The Double Lens: Approaches to Film Theory & History
Course Description:
In this course, we will survey a variety of methodological approaches to film theory. Each text we read will illustrate a manner of approaching and understanding film as a social, cultural and technological object. Our goal will be to understand, appreciate, and utilize each approach while at the same time critically examining the assumptions, values and blind spots framing each approach. As we shuttle back and forth between theoretical texts and film screenings, we will work within the parallax of this “double lens.” The metaphor of the double lens illustrates how, in this course, I want us to think about film theory itself as being a certain kind of apparatus, a second lens, through which we view a variety of filmic and photographic objects. In this sense, the course will serve as a third lens as we look at theorists looking at practices of looking. By the end of the semester, you will have gained a solid understanding of key terms and traditions in film theory. In addition to this, I hope these approaches help you sharpen the focus and increase the dexterity of your textual compositions.
Participation/Attendance
This class will not be possible without your participation. The success of this course depends on your contributions, your labor, and your perspective. For this reason, it is mandatory that you attend the lectures and screenings.
Papers (late/format)
No late papers will be accepted. Your essays need not be perfect, but I do expect them to be on time. Papers will be written, reviewed and rewritten in accordance with a shared schedule. Late papers threaten to jam what I hope will be the smooth machinery of the review process.
All papers are to be typed and formatted according to the most recent MLA guidelines.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, etymologically, means kidnapping. Do not steal the brainchildren of others. I do not want to encourage the fear of conception or downplay the connection between discourse and intercourse; however, those who engage in plagiarism will suffer the consequences set forth by the university. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, see me or refer to the university’s guidelines at:
http://www.university.edu/plagiarism.html
Disabilities/Accommodations
If you feel you might need any accommodations in order to succeed in this course, please let me know privately as soon as possible. Also, you might contact the Disabled Students' Program, 260 César Chávez Center #4250, 510.642.0518 (voice) or 510.642.6376 (TTY).
Requirements/Grades
Your weighted grade in the course will be determined according to the following schema:
60% compositions
20% midterm
20% final exam
10% discussion/blog
Course Blog
The virtual component of this course is substantial. This semester, we will be utilizing bspace found at http://www.bspace.university.edu. Students are required to regularly post comments and feedback through this site. Stay tuned for more information on how this will work.
Required Texts/Materials:
A course reader available at Copy Central
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (New York: Hill & Wang,
1987)
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing (New York: The Viking Press, 1972)
Recommended Texts
A current MLA Guide (e.g. Dianne Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference)
Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies, Ninth Edition (New Jersey: Prentice Hall,
2002)
Course Schedule
Week One: Apparatus Theory and the Metaphysics of Cinema
Plato: “Allegory of the Cave”
Baudry, Jean-Louis: “The Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus”
Baudry, Jean-Louis: “The Apparatus: Metaphychological Approaches to the Impression
of Reality in the Cinema”
Screening:
Michael Snow’s Wavelength (1967)
A selection of short films by Georges Méliès and Thomas Edison
Week Two: The Power of the Apparatus
Berger, John: Ways of Seeing
Screening:
Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Week Three: The Reproductive Apparatus
Benjamin, Walter: “The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility”
Screening:
Robert Weine’s Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
David Lee Fisher’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005)
Week Four: Film Semiotics
Bordwell, David: “Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narrative Principals and
Procedures”
Metz, Christian: “Problems of Denotation in the Fiction Film”
Screening:
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954)
Week Five: The Filmic Text
Eisenstein, Sergei: “The Cinematographic Principle of the Ideogram”
Eisenstein, Sergei: “The Dialectic Approach to Film Form”
Eisenstein, Sergei: “Film Language”
Screening:
Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Week Six: Midterm and Writing Workshop
Week Seven: The Image (Paper One Due)
Barthes, Roland: Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
Exhibit:
Student Photography
Week Eight: The Image
Kracauer, Siegfried: “Photography”
Benjamin, Walter: “A Little History of Photography”
Bazin, André: “The Ontology of the Photographic Image”
Screening:
Chris Marker’s La Jetée (1962)
Week Nine: Audiences and Reception
Munsterberg, Hugo: “The Photoplay”
Gunning, Tom: “An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous
Spectator”
Screening:
Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Week Ten: Audiences and Reception
Artaud, Antonin: “The Theatre of Cruelty (First Manifesto)”
Artaud, Antonin: “The Theatre of Cruelty (Second Manifesto)”
Hansen, Miriam: “A Cinema in Search of a Spectator: Film-Viewer Relations before
Hollywood”
Screening:
Michael Powell’s PeepingTom (1960)
Week Eleven: Writing Workshop
Week Twelve: Pages, Stages, and Screens (Paper Two Draft Due)
Bazin, André: “Theater and Cinema—Part One”
Eisenstein, Sergei: “Through Theater to Cinema”
Eisenstein, Sergei: “The Unexpected”
Artaud, Antonin; “On the Balinese Theater”
Screening:
Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books (1991)
Week Thirteen: Pages, Stages, and Screens
Balázs, Béla: “The Face of Man”
Bazin, André: “Theater and Cinema—Part Two”
Screening:
The Wooster Group’s House/Lights (1998)
Week Fourteen: Historiography
Hansen, Miriam “Early Audiences: Myths and Models”
Hansen, Miriam “Chameleon and Catalyst: The Cinema as an Alternative Public
Sphere”
Sandberg, Mark “The Wax Effigy as Recording Technology”
Singer, Ben “Modernity, Hyperstimulus, and the Rise of Popular
Sensationalism”
Screening:
Orson Welles’ Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Week Fifteen: Review for Final (Paper Two, Second Draft Due)
