Below are descriptions for courses in the graduate program in Cinema and Media Studies (CMS). For further work in Cinema and Media Studies, students are also encouraged to investigate other courses taught by the resource faculty. Film screenings add three to four hours per week to class time for the majority of courses.

235/335. Pasolini (GendSt 286, It 284/384). PQ: Undergraduates need permission of instructor:

This course examines each aspect of Pasolini's artistic production according to the most recent literary and cultural theories, including Gender Studies. We shall analyze his poetry (in particular Le Ceneri di Gramsci and Poesie informa di rosa), some of his novels (Ragazzi di vita, Una vita violenta, Teorema, Petrolio), and his numerous essays on the relationship between standard Italian and dialects, semiotics and cinema, and the role of intellectuals in contemporary Western culture. We shall also discuss the following films: Accattone, La ricotta, Edipo Re, Teorema, and Salo. A. Maggi. Spring.

236/336. Mastroianni and Keitel: Comparative Masculinities and Ethnicities (=Ital 285/385, GenSt 285/385):

Using films in which Marcello Mastroianni and Harvey Keitel star, we shall study the diverse concepts of masculinity and ethnicity that these actors embody. We will employ theoretical approaches to filmic representations of maleness and ethnic "types," to cultural assumptions and stereotypes regarding men, and to Italian and American styles of filmmaking in the analysis of such films as La Dolce Vita, Otto e Mezzo, Una Giornata Particolare, La Città Delle Donne, Stanno Tutti Bene, and Mean Streets, The Duelists, Two Evil Eyes, Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant, and The Piano. Particular attention will be given to Mastroianni's close collaboration with Fellini, and to Keitel's penchant for working with debut directional projects (Scorsese, Tarantino, Ridley Scott) and with independent directors (Jane Campion, Spike Lee, Abel Ferrara). All work in English, although Italian Ph.D. students and majors will be expected, in addition to writing a final research paper in English, to read some critical materials and to write a short book review in Italian. R. West. Winter.

240/340. Capra and Hollywood (=ENGL 236/486). PQ: Consent of Instructor:

Primary focus will be on Capra's programmatic series of films from the 30s and 40s, especially Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, It's a Wonderful Life, and The State of the Union. But we will also attend to a range of other achievements: his pioneering contributions to screwball comedy (e.g., Platinum Blonde and It Happened One Night); his less widely-known early work for Columbia Pictures (e.g., The Miracle Woman, American Madness, and The Bitter Tea of General Yen); the best of his silent films (Strong Man and Long Pants); and his contributions to the Why We Fight series of educational/propaganda films. The course will attempt to locate Capra both within the contexts of comparable Hollywood filmmaking (work by Ford, McCarey, Sturges, and Hawks) and the long history of sentimentality and spectatorship that extends back through Dickens and into the eighteenth-century emergence of the sentimental novel and its theorization. We will also deal with Capra's preoccupation with his cinematic "authorship," which will mean some attention not only to his signature gestures in the films but also to biographical issues. Finally, we will consider recent films that conspicuously redeploy "Capraesque" modes of representing ethical and political experience in America: e.g., The Hudsucker Proxy, Hero, It Could Happen to You, Groundhog Day, and Dave. One short paper and one long, and a take home exam. J. Chandler. Spring.

241/341. Film in India (=Anth 206/31, Hist 267/367, SALC 205/305):

Considers the film world from just before Independence (1947) down to the present. Most attention will be paid to the Hindi film, especially to its "peculiar" features, for example, the song and dance. Emphasis is placed on reconstruction of film-related activities that can be taken as life practices from the standpoint of "elites" and "masses," "middle classes," men and women, people in cities and villages, governmental institutions, businesses, and the "nation." The course will rely on people's notions of the everyday, festive days, paradise, arcadia and utopia to pose questions about how people try to realize their wishes and themselves through film. How film practices articulated with colonialism, nationalism, "socialist development," and, now, "free markets" will be a major concern. Students will be asked to familiarize themselves with existing approaches to Indian film against the background of more general approaches to film and the media. Some knowledge of Hindi desirable but not required (most films will be subtitled in English and have English synopses). R. Inden. Winter.

244/344. Eastern European New Wave (=Ger 349, CompLit 320, EEuro 249/349):

Throughout Eastern Europe, New Wave filmmaking emerged in the late 1950s as part of a larger political and cultural de-Stalinization process and in response to earlier modes of Communist film culture. This course follows the attempts of New Wave filmmakers to reform socialism (and the cinema as an institution), and their search for a form adequate to describe political life and historical experience in their full complexity. Screenings include pathbreaking films from Poland (Wajda, Zanussi, Skolimowski, Kieslowski); the Soviet Union (Kalatozov, Paradjanov, Kozintsev); the German Democratic Republic (Wolf, Beyer, Klein); Hungary (Jancsó, Makk, Kovács, Meszáros, Tarr); Czechoslovakia (Nemec, Forman, Chytilová, Jakubisko); and Yugoslavia (Makavejev). All films will be subtitled; knowledge of relevant languages and (film)cultures welcome but not necessary. K. Trumpener. Spring.

273/373. Perspectives on Imaging (=ArtH 257/357):

This course focuses on the evolution and history of the production and dissemination of knowledge by visual means. Topics include evaluation of light perception and vision; emergence of drawing, writing, and printing; early optical instruments to extend vision; photographic recording of images; X-rays and computer-based, non-optical imaging methods; conceptual foundations of imaging science; visual knowledge, education, and multi-media learning; and the cultural impact of imaging in the twenty-first century. B. Stafford.

Autumn. 275/375. Theories of Photographic Image and Film (=ArtH 272/372, COVA 255, GSHum 233/333):

This course is an introduction and survey of theories concerning photography and cinema. A variety of works by the following authors, among others, is discussed: Stanley Cavell, Erwin Panofsky, Siegfried Kracauer, André Bazin, Christian Metz, Susan Sontag, Edward Weston, Ernst Gombrich, Nelson Goodman, and John Szarkowski. J. Snyder. Winter.

276/376. Beginning Photography (=COVA 240). PQ: COVA 101, 102, or consent of instruc-tor:

A camera and light meter are required. Photography affords a relatively simple and accessible means for making pictures. Through demonstration, students are introduced to technical procedures and basic skills, and begin to establish criteria for artistic expression. Possibilities and limitations inherent in the medium are topics of classroom discussion. Class sessions and field trips to local exhibitions investigate the contemporary photograph in relation to its historical and social context. Course work culminates in a portfolio of works exemplary of the student's understanding of the medium. Lab fee $40. L. Letinsky. Autumn, Winter.

277/377. Advanced Photography (=COVA 278). PQ: COVA 101 or 102, and 240 or 241, or consent of instructor:

Throughout the quarter, students concentrate on a set of issues and ideas that expand upon their experience and knowledge, and that have particular relevance to them. All course work is directed towards the production of a cohesive body of either color or black-and-white photographs. An investigation of contemporary and historic photographic issues informs the students' photographic practice and includes visits to local exhibitions, critical readings, darkroom techniques, and class and individual critiques. Lab fee $40. L. Letinsky. Spring.

281/381. Issues in Film Music (=Music 229/309):

This course will explore the role of film music from its origins in silent film, its significance in the classical Hollywood film, to its increasingly self-reflexive use in recent cinema (both avant-garde and commercial, Western and non-Western). We will look at the ways music plays a central role both as part of the narrative and as non-diegetic music, how its stylistic diversity contributes another semiotic universe to the screen, and how it becomes a central qualifying agent in twentieth-century visual culture. Readings will include selections from Prendergast's, Film Music: A Neglected Art, Gorbman's Unheard Melodies, Kalinak's Settling the Score, Chion's Audio-Vision, Brown's Overtones and Undertones, Marks's Music and the Silent Film, as well as a number of theoretical texts by authors such as Eisler/Adorno, Eisenstein and Kracauer. Since the course will partly focus on technical, compositional, and stylistic aspects of film music, some reading knowledge of music will be helpful, but is not a prerequisite. B. Hoeckner. Spring.

282/382. Styles of Performance and Expression from Stage to Screen (=ArtH 293/392, Russ 280/380):

This course will focus on the history of acting styles in silent film (1895-1930) mapping "national" styles of acting that emerged during the 1910s (American, Danish, Italian, Russian) and various "acting schools" that proliferated during the 1920s ("Expressionist acting," "Kuleshov's Workshop," et al.). We will discuss film acting in the context of various systems of stage acting (Delsarte, Stanislavsky, Meyerhold) and the visual arts. Y. Tsivian. Spring.

470. The Ends of American Photography (=ArtH 472, ENGL 495). J. Snyder and W.J.T. Mitchell.

Winter.

285/485. History of International Cinema, Part I, Silent Era (=ArtH 285/385, ENGL 293/487, MAPH 336). PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful:

The aim of this course is to introduce students to what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We will discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking. Y. Tsivian. Winter.

286/486. History of International Cinema, Part II, Sound Cinema to 1960 (=ArtH 286/386, ENGL 296/489, MAPH 337). PQ: This is the second part of the international survey history of film covering the sound era up to 1960. It is strongly recommended that students take the first section first:

This survey will deal with issues of film form, industry organization and film culture during three decades, focusing on the crystallization of the Classical Hollywood Film as a key issue. But international alternatives to Hollywood will also be discussed, from the unique forms of Japanese cinema to movements like Italian Neo-realism and the beginnings of the New Wave in France. Film style, from the classical scene break down to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting) will form the center of the course, while attention will also be paid to the development of a film culture. Texts will include Bordwell and Thompson, Film History: An Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, Godard and others. Screenings will include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir. T. Gunning. Spring.

610. Seminar: Sound Theory/Sound Practice (=ENGL 485):

This course will examine the emergence of sound technologies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a view toward developing a sophisticated and coherent set of issues, terms and concepts to aid in the understanding of sound media. Topics will range from the role of technical media in modernity through questions of audienceship, listening, and acoustic form, to basic questions of representation as they are inflected by mechanical, and now digital means of reproduction. Adorno and Benjamin's studies of the historical meaning of representational technology and mechanical reproduction will serve as touchstones, but we will also address more "vernacular" forms of sound theory developed by technicians, musicians, critics, and audiences, and the more exotic investigations of avant-garde artists like Vertov, Eisenstein, Raymond Roussel, John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer, Edgard Varèse, and William Burroughs. We will pay particular attention to innovative works in audio-visual media that have shaped the boundaries of aesthetic and theoretical exploration in film, video, opera, musique concrète, and performance. J. Lastra. Winter.

620. Seminar: New Deal Culture: Stage, Screen and the Public Sphere in the 1930s (=ENGL 668):

In this seminar, we will use the concept of the institution-the social, economic, and dramaturgical, as well as audience parameters of legitimate culture and its challENGLers-as the ground for revaluation of New Deal culture, and in particular, the claims to legitimacy by competing counterpublic spheres, such as workers and African-Americans. The object of the course will be to develop an analysis of the potential and limits of social critical culture in New Deal America by synthesizing theoretical, historiographic and primary sources. We will read Federal Theater Project, Broadway, agitprop, and Harlem Suitcase Theater plays and analyze Hollywood, March of Time, and radical documentary films. Our readings and analysis will be informed by Bourdieu's theoretical work on the sociology of taste, Christa and Peter Bürger on the institutions of art, Habermas, Negt, Kluge, and others on the public sphere, Victor Turner on the anthropology of social drama, and Williams on the sociology of performance. We will also consider the contributions of contemporary commentators from Kenneth Burke to the activists of the Film and Photo League and the League of Workers Theaters. L. Kruger. Winter.

641. Seminar: Film and Melodrama (=ArtH, ENGL 588):

This seminar will discuss the ambiguous and protean inheritance that film as a popular form received from 19th century stage melodrama. The stage tradition of melodrama, both in terms of play texts, and performance and staging practices, will be surveyed with readings of 19th century melodramas and descriptions of their staging. Peter Brooks' discussion of "The Melodramatic Imagination" will be crucial to the course, both as an account of the 19th century tradition and as a claim for melodrama as a form that moves across genres. The claim by scholars that 19th century melodramatic stage had inherent ties to cinema as posed by Vardac and critiqued by the recent work of Brewster and Jacobs will also be considered. Melodrama as a form in silent cinema, and as a genre of sound cinema, including its particular relation to the women's film will also be considered, with writings by Mulvey, Doane and others. Films will be screened by Griffith, Feuillade, Sjostrom, Hitchcock, Vidor, Ophuls and Sirk. T. Gunning. Autumn.

670. Seminar: Cinema as Vernacular Modernism (=ENGL 587):

This seminar explores the proposition that cinema (in general? particular kinds of cinema?) during the first decades of the 20th century represented a form of "vernacular modernism" -- an aesthetic expression of, and response to, the social and cultural experience of modernity and modernization that was primarily market-based and at once threatened, influenced, and by-passed the institutions of art and literature. In addition to a sample of Hollywood films (slapstick comedies, Traffic in Souls, The Crowd, Gold Diggers of 1933), we will discuss films from Soviet Russia, Germany, France, and, depending on availability, China and Japan. In addition to thematic concerns such as crises of gender, sexuality and class, the contradictions of consumption, industrial labor and urban living conditions, we will focus on the formal and stylistic ways in which these films articulate the material fabric of everyday life, a new relation with things, a specifically modern sense of character, identity, and performance, as well as the ways in which they address and ENGLage their viewers. Readings will include debates on modernism and mass culture as well as more contemporaneous texts (Kracauer, Benjamin, Epstein, Dulac, Kuleshov, Shklovsky, selections from the magazine Close-Up). M.Hansen. Spring.

672. Expressionism in the Visual Arts, Literature and Film (=ArtH 461, Ger 468):

This pro-seminar will consider the intermedia indentification of the Expressionist movement, especially in Germany. As has happened with few other modern art movements, Expressionism has consistently been linked with the visual and literary arts, and also with film; however, the precise interactions and formal kinships of these manifold Expressionist manifestations, especially film, continue to lack critical comparative analysis. In this course we set out to explore sytematically these interstices. R. Heller and Y. Tsivian. Spring.