, and the grandmother of them all, Cannes whose database goes back to 1946 http://www.festival-cannes.fr/ . The British Film Institute (BFI) is interesting and has some good resources but they can also be goofy so be careful. http://www.bfi.org.ukThe most exhaustive, and much of the best, film hisotry and criticism is now on line and even a site as commercial as IMDB will lead you to a vast amount of material. Don't be afraid to read some of the everyday bloggers on film ( there are a lot of cinephiles out there) but absolutely beware of the absolute, especially the reductionists. In English written criticism, Roger Ebert was a great voice of commonsense and almost infallible taste when it came to cinema. There is a moving tribute to him on the Charlie Rose show by Werner Herzog, one of the world's greatest auteurs. You can find it at the Slate site: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/04/09/roger_ebert_remembered_on_charlie_rose_watch_werner_herzog_a_o_scott_and.htmlPeter Bradshaw at The Guardian on-line is one of the better "daily" and "popular" critics writing today. Salon.com is also very good. Rotten Tomatoes, though, like IMDB is highly commercial, and remember that these sights have neither the time nor inclination to get into any academic or scholarly discussion of film. The most talked about, and one of the most influential, European philosopher/theorists of modern times is Slavoj Zizek. This Croatian born polymath is also a cinefile. Be warned though, he is, first and foremost a political/cultural critic so he can be drawn to a cinema whose artistic merits might seem a little on the thin side. See, for example, his discussion of conspiracy films like the Manchurain Candidate in his Living in the End Times. I bring Zizek in here to make the point that no intellectual can engage the contemporary world of culture without reference to cinema and streaming. Furthermore, it seems to be a truism that the best of art cinema has an edge that goes beyond entertainment to art but also, perhaps, to something not so public but still universal and, possibly, transcendent about the human experience. Zizek is also cultural critic so he is interested in the power and influence of the mass media as propaganda and agit prop both of which may or may not have anything to do with art. Topics and Lectures:1. The Barbarian Invasions, 2003 (Deny Arcand) The Decalogue I, Thou Shalt Not Kill , 1988 (Krysztof Kieslowski)What are the central themes of Denys Arcand’s film Barbarian Invasions (2003)? Though the film won an academy award in the best foreign language category, why can we consider it an art cinema? Is it its subject matter or its presentation? Art film generally has a radical edge. What is Arcand’s edge in Barbarian Invasions? Compare Arcand’s film with Austrian Director, Michael Haneke's Academy Award winning film from last year, Amour(2012). Both films involve death and dying which is the more successful at portraying these themes? If you prefer one film over the other discuss why.Your second film is Decalogue I by the Polish film-maker Krysztof Kieslowski. What are the themes of this first Decalogue and what do they have in common with Denys Arcand’s film?
2. Welcome to the Dolls House (Todd Soldonz) Decalogue VII The independent cinema of Todd Solondz.What are the central themes of Welcome to the Doll’s House? Solondz, like Lars Von Trier, has been accused of cruelty when it comes to the creation and portrayal his characters? Do you agree and if so why? Your second film is Decalogue VII, Thou Shalt Not Steal" by Kieslowski. What are the family dynamics of this film? Discuss it themes.3. Women in the Dunes: Hiroshi Teshigahara and Japanese avant garde.4.The Phantom of Liberty: the comic satire of Luis Bunuel.5. StoryTelling, Todd Soldenz6. The Secret in Her Eyes7.Blanc by Kieslowski8. Dancer in the Dark, Lars Von Trier 9. The Man Without A Past, Aki Kaurismaki10. Summer of Sam, Spike Lee11. The Fast Runner 12 Tsotsi13 Mary and Max