An investigation of film within a highly contextural, internationalized approach. Scene will be set with an overview of the international film industry before leaping across contintents, time periods, and genres to Examine specific cases. Tentative case studies include: Alfred Hitchcock's British films, Spain, Denmark, Japan.
We are cinephile voyeurs gone international in this course.
Following an auteurist investigation of Alfred Hitchcock’s films from both sides of the Atlantic, we will examine cinema across a vast swatch of the Earth’s surface: Spain’s industry from the Franco period to the present, Denmark’s Dogme95 movement and its antecedents, the US independent sector across several decades.
Thereafter, ports of call include: India, Hong Kong, Japan, France, and Italy.
We will emphasize auteurs, national industries, production histories, and the resultant films intersection with political and social currents of their place and time.
II. Sequence of Films and Readings:
Week I: Introduction/Auteurism/Hitchcock
Film Screenings: 39 Steps (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, UK, 1934); North by Northwest (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1959)
Readings: Sarris; Wood
Week II: Cinema of Spain
Film Screenings: Viridiana (Dir: Luis Buñuel, Spain, 1960); Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall (Dir: Luis García Berlanga, Spain, 1953); Talk to Her (Dir: Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2002)
Readings: Evans; Jordan & Morgan-Tamosunas)
Week III: Cinema of Denmark & European New Waves
Film Screenings: Celebration (Dir: Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark, 1998); Dogville (Dir: Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2003); Breathless (Dir: Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1961); In This World (Dir: Michael Winterbottom; United Kingdom; 2002)
Film Screenings: Devi (Satyajit Ray, India, 1960); The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurusawa, Japan, 1958); Chungking Express (Kar Wai Wong; Hong Kong; 1994)
Readings: Bordwell
Week V: US Independents
Film Screenings: Salt of the Earth (Dir: Herbert Biberman, USA, 1954); She’s Gotta Have It (Dir: Spike Lee, USA, 1986); Safe (Dir: Todd Haynes, USA, 1995)
