The following Lecture Schedule is subject to change. Readings and assignments are due by the beginning of class on the dates shown. Additional reading assignments are listed on weekly handouts.

Week 1
1/29, 2/3
What is Film? and The Birth of Cinema (1880s-1904)
Bordwell/Thompson Ch 1 “Film as Art” and pp. 462-466

Week 2
2/5, 2/10
Film Form: From the Silent Era to Talkies in Hollywood
Bordwell/Thompson Ch 2 “Significance of Film Form”, Ch 3 “Narrative Form”, and pp. 466-469

2/12 NO CLASS — LINCOLN’S BIRTHDAY — UNIVERSITY CLOSED

Week 3
2/17, 2/19
Film as Global and Cultural Form: German Expressionism to Russian Formalism
Bordwell/Thompson Ch 4 “The Shot: Mise-en-Scene” and pp. 261-263, 343, 429-433, 469-479

2/22 The Academy Awards!

Week 4
2/24, 2/26
Hollywood in the 1930s
DUE 2/26 4 Icons Paper
Bordwell/Thompson pp. 403-406 and 480-483

Week 5
3/3, 3/5
Focus on Orson Welles
Bordwell/Thompson Ch 5 “The Shot: Cinematography,” Ch 6 “The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing,” and pp. 224-225, 243-244, 315-326, and 406-410

Week 6
3/10, 3/12
Focus on Alfred Hitchcock
DUE 3/12 Film Analysis Paper #1: Narrative
Bordwell/Thompson Ch 5 “The Shot: Cinematography,” Ch 6 “The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing,” and pp. 224-225, 243-244, 315-326, and 406-410

Week 7 
3/17, 3/19
Hollywood: The Western and Film Noir
MIDTERM TAKE-HOME ESSAY handed out on 3/19
Bordwell/Thompson Ch 9 “Film Genres” and pp. 235-239

Week 8
3/24     IN-CLASS MIDTERM on TUESDAY 3/24
3/26      Hollywood: The Musical (Screening only)
Bordwell/Thompson pp. 344-349

Week 9
3/31, 4/2
Postwar European Cinema: Italian Neorealism and French New Wave, Auteur Theory
Bordwell/Thompson Ch. 7 “Sound in the Cinema”, Ch. 8 “Summary: Style and Film Form”, pp. 257-261, 415-420, and 483-488

4/7, 4/9
NO CLASS — SPRING RECESS — UNIVERSITY CLOSED

Week 10
4/14, 4/16
Documentary and Experimental Films I: Cinéma Vérité to Pop Cinema
DUE 4/16 Film Analysis Paper #2: Genre or Mise-en-scene
Bordwell/Thompson Ch. 10 “Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films”

Week 11
4/21, 4/23 Documentary and Experimental Films II: Legacy of Direct Cinema
Bordwell/Thompson pp. 433-438

Week 12
4/28, 4/30
The Fall and Rise of Hollywood
DUE 4/30 GROUP PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS

Week 13
5/7, 5/9 Return of the Hollywood Blockbuster
Bordwell/Thompson pp. 445-449 and 488-490

Week 14
5/12, 5/14 Independent Cinema
FINAL TAKE-HOME ESSAY handed out on 5/14 Bordwell/Thompson pp. 410-415 and 490-494

Week 15
5/19 Independent Cinema cont’d
5/21     IN-CLASS FINAL on 5/21
please note the final exam date and time is

*** THURSDAY MAY 21st 10:00 AM ***

NO exams will be given at an earlier or later date