Courses:

The Film Experience >> Content Detail



Films and Readings



Films and Readings

Amazon logo When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more.

This page includes the films and readings for each week, and a list of additional recommended readings.

Most hyperlinks on the films point to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The first few films (pre-1923) are in public domain, so where a legitimate online copy could be found, it has been linked instead and noted.



Primary Course Text


Amazon logo Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. 3rd ed. Kingston, MA: R. S. Means Company, 1996. ISBN: 9780393969399.



Required Supplementary Readings


Agee, James. "Comedy's Greatest Era." In Agee on Film. Vol. 1. New York, NY: McDowell, 1958, pp. 2-19.

Amazon logo Mast, Gerald. "The Comics: Mack Sennett and the Chaplin Shorts." In A Short History of the Movies. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 76-92. ISBN: 9780226509822.

Amazon logo ———. "Movie Czars and Movie Stars." In A Short History of the Movies. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 118-128. ISBN: 9780226509822.

Amazon logo Braudy, Leo. "Genre: The Conventions of Connection." In Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 443-468. ISBN: 9780195025033.


LEC #TOPICSREQUIRED FILMSSUPPORTING FILMS
(clips shown in class)
REQUIRED READINGS
I. The silent era
1-2

Introduction

Keaton

Porter, Edwin. S. The Great Train Robbery. (view film)

Griffith, D. W. The Lonedale Operator. (view stills)

———. A Beast at Bay. (view film)

Keaton, Buster. One Week. (view film)

———. Cops. (view film)

———. The General. (view film)

Cook. A History of Narrative Film. 4th ed. pp. 1-41, 51-85.

———. 3rd ed. pp. 177-182.

Mast. From A Short History of the Movies.

3-4Chaplin

Chaplin, Charlie. The Immigrant. (view film)

———. Easy Street. (view film)

———. Modern Times.

Agee. "Comedy's Greatest Era."
5-6Film as a global and cultural form: german film

Murnau, F. W. The Last Laugh.

Cook. Chapters 4-5.
II. Hollywood genres
7-8Hollywood in the 1930s: sound comedyCapra, Frank. It Happened One Night.

Ball of Fire: Stanwyck character meets Cooper and the other professors.

The Lady Eve: Stanwyck character comments on the women trying to get the attention of Fonda.

Cook. Chapters 7-8.
Quiz
9-10HitchcockHitchcock. Shadow of a Doubt.Strangers on a Train: climactic fight on merry-go-round.
11-12The musical

Donen, Stanely, and Gene Kelly. Singin' in the Rain .

Fosse, Bob. Cabaret.

Love Me Tonight: "Isn't It Romantic?"

42nd Street: "Young and Healthy."

Top Hat: "Cheek to Cheek."

Braudy. "Genre: The Conventions of Connection."
13-14The westernFord, John. The Searchers

My Darling Clementine: Wyatt and Clementine at the church dedication.

High Noon: opening ballad with villains riding through town.

Cook. Chapter 12.
15-16Film in the 1970sAltman, Robert. McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Five Easy Pieces: an order of toast.

The Long Goodbye: detective Marlowe shoots a friend who got away with murder.

Cook. pp. 845-868.
III. International masters
17-18Renoir and poetic realismRenoir, Jean. Grand Illusion.Boudu Saved From Drowning: Boudu leaves his own wedding party on the river.Cook. pp. 303-326.
Hour test
19-20Italian neorealismDe Sica, Vittorio. Bicycle Thieves.Rome, Open City: child saboteurs return home to their parents.Cook. pp. 355-368.
21FelliniFellini, Federico. 8 ½.

La Strada: Zampano the strongman.

Nights of Cabiria: near drowning of Cabiria and rescue.

La Dolce Vita: statue flying over Rome.

Cook. pp. 531-555.
22Summary perspectives: film as art and artifact
Final exam



Recommended Readings


Brophy, Stephen. "Bicycle Thieves is a poignant neorealist work." The Tech, May 5, 1995.

On Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller: Lethem, Jonathan. "The Greatest Death Scene." The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2007.

On John Ford's The Searchers: Stone, Robert. "The Search Party." The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2007.

Thorburn, David, "Television as an Aesthetic Medium." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 4, no. 2 (June 1987): 161-173.

Amazon logo ———. "Television Melodrama." In Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. Edited by Horace Newcomb. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195301168.

———. "Web of Paradox." The American Prospect 9 no. 40, September 1, 1998 - October 1, 1998.


 








© 2009-2020 HigherEdSpace.com, All Rights Reserved.
Higher Ed Space ® is a registered trademark of AmeriCareers LLC.