FMST 201

Film Studies

This course introduces students to the practice of film studies; the theoretical, historical, and aesthetic analysis of the cinema as an art form and as a socio-cultural phenomenon. The course begins by considering film in its earliest history, looking at the invention of the cinematic apparatus and the development of the earliest forms of film narrative as well as the audience for these spectacles.  The course then considers film in other national and historical contexts: possible areas of examination include the Italian neorealist movement, the French New Wave, German Expressionism, and Soviet Montage, among others. Further units include an in-depth investigation of the work of a significant director such as Alfred Hitchcock or Ingmar Bergman, and an analysis of the history and development of film genres such as the Western, the screwball comedy, or film noir. Students who take the course learn to engage with film interpretively and imaginatively. These interactions encourage a more active, critical engagement with the medium and add to one's recognition of the complex ways in which film operates as a symbolic and cultural-historical system.