ART 265: Film Analysis

Instructor:
Office location:
Office Hours:
E-mail:

Sarah Keller
McCormack 442
MW 10:00-11:30, and by appointment
sarah.keller@umb.edu

Class Meetings:
Location:

M/W 1-3
McCormack 407
Course Description

This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from
different national cinemas over cinemas history, through various genres and modes of production and
exhibition. While emphasis is put on questions of film form and style, the course will also offer an
introduction to critical approaches and theories related to the study of cinema. Fulfills the Arts
requirement.
Course Expectations, Requirements/Regulations, and Goals:
Expectations
Lectures, screenings, readings, and discussions are essential components of the course. Students should
come to class having completed in advance all of the reading listed for that class day. Thoughtful, civil,
well-prepared, regular participation in class discussions is expected.
I encourage students to visit me during office hours or by appointment to discuss papers, assignments,
and the class more generally.
Students in the course will write a short response to the films screened each even-numbered week (weeks
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 as listed on the syllabus). A response should be typed, double-spaced, and written
in clear and compelling prose. Avoid dealing with the plot, and do not evaluate the film; instead focus on
some aspect of the films style or form, analyzing the way it contributes to the overall meaning of scenes,
characters, settings, etc. Responses should be approximately 200-250 words and should be turned in on
Wednesday of each even-numbered week at the beginning of class. Please title your response by week
number (e.g., the first response, since it will come in during week 2, will be entitled Week 2 Response).
In addition to the responses, two papers, in-class assignments (including a short presentation), and a
cumulative exam will focus on film analysis and the broader questions covered each week in the course.
Specific breakdown for factoring final grades:
Participation / In-class assignments / Responses:
Paper 1 (due Monday, 9/29):
Paper 2 (due Monday, 11/10)
Final exam:

30%
20%
20%
30%

Regulations
There are no make-ups for in-class assignments, regardless of reason, including late arrival.
Missing more than 2 classes will lower a students grade by one sub-grade per additional class missed.
Students are responsible for making up any material missed during an absence. There is one special event
for this class, on Sunday, 10/5: attendance is required.
Grades for late papers will be lowered one sub-grade per day they are late (e.g., from A- to B+). With at
least 24 hours notice, extensions may be granted at the discretion of the professor. Unless given written
permission otherwise, students must turn in all work on time and in hard copyprinted out and handed
to the instructor at the start of class).
Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act offers guidelines for curriculum modifications and
adaptations for students with documented disabilities. If applicable, students may obtain adaptation
recommendations from the Ross Center for Disabilities Services. The student must present and discuss
these recommendations with me within a reasonable time period, preferably by the end of the Drop/Add
period.
Incompletes are granted only under exceptional circumstances. The basic requirements for an incomplete
are: 1) you must be passing the course; 2) there must be only one significant assignment outstanding; and
3) you must have an insurmountable problem that prevents you from completing the course. If you
believe this describes your case, you must request an incomplete from me.
*A note on plagiarism and academic dishonesty: Do your own work in all instances, cite all your sources,
and do not recycle work from other courses or contexts. All cases of academic dishonesty will be reported
to the Dean and to the chair of the Art department. Do not hesitate to see me if you have other questions
about what constitutes appropriate research or citation practices. You are required to adhere to the
University Policy on Academic Standards and Cheating, to the University Statement on Plagiarism and
the Documentation of written Work, and to the Code of Student Conduct as delineated in the catalog of
Undergraduate Programs, pp. 44-45, and 48-52. The Code is available online at:
http://www.umb.edu/student services/student rights/ code conduct.html.
Goals
In taking this course, students will:

Learn to analyze a cinematic text;

Develop the ability to recognize and interpret visual information and patterns;
Become familiar with the standard vocabulary for discussing cinematic texts;
Gain an introduction to the critical stances one might take toward a film;
Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which films derive from and/or interact with their
various ideological, social, historical, economic, and/or aesthetic contexts;
Write essays that employ well-considered arguments, provide excellent textual support for those
arguments, and pay attention to the structure and efficacy of those arguments;
Become more comfortable and practiced in discussing cinematic texts among their peers.

SCHEDULE
Week One:
W 9/3

Introduction to the course

In class:
One Week (Buster Keaton, 1921, 19 min)
Clip from Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

Week Two:
Key Concept: Cinematography
M 9/8

In class:

The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942, 88 min)

W 9/10

In class:
Reading:

Clip from Coeur Fidle (Jean Epstein, 1923)

Jean Epstein, Magnification
Bla Balsz, The Close-Up
Reading on Cinematography
Response Paper due (Week 2)

Homework:

Week Three:
Key Concept: Mise-en-scene
M 9/15

In class:

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958, 95 min)

W 9/17

In class:

Clips from Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903, 11 min)
Clip from The Gangs All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943)
Reading on Mise-en-scene
Excerpt from Josh Yumibe, Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture,
Modernism
Andr Bazin, The Virtues and Limitations of Montage

Reading:

Week Four:
Key Concept: Editing
M 9/22

In class:

Man with the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929, 68 min)

W 9/24

In class:

Clip from Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)

Clip from The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass, 2004)
Excerpts from writings by Vertov and Eisenstein
Reading on Editing
Response Paper due (Week 4)

Reading:
Homework:

Week Five:
Key Concept: Sound
M 9/29 PAPER #1 due at beginning of class
In class:
The Limey (Steven Soderbergh, 1999, 89 min)
W 10/1

Reading:

Excerpts from James Lastra, Sound Technology and the American

Cinema
Selections from J. Belton and E. Weis, Film Sound: Theory and Practice
Reading on Film Sound

N.B.: This weekend we have a screening off-campus. Please reserve Sunday afternoon,
10/5, for this screening. It is a requirement to attend: there is no class on Wednesday,
10/8 as a result.

Week Six:
Key Concept: Film Form and Narrative
M 10/6

In class:
Reading:

W 10/8

Clip from The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009)

Clip from Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)
Clip from Kill Bill, Vol 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
Tom Gunning, Narrative Discourse and the Narrator
System
Excerpt from David Bordwell, The Way Hollywood Tells
It: Story and Style in Modern Movies

No class meeting: Please submit your Response Paper (Week 6) via e-mail
attachment by 1:00 p.m.

Week Seven:
Key Concept: Genre
M 10/13

FALL BREAK: NO CLASS

W 10/15

In class:

Christopher Strong (Dorothy Arzner, 1933, 78 min)

Week Eight:
Key Concept: Genre, continued
M 10/20

In class:
Reading:

Winchester 73 (Anthony Mann, 1950, 92 min)

Carolyn Durham, Missing Masculinity or Cherchez LHomme:
Re-reading Dorothy Arzners Christopher Strong

W 10/22

In class:
Reading:
Homework:

Clip from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
Rick Altman, A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Genre
Response Paper due (Week 8)

Week Nine:
Key Concept: Experimental Forms
M 10/27

In class:
Reading:

W 10/29

In class:

Reading:

Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943, 15 min)

Pink Socks (Leighton Pierce, 2002, 3 min)
Screen Tests (Andy Warhol, ca. 1964-65, 8 min)
Maya Deren, Cinema as an Art Form
The Garden of Earthly Delights (Stan Brakhage, 1981, 3
min)
Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer, 1982, 12 min)
Sanctus (Barbara Hammer, 1990, 20 min)
Skeleton Dance (Walt Disney, 1929, 6 min)
Excerpt from Stan Brakhage, Metaphors on Vision

Week Ten:
Key Concept: Documentary
M 11/3

In class:

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997, 80 min)

W 11/5

In class:

Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955, 32 min)

Serpentine Dances, Sandow, Demolition of a Wall
(Lumiere Bros. and Edison kinetoscope selections,
ca. 1894-96)
Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Documenting the Ineffable:
Terror and Memory in Alain Resnais Night and Fog
Response Paper due (Week 10)

Readings:
Homework:

Week Eleven:
Key Concept: Film History
M 11/10

PAPER #2 due at beginning of class.

In class:
Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene, 1966, 65 min)

W 11/12

In class:

Reading:

Clip from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene,

1920)
Clip from Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933)
Clip from All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)
Clip from Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Clip from Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002)
Reading on Film History: early cinema, studio era, new
wave cinemas, festival and art house cinema

Week Twelve:
Key Concept: Film Theory and Criticism
M 11/17

In class:

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972, 93 min)

W 11/19

Homework:
In class:

Response Paper due (Week 12)

Clip from My Best Fiend: Klaus Kinski (Werner Herzog,
1999)
Clip from Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005)

Week Thirteen:
National Cinemas and Film History/Theory
M 11/24

In class:

The Masseurs and a Woman (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1938, 66

min)

W 11/26

In class:

Clips from The Grandmaster (Kar Wai Wong, 2013)

Clip from The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
Clip from Pina (Wim Wenders, 2011)

Week Fourteen:
Putting It All Together
M 12/1

In class:

Hero (Yimou Zhang, 2002, 99 min)

W 12/3

In class:
Homework:

Clip from The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006)

Final Response Paper due (Week 14)

Week Fifteen:
Mini-Presentations and Review
M 12/8

In class:

Issues / Clips presented by class presenters

W 12/10

In class:

Issues / Clips presented by class presenters

Review for Final Exam

FINAL EXAM on Friday, December 19 at 11:30 a.m.

This syllabus is subject to change, based on class needs and priorities. If you must miss a class, make
sure to check whether there are any changes to the schedule of readings and deadlines.