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Class Overview:
This class is an
introduction to the world of film beyond Hollywood, concentrating on some major
trends and directors of the last half-century. We begin at the
conclusion of World War II, as several Italian directors emerged from the
political, structural and economic devastation of the war to forge the
movement toward a “new realism” in movies that would profoundly influence
other directors around the world, including the United States, as illustrated in
Roberto Rossellini’s landmark film Open City. We then turn to Japan,
another country struggling with its own issues after the war. Even
though the Japanese film industry had begun forty years earlier, its films
were mostly unknown to the West until directors such as Akira Kurosawa began
to make movies like his Yojimbo that were seen and won awards in Europe and America. We then turn to anime,
the Japanese cartoons that are currently the most popular form in that
country and their most famous director, Hayao
Miyazaki, with his Oscar-winning movie Spirited Away. In 1960s
France, a group of film critics—impatient with their own country’s tradition
of the “well-made film” and eager fans of American movies—turned to directing
in a “new wave” of cinema that would have its own lingering effects on other
filmmakers world-wide. The most famous of these has been Jean-Luc
Godard, whose Band of Outsiders is partly a tribute to American
gangster films and a meditation on the power of chance in a secular
world. (Quentin Tarantino would even later adopt the film’s French
title—Bande á part—for the name of his
company, A Band Apart Productions.) The European “art cinema” that
emerged in the 1950s and 1960s is represented by Swedish director Ingmar
Bergman’s puzzling and powerful Persona, while the Spanish filmmaker
Pedro Almodóvar’s All about My Mother offers
his unique perspective on issues of personal lives, loss and identity in
contemporary society. The remarkable changes (and perhaps lack of
change) in the former Soviet Union are
reflected in Andre Zvyagintsev’s The Return.
The largest producer of
films in the world is not the United States
(or Russia or France or . . .), but India. Satyajit
Ray, the Indian director most honored in the West, is also one of the least
“typical” Indian directors due to the strong influence of French director
Jean Renoir and the Italian Neorealists. His World
of Apu (no direct relation to the Simpsons character!) is the conclusion of his
landmark “Apu trilogy” about a boy coming of age in
a newly independent country. Most films from India,
though, are produced in the city of Mumbai
(formerly called Bombay
and often known as “Bollywood”). Mira Nair, a
director who has worked in Ray’s realist tradition and in the United States,
offers her own take on the “Bollywood musical” in
her popular Monsoon Wedding. After the death of China’s
Communist leader Mao Zedong, a “fifth generation” of filmmakers arose to take
stock of the huge disruptions in Chinese society over the last
half-century. Zhang Yimou’s
To Live, starring Gong Li, offers an epic take on the effects on one
family of World War II, the Communist Revolution, and Mao’s disastrous Great
Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile, the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, under British rule until
1997, forged a vibrant film industry of its own. Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express reflects the kind of
energies for a revitalized cinema that Godard had striven for three decades
earlier (which may be why Quentin Tarantino arranged for the film’s American
distribution).
Developing countries have
found it very difficult to create and sustain their own film production in
the face of competition from the United States,
as well as India and Hong Kong. Nonetheless, in almost every country,
new filmmakers emerge who try to tackle legacies
of colonialism, exploitation, poverty, and corruption, often despite official
disapproval or censorship. From Brazil,
Pedro Mereilles offers a devastating portrait of
gang culture in a neglected suburb in City of God. From Mali, Cheik
Oumar Sissoko’s Guimba the Tryant
is an allegory about power and corruption through a tale of a father and
son. Finally, Abbas Kiarostami’s A Taste
of Cherry offers a glimpse of Iran that is far more complex
than current newspaper headlines or that country’s theocratic rulers would
allow.
WARNING NOTE!: Many of these films deal with situations that use
strong language, have scenes of graphic violence, frankly discuss sexuality
and gender roles, and/or portray nudity and sexual situations. If you
have strong objections to this kind of content, then you should probably seek
out a different course.
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Learning Outcomes:
For the official outcomes
for General Education Categories 6 [Humanities and the Arts] and 8 [Global
Perspective], see the General
Education Bulletin. By the end of this semester, you should
also be able to:
·
Identify major
trends, directors and films from a number of countries around the world
·
Demonstrate
your understanding of social, political, philosophical and cultural issues
engaged by these directors and films
·
Demonstrate
your understanding of the political, social and cultural contexts in which
these films were produced
·
Identify specific
elements of cinema that these directors use to put their own visions and
messages forward.
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Requirements:
Attendance: Even though I won’t be calling attendance each week,
about half the classes will include an in-class quiz. Make-up quizzes
will be arranged only when you provide a documented reason for your absence.
Reading: You should read the assigned chapters in A
History of Film before coming to class each week. The chapters are
relatively short and readable and provide useful backgrounds for the
movements and films we will cover.
Quizzes: There will be 8 quizzes given during the semester,
consisting of 10 questions each. Each question (multiple-choice,
true/false, short answer, fill-in, and/or matching) will be worth 3 points
for a total 30 points per quiz. Quizzes will usually cover the reading,
films and discussion of the last week or two and they will be given at the
beginning of the period at 6:00 p.m. Please be on time!
Final Exam: The Final Exam will be given at 6:00 p.m. on the
first Monday of Exam Week, December 11. It will be cumulative and will
be worth a total of 120 points. Some questions will be in the same formats
as the Quiz questions but you may have a short essay question as well.
Extra Credit Option: You can earn up to 36 additional points (the
equivalent of a full grade) by writing an analysis of a foreign film seen
outside of class. See the Extra Credit
Assignment for details.
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