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)