Isn’t there a certain incompatibility between the
terms ‘cinema’ and ‘Britain’?
-Francois Truffaut
Assessment:
Presentation 40% – 15-30 minutes
Essay 40% – provisional MA thesis plan, Introductory chapter, Ch. 1- fragments
Participation in class discussion – 20%
read: 1) M. Walsh, Thinking the Unthinkable. Coming to terms with Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s; 2) John Hill, Ch. 1. The British Cinema and Thatcherism
read: 1) fragments on heritage cinema from Ch. 15 “British Cinema” from Film Studies: The Essential Resource; 2) Claire Monk, “The heritage film and gendered spectatorship”, p. 1 and p. 2
Read: Robert Murphy’s “Citylife: Urban Fairy-tales in Late 90s British Cinema” (in your folder)
Available in the library:
1. David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 2005.
2. James Monaco, How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, Multimedia, 2000.
3. Pam Cook, The Cinema Book, BFI, 1999.
4. Susan Hayward, Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, 2000.
5. Sarah Street, British National Cinema, 2004, pp. 61-91; pp. 161-168. (folder)
6. Constantine Verevis, Film Remakes, Palgrave, 2006.
7. Lucy Mazdon, Encore Hollywood. Remaking French Cinema, BFI, 2000.
8. Jennifer Forrest and Leaonard R. Koos, eds., Dead Ringers. The Remake in Theory and Practice, 2002.
9. Carolyn A. Durham, Culture and Gender in French Films and Their American Remakes, 1998.
10. Introduction to Film Studies, ed. J. Nelmes, Routledge, 2007.
11. Robin Griffiths, British Queer Cinema, Routledge, 2006.
12. Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies, 1999.
13. David A. Cook, A History of Narrative Film, 1990.
14. Jill Nelmes, An Introduction to Film Studies, Routledge 2007 and 2001.
15. Amy Villarejo, Film Studies: The Basics, Routledge, 2002.
16. Timothy J. Corrigan, A short Guide to Writing About Film, Longman.
17. Lee R. Bobker, Elements of Film.
18. Samantha Barbars, Movie Crazy, Palgrave, 2002.
19. Chris, Holmlund, Impossible Bodies: Femininity and Masculinity at the Movies, 2002.
20. Kevin Jackson, The Language of Cinema, Routledge, 1998.
21. M. Tinkom, Keyframes: Popular Cinema and Cultural Studies, Routledge, 2001.
22. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film, BFI, 2003.
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Class: Tuesday, 11:30-13 303a
Assessment:
Interpretations 50% – you have to write 5 original interpretations of films on our list, preferably without using sources or dwelling on the plot too much as we all know what they are about, and making sure they don’t read like film reviews. To see what a very good interpretation, good interpretation, and poor interpretation are like click here.
Presentation 10% – from 10 minutes
Essay 30% – you can come up with your own idea for an essay (2500-3000 words) as long as it is related to the subject of the seminar. To check out the range of topics and quality of past essays click here. Essays not complying with MLA citation rules will be rejected on formal grounds.
Participation in class discussion 10%
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Week 1: Introduction to British cinema.
Reading:
1/ Cinema_of_the_United_Kingdom
2/ Great Britain: an historical overview (folder)
3/ “British Cinema”, pp. 302-334, in Introduction to Film Studies, ed. J. Nelmes, Routledge, 2007.
4/”British cinema”, pp. 501-508, in The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, eds. J. Hill, P. Church, OUP: 1998. (folder)
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Week 2: The Lady Vanishes (1938) (interpretation)
Presentation 1: Hitchcock’s British period
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Week 3: Rope (1948) (interpretation)
Reading:
1/ “Hitchcock and hom(m)osexuality” (folder)
2/ “Zabawy z forma” (folder)
3/ “Hitchcock and Humour” (folder)
4/ Oedipus at Los Angeles: Hitch and the Tragic Muse
5/Ch. 3 “Humour” from Hitchcock: Suspense, Humour and Tone (folder)
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Week 4: Hitchcock: discussion
Presentation 2: Lady Vanishes in remake
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Week 5: Lady Killers (1955)
Reading:
1/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/mackendrick.html
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Week 6: Peeping Tom (1960) (interpretation)
Reading:
1/ “Watching voyeurs” (folder)
2/ “When the woman looks” (folder)
3/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/05/36/peeping_tom.html
4/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/powell.html
5/ Who’s looking at who? Cinema’s visual pleasures and discontents
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Week 7: Peeping Tom’s legacy
Reading:
1/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/12/requiem.html
2/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/mann.html
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Week 8: The British New Cinema
Reading:
1/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/schlesinger.html
Presentation 3: Billy Liar (1963)
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Week 9: ‘Kitchen-sink dramas’
Presentation 4: Look Back in Anger (1958)
Presentation 5: Angry Young Men
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Week 10: A Taste of Honey (1961)
Reading:
1/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/07/tony-richardson.html
Presentation 6: Kes (1969)
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Week 11: Swinging 60s Alfie (1966) (interpretation)
Presentation 7: Swinging 60s
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Week 12: Alfie – discussion
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Week 13: Blow-up (1966) (interpretation)
reading:
1/ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/05/34/blowup.html
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Week 14: Blow-up‘s legacy
Presentation 8: Remaking Blow-up
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Week 15: Before Monty Python: Bedazzled (1967)
Reading:
1/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedazzled_(1967_film)
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Class: Tuesday, 12:00-13 303a
Please find below a rough copy of our syllabus for the summer semester. The assessment details remain the same (final essay 30%, 5 interpretations 50%, short presentations 10%, participation in class discussions 10%): see above. You’re entitled to two absences per semester without providing sick notes. If you have more than two, please note that your grade will be affected. Films listed in brackets apply to prof. Uchman’s specialisation seminar.
Suggestions for your presentations. Please make up your mind and let me know by the 6th of April:
1. Italian Job/Get Carter’s influence of Guy Ritchie’s films
2. “New Lad” phenomenon, Get Carter nostalgia and the cinema of Guy Ritchie
3. Blow-up’s criticism of the swinging 60s
4. The Limey as remake/homage to Get Carter
5. Dead Man’s Shoes as remake/homage to Get Carter
6. The cinema of Nic Roeg
7. The cinema of Derek Jarman
8. The cinema of Peter Greenaway
9. Socio/historical background to The Filth and the Fury and/or This is England
10. Socio/historical background to 1984.
11. Socio/historical context to If…
12. Wicker Man from post-colonial perspective
13. Get Carter classic status
14. South vs. North on screen
Week 1: Introduction (Italian Job)
Week 2: Blow-up (Italian Job) (Lady Killers)
Week 3: Blow-up (Lady Killers)
Read: “Cul-de-Sac England: The Lady Killers” from Best of British Cinema and Society from 1930 to the Present (folder)
Week 4: If… (Wicker Man)
Read: 1. “The true nature of sacrifice” from British Cult Movies Since the 60s (folder); 2. “The horror, the horror: themes in the Wicker Man” from Inside the Wicker Man (folder)
Week 5: If… (Wicker Man)
Read: “The revolt of the young: If …” from Best of British Cinema and Society from 1930 to the Present (folder)
Week 6: Get Carter (The Limey)
Read: 1. “What woud Jesus say?” from British Cult Movies Since the 60s (folder); 2. “A Revenger’s Tragedy – Get Carter” from British Crime Cinema (folder)
Week 7: Get Carter (The Limey) (Dead Man’s Shoes)
Week 8: Don’t Look Now (Dead Man’s Shoes)
Read: 1. Joanna Spalinska-Mazur, “Obserwator w kregu smierci,” Kwartalnik Filmowy nr 53 wiosna 2006 (folder); 2. Anna Taszycka, “Inicjacja i smierc. Obsesje Nicolasa Roega,” Kwartalnik Filmowy nr 53 wiosna 2006 (folder); 3. Andrzej Pitrus, „Przeczucie znaczenia – sekwencja inicjalna w Nie ogladaj sie teraz,” Kwartalnik Filmowy nr 53 wiosna 2006 (folder).
Week 9: Don’t Look Now (The Filth and the Fury)
Week 10: Sid and Nancy (The Filth and the Fury)
Week 11: Sid and Nancy (This is England)
Week 12: Brazil (This is England) (1984)
Week 13: Brazil (1984) (The Belly of an Architect)
Week 14: Blue; The Garden (The Belly of an Architect)
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