Semester Plan

Jan. 17
Screening

No Screening first week

Jan. 18
Class

Introduction to Course

Jan. 23
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp. 42–74

Jan. 24
Screening

The Graduate (1967)
Directed by Mike Nichols
Runtime: 1 hr., 46 mins.

Jan. 25
Class

Reading: "Performative Character Development in The Graduate and American Beauty " and " Staging (Male) Liberation in The Graduate"

Jan. 30
Class

Reading: Review The Film Experience, pp. 42–74

Jan. 31
Screening

American Beauty (1999)
Directed by Sam Mendes
Runtime: 2 hrs., 2 mins.

Feb. 1
Class

Reading: Staging (Male) Liberation in American Beauty

Due Monday
Feb. 6

Sequence Analysis #1

Feb. 6
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp. 75–109

Feb. 7
Screening

Citizen Kane (1953)
Directed by Orson Welles
Runtime: 2 hrs., 24 mins.

Feb. 8

Reading: "Citizen Kane : Charles Foster Kane, William Randolph Hearst, and Orson Welles", and "Cinematography in Citizen Kane : The Revelatory Power of Cinema" and "The Image as Presence and Text in Citizen Kane : The Limits of Representation"

Feb. 13
Class

Reading: Review The Film Experience, pp. 75–109 (particularly pp. 100–107 on Image as Text and Presence)

Feb 14
Screening

Blade Runner: Director's Cut (1991) [note — original 1982]
Directed by Ridley Scott
Runtime: 1 hr., 57 mins.

Feb. 15
Class

Reading: "The Production, Distribution, and Reception of Blade Runner", and "Technology and Control: A Dystopian Vision of the Future in Blade Runner " and "What is Human? -- Vision and Memory in Blade Runner"

Due Monday
Feb. 20

Writing Assignment Week 5 : The Image as Presence and Text

Week 6: Moving from Shot to Shot: Editing

Feb. 20
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp.110–144

Feb. 21
Screening

The Birds (1963)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Runtime: 2 hrs.

Feb. 22
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp.110–144 (re-read)
Reading: "Editing for Continuity: Traditions of Continuity and Realist Narrative", and "Hitchcock's The Birds : Horror and Mystery" and "Continuity Editing and Suspense in The Birds"

Week 7: Moving from Shot to Shot: Editing

Feb. 27
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp.145–165

Feb. 28
Screening

Annie Hall (1977)
Directed by Woody Allen
Runtime: 1 hr., 34 mins.

March 1
Class

Reading: "Annie Hall : Classical Editing and Narrative Composition", "Psychoanalysis as Film Form in Annie Hall" and "Cinematic Realism and Love Stories"

Due Monday
March 6

Sequence Analysis #2

Week 8: Sound in the Cinema

March 6
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp.166–211

March 7
Screening

Apocalypse Now (1979)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Runtime: 2 hrs., 35 mins.

March 8
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp.166–211
Reading: "The Soundtrack: Continuity (Classical) and Montage (Alternative) Approaches to Sound", "Synchronous vs. Asynchronous and Diegetic vs. Nondiegetic Sound" and "New Audio Technology and Innovative Sound Design in Apocalypse Now"

Week 9: Review and Mid-Term

March 13
Class

March 14
Screening

No screening — View a film on your own in a public setting, sometime before Monday March 20
See "Writing Assignment for Week 10"

March 15
Class

Mid-term test over Mise-en-scène, Cinematography, Editing, and Sound (chapters 2–5 of The Film Experience)

Week 10: Distribution, Promotion, and Exhibition

Due Wednesday
March 22

Writing Assignment for Week 10 : The Viewer and the Viewing Context

March 20
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp. 5–39: Discussion of your tendencies as a viewer and influences of movie industry on you

March 21
Screening

No screening

March 22
Class

Discussion of your public film viewing

Week 11: Telling Stories: Classical Film Narrative

April 3
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, p. 214–246

April 4
Screening

Double Indemnity (1944)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Runtime: 1 hr., 47 mins.

April 5
Class

Reading: "Double Indemnity : First-Person Narration in a Film Noir Classic"

Week 12: Telling Stories: Alternative Film Narrative

April 10
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, p. 246–256

April 11
Screening

Magnolia (1999)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Runtime: 3 hrs., 8 mins.

April 12
Class

Reading: "Magnolia : Diverse Storylines and Narrative Unity"

Week 13: Documentary Filmmaking

Due Monday
April 17

Assignment: Choice of Film and Possible Topics for Analytical Film Essay
Length of essay= Between 5 and 6 pages, double-spaced (= between 1250 and 1500 words)

April 17
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, p. 257–285

April 18
Screening

Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Directed by Michael Moore
Runtime: 2 hrs., 5 mins.

April 19
Class

Reading: "Non-Narrative and Non-Fiction Film: Documentary and Experimental Films" and "Bowling for Columbine"

Week 14: Film Genres: The Classical Western

April 24
Class

Reading: The Film Experience, pp. 288–322
Reading: "Film Genres: Meeting and Challenging Audience Expectations" and "The Western"
Discussion of "The Analytical Film Essay" — A working thesis and the thesis statement.

April 25
Screening

Unforgiven (1992)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Runtime: 2 hrs., 11 mins.

April 26
Class

Reading: "Deconstructing Gender Roles in Unforgiven" and "Murder, Myth, and the Conflicted Hero of Unforgiven"

Due Friday
April 28

Assignment: Description of Your Analytical Essay

Week 15: Film Genres: The Revisionist Western

May 1
Class

Second test over Narrative in Double Indemnity and Magnolia, Expository and Rhetorical Practices in Bowling for Columbine, and Unforgiven as a revisionist Western

May 2
Screening

No screening

May 3
Class

No class — Analytical Film Essay Due

Due Wednesday
May 3

Analytical Film Essay: Between 5 and 6 pages, double-spaced (= between 1250 and 1500 words)