Undergraduate Film Courses 2020/21

Author Robert Coover has written, “The narrative impulse is always with us; we couldn't imagine ourselves through a day without it.” How does narrative work in cinema? How do films tell stories? This course considers how the four basic elements of film style––mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound––provide information about various aspects of narrative, including plot structure, characterization, and narration. After examining narrative in films considered to be conventional or “classical,” we’ll explore some important alternative modes of storytelling, including those of the art cinema, documentary cinema, and contemporary Hollywood filmmaking. In each case, we'll question how filmmakers from various countries and historical periods have modified, subverted, and rejected the norms of classical narrative and narration. Screenings will likely include Singin’ in the Rain, Do the Right Thing, M, Cleo from 5 to 7, Sherlock Jr., Rear Window, Citizen Kane, Senna, Before Tomorrow, and Run Lola Run.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend a screening and a tutorial. Note that tutorials begin in Week 2.

Mumbai’s Bollywood continues to be one of the most prolific film industries in the world, producing over three hundred films per year and captivating audiences in the Indian subcontinent and beyond. This course examines the development of the Bollywood film industry and its rich and diverse films, including major historical movements, its responses to the impact of colonialism, the neo-imperial influences of Hollywood and globalization. Through course readings, screenings, lectures, and discussions, we will explore the relationships of Bollywood cinema to social life, politics, and other media cultures, such as the Indian music industry. Consideration will also be given to the appropriation of cinematic techniques characteristic of Bollywood, the influence of Bollywood on representation of India in Western and/or diasporic cinemas, and the consumption of Indian films among audiences around the world.

This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of Japanese cinema, including its history, formal and thematic innovations, major auteur figures, and contemporary intersections with Japanese and global popular culture. It traces the development of film in Japan from the silent-era “Pure Film Movement” of the 1910s and 20s, to the coming of sound and the increasing propagandization of film during WWII, and up through the pinnacle of Japan’s Golden Age of cinema, with the masterworks of the 1950s and the birth of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. Consideration will also be given to post-New Wave works which demonstrate important trends in Japanese cinema, including influential genres such as horror and animation. Though generally historical in orientation, this course will also deal with key theoretical issues related to the study of Japanese film, including topics such as film and nationalism, postcolonial theories of Orientalism, and issues of media globalization.

A study of themes and techniques of selected films from 1895 to 1950, in relation to their cultural, social and political contexts.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend weekly screenings.

Pre-requisite: one of FS101, FS102, FS103, or permission of the department.

A study of the documentary film as art, as propaganda, as social document, as instrument for social change.

A study of the war film as a genre from silent film to the present exploring historical, formal, and thematic innovations in the representation of war. Course topics may include combat, the home front, homecomings, prisoners-of-war, gender, race, realism, violence, sentimentalism and satire.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend weekly screenings.

This course examines how film theorists from the 1910s through to the 1960s reflected on the nature and functions of the film medium as an art form. We will focus on the writings of Siegfried Kracauer, Hugo Münsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein, and André Bazin, as well as the broader ideas that characterized the schools of Formalism and Realism prior to the climactic political and social uprisings around the world in 1968. 

Notes:

• Weekly course screenings are a mandatory component of this course and will help us to understand how theories concerning the ontology, psychology, and aesthetic of cinema help to shape the practice of film analysis.
• This reading-intensive course is required for Film Studies majors.

Pre-requisite: 1.0 credit from 100- and/or 200-level FS courses.

This course explores the development of America’s contemporary film industry and its filmmaking practices, from the Hollywood Renaissance through to the era of the blockbuster and “corporate Hollywood” and into the era of film globalization. Hollywood’s industrial practices concerning production (e.g., the creation of a Ratings System, the rise of CGI and digital f/x, the movement from vertical to horizontal integration), distribution (e.g. cable television, digital, and internationalization), and exhibition (e.g., niche audiences and global markets) are explored along with the industry’s movement from a studio system to independent production to the control of multi-national entertainment conglomerates. Through in-class discussion and written assignments, students will perform close textual analyses of specific films, exploring issues of aesthetics and representation. In addition, however, students will also investigate how representation in film is impacted by shifting industrial, social, political, and economic contexts. The aim of the course is to expose students to different approaches to the study of post-classical American film—historical, sociological, formalist, and analytical—and to provide students with a critical vocabulary and framework with which to explore all film. The course will cover topics including race, gender, genre, politics, history, auteurism, stardom, distribution, audiences, and animation. Films screened on the course may include Easy Rider (1969), Shaft (1971), Superman (1978), The Breakfast Club (1985), Do the Right Thing (1989), Lion King (1994), and Rush Hour 2 (2001).

Prerequisites: 1.0 credit from 100 and/or 200 level FS courses.

In recent years, film and media scholars such as Lev Manovich have heralded the dawn of a new age of Digital Cinema. The rapid rise of digital cameras, CGI animation, non-linear editing software, and online distribution platforms has reshaped the cinematic medium in the 21^st century. In this new media environment, many of the grounding assumptions of classical film theory, such as that film is made on celluloid, watched in a darkened movie theatre, and commented on mainly by professional film critics, no longer hold true. Theories about film audiences have also changed, as media users in the digital age have more avenues to share their reactions and creations online. This course will examine the ways in which film theory has changed in the digital age. It will trace the shift from photographic to digital media, examine how film as a medium has been affected by digitization, and explore the intersections between film and other digital new media, such as social media, video games, smart phones, and streaming video platforms. Through traditional essays and creative media production assignments, students will learn how digital cinema has been theorized since its beginnings in the 1980s, and explore how film criticism is changing in the 21^st century.

Prerequisites: 1.0 credit from 100 and/or 200 level FS courses.

A study of the principles and techniques of digital non-linear video editing, including video capture, raw footage management, working with audio, and the compilation of clips into films for export and distribution.

Prerequisites: 1.0 credit from 100 and/or 200 level FS courses.

Exclusions: FS309b and FS343d

This course examines the four elements of audio for film (dialogue, effects, soundscapes and music) and how they work together to support and enhance the visual elements of film. Students will engage in the hands-on construction of a short film soundtrack both by recording audio live and by sourcing audio from sound libraries. They will use both audio and video software and technology to manipulate the audio elements in order to create a cohesive, foundational-level soundtrack for a short film.

Important notes: This is a Conestoga College course that is being offered on Laurier’s Waterloo Campus. The normal $60 fee is waived. At the same time, students must complete a WLU Letter of Permission form and submit it to our Registrar’s Office. Please note that registration ends on September 16. Upon completion of the course, click on this link and arrange for Conestoga College to mail an official transcript to: Wilfrid Laurier University, Enrolment Services, Attn: Anita Velanoff, 75 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5.

For more details, please contact Dr. Katherine Spring, Film Studies Advisor.

This course will take place on Tuesdays from 8:30-11:20 am.

This fourth-year seminar offers a focused study of the variety of ways that American film responded to Asian immigration—from social issues (e.g., racism) and problems (e.g., drug trafficking and prostitution), as well as the impact of the Production Code (Hollywood’s system of self-censorship) and other industry factors (e.g., the star system and B-film production) on the treatment of those subjects. The influx of Chinese immigrants to build North America’s cross-continental railroads in the late nineteenth century incited a social panic in the face of the perceived “yellow peril.” Along with, and arguably inciting, that social panic came American films with depictions of Chinese people as immoral and their culture as a disease. This course will examine the range of cinematic responses from the “Oriental villain” Dr. Fu Manchu to the “model minority” Charlie Chan, but also industry practices such as the star system and “yellowface” that reveal systemic racism within Hollywood. In contrast, the course also explores how the presence of Asian American actors can offer moments of self-determination and how a few achieved stardom, from Sessue Hayakawa in the silent era to Anna May Wong in classical Hollywood, from 1970s’ martial artist Bruce Lee to Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan. In addition, the course considers the rise of Asian American filmmakers and the inroads made by some into the mainstream film industry. Students will screen films across a range of genres (e.g., melodramas, crime films, musicals, and documentaries) and will learn about the variety of critical approaches to studying race in film.

FS103 offers an introductory study of film through film genres. Along with the general elements of filmmaking (cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing, sound) and film analysis (film narrative, characters, themes), we also explore the question: “what is film genre?” Films are assumed to belong to a genre if they have similar plots, characters, settings, iconography, and conventions: e.g., westerns have cowboys, guns, and horses. While audiences often like to see the same kind of film, they do not want to see the same film—and innovation and change are as much a part of genre film as familiar conventions. Genre hybridity (blending conventions) and parody (sending up established conventions) have become widespread practices in order to make genre films fresh for audiences. We will also explore the social, historical, and economic contexts that define and shape the various trends and shifts in genres (e.g., 1950s sci-fi films as Cold War/Red Scare allegories). While this course explores Hollywood genres (screwball, musical, noir), it also considers some international reimaginings of those genres (e.g., the samurai film as a Japanese western). First-year Film courses are an excellent introduction for majors and non-majors alike. Our 100-level courses emphasize critical film analysis, effective reading, and academic writing. These fundamental skills are highly valued in many academic disciplines and in a wide variety of professions. Film courses provide students with a platform for success by helping them to become strong, attentive film critics, more compelling writers, and more confident in addressing such essential questions as: What is cinema? What does it mean to be a spectator at different moments in history? How do films influence our lives, personally and collectively? Students will be introduced to a variety of film genres, national cinemas, and directors, and are sure to find something of personal interest, along with new favourites.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend a screening and a tutorial. Note that tutorials begin in Week 2.

A study of the development of the themes and techniques in the work of at least three major film directors whose work is or was produced primarily within Hollywood. Special consideration will be given to directors who have been lauded as auteurs despite working within the collaborative environment of the Hollywood industry. Filmmakers to be studied may include Howard Hawks, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Kathryn Bigelow.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend weekly screenings.

Exclusion: FS243

This course surveys the history of primarily narrative film since 1950. We will explore various national movements and their transnational repercussions within industrial, technological, aesthetic, political and socio-cultural contexts. Film traditions, trends and genres to be examined may include the French New Wave, Italian Neo-realism, American Avant-Garde, New Hollywood, and Bollywood musicals. We will also explore such important questions as: What is film history? What do film historians do? And how do we write film history?

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend weekly screenings.

Pre-requisite: FS101, FS102, FS103, or permission of the department.

This course explores the tradition of noir in film—from classic to retro and neo. We will consider how the original film movement (classic noir) appeared as a result of a convergence of influences—from the fiction of American authors such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler to the films of German Expressionist filmmakers such as Fritz Lang—and how noir films construct and present a critique of American society in the light of the impact of the Depression and World War II. Topics and themes explored will include gender, race, and class, and also how the genre can be regarded as a challenge to the “Classical Hollywood” through its emphasis on anti-heroes, femmes fatales, and formal stylization. Scholars argue that classic noir officially disappeared in the 1950s and that the resurrection of its style, plots, and characters as retro- and neo-noir in the 1970s detached its conventions from noir’s original themes and socio-historical moment, exploring instead contemporaneous issues beginning with the impact of the Vietnam conflict. And, in doing so, 1970s noir transformed the film movement into a genre. The course also explores the evolution of noir to address issues of gender and criminality since the 1980s and its more recent expansion into other pop culture forms such as the graphic novel.  During the course, we will consider various examples of noir from The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Chinatown (1974) and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995).

Exclusion: FS352

Film historian Donald Crafton argues that animation since its beginnings has been characterized by its tendency towards “self-figuration”: its depictions of the materials and processes of animation itself. This course surveys the history of world animation by presenting works that reflexively depict the animation or “bringing to life” of characters, animators, audiences, and technologies. Students will learn how animation has been produced in various historical periods and places, and how audiences engage with it through changing media. Works to be screened  typically include popular short and feature-length theatrical films from Pinocchio (1940) to Paprika (2006), episodes from classic television series such as The Jetsons (1962), and works in the emerging field of Flash animation such as Sita Sings the Blues (2008). But be aware: studying animation, while fun, is not always easy! Students will be expected to complete a major research paper for this course involving independent reading of academic sources, along with exams and smaller assignments.

A study of the business environment in which films and other media productions are financed, developed, produced and distributed.

Exclusion: FS209a

This course will introduce students to the power of visuality in the Cold War period. When the wartime struggle of firearms ceased, the contests between different nations continued to be waged in the realm of visual culture. Many of the films produced in the postwar period exposed the preoccupations during the Cold War as well as the fears and anxieties of the various parties of different political persuasions. Close textual readings of the aesthetics and narrative strategies of “cold war” films made in such countries as the United States, China, Germany and

Japan, among others, as well as the study of the geopolitical and historical contexts of these films will provide students with an in-depth appreciation and understanding of films as competing representations of different national and postcolonial realities and as political tools in managing domestic and international affairs.

Pre-requisite: 1.0 credit from 100- and/or 200-level FS courses.

Throughout the postwar period, critics and theorists from a variety of intellectual traditions have sought to explain cinema’s relation to reality, its status as a language, its broader social-cultural status, and its significance for individual and collective identity. This course offers an introduction to the major theoretical debates around film and the analysis of film texts through the diverse theories that have evolved since 1968, using a selection of films that embody, respond to or complicate each main theoretical issue or question. The course begins (in the wake of auteur theory) with the impact of structuralism and semiotics and the subsequent shift to ideological, feminist, psychoanalytic, and post-structuralist paradigms. We continue with a consideration of the recent ‘cultural’ and ‘affective’ turns in theories of film in the digital age, focusing on cinema’s complex identity as a self-critical, self-aware medium, as the visual image undergoes radical transformation in a ‘post-cinematic’ era defined by the impact of new technologies and new viewing habits.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend weekly screenings.

Pre-requisite: 1.0 credit from 100- and/or 200-level FS courses.

A study of international indigenous films exploring the construction of diverse representations, socio-cultural images, identities and experiences in these films, focusing on race, ethnicity, class, as well as gender and sexuality.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend weekly screenings.

Pre-requisite: 1.0 credit from 100- and/or 200-level FS courses.

An advanced study of the principles and techniques of video pre-production, production, and post-production, specifically digital non-linear video editing.

Pre-requisites: FS370 or FS309b

Exclusion: FS309c

At one time considered a form of lowbrow entertainment, the genre of film melodrama has been assessed more recently in terms of its cultural, ideological, and formal significance. This advanced seminar examines various definitions of melodrama that have been applied to the classical Hollywood cinema (approx. 1919-1960) and, to a lesser extent, literature. After studying these definitions, we will consider scholarship that has theorized melodrama as a “woman’s genre” — that is, one that relies on sentimental stories assumed to be favourites among female consumers. Assigned films include Way Down East, All That Heaven Allows, A Woman of Paris, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Back Street, Rebecca, Stella Dallas, The Reckless Moment, and Far From Heaven. Assigned literary texts are Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Rebecca.

This fourth-year seminar explores the role that science fiction has played in shaping the national identity and international reputation of Japan. It looks at how Japan has been constructed in the West as a futuristic Other through “Techno-Orientalist” films such as Blade Runner (1986), and introduces students to Japanese works that depict (and sometimes criticize) the national push towards technologized modernity, including classics of live-action science fiction such as Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), cyberpunk anime such as Ghost in the Shell (1995), and more recent new media works created as part of “anime’s media mix.” Though the focus is on film, this class also demonstrates film’s place in the broader field of science fiction through readings from SF literature, manga, and other visual texts. It thus examines the history and current trends of Japanese science fiction’s fantastic futures. Students can expect to engage with these topics not only through readings and film viewings, but also through solo seminar presentations and creative group activities.