Henry Jenkins (henry3@athena.mit.edu), Literature Section, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Henry Jenkins
14N-437
253-3068
henry3@athena.mit.edu
Office Hours: TBA
The central focus of this course will be on positioning contemporary American and international cinema in its broader historical and cultural context(s). We will be looking at some basic concepts of film analysis (including work on film style, genre, authorship, and ideology) which form the building blocks for critical interpretations of films. We will be looking at the relationship between contemporary cinema and earlier film movements. We will also be learning to appreciate a broader range of film styles and genres than one is likely to encounter at the local multiplex. Lectures will be broadly drawn, laying out basic concepts and practices relevant to the study of the cinema and suggesting some potential application to the filmmakers, films, or movements represented by the screenings. Many of our screenings depend upon contrasting two films from different periods or different film movements to see what they have in common and how they differ. Readings will offer additional insights into the specific films and filmmakers as well as to provide a fuller context for their appreciation. Discussions will get students to develop more fully their own interpretations and responses of the films, applying the general concepts from lecture to the particulars of specific movies. Written assignments will get you to build upon your critical analysis of the films to construct coherent, compelling arguments. Students will be expected to attend class regularly, participate actively in class discussions, and be familiar with the full range of materials introduced.
Required Texts:
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Northhampton, MA: Tundra,
1993). Although an unusual selection, this book offers an easy, accessible overview of
basic issues concerning art, criticism, representation, and authorship, issues which are as
central to film analysis as they are to looking at comic books. Students should not be
deceived by the comic book format into thinking they can read this text quickly. It will
reward close study.
Stephen Rebello, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (New York: Harper, 1991). This book offers a close look at the making of Psycho from its initial basis on a real life serial killer through its reception by critics and audiences. This case-study will give you a fuller sense of what goes into making a movie and the complex set of questions surrounding authorship in the cinema.
Course Pack (Available from MIT Graphic Arts). The course pack consists of a series of critical essays about film from a variety of perspectives and interviews/profiles of some of the filmmakers we will be studying. The essays will be the most difficult part of the course reading and students should be prepared to spend some time looking at them closely.
Recommended Text:
Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1994). Many students will want to have access to a basic text which outlines
the history of the cinema to provide context for the films, filmmakers, and topics we will
be studying. Thompson and Bordwell is the best book of its kind on the market and is
highly recommended. Students who plan to concentrate, minor or major in film and media
studies are strongly encouraged to buy this book. It will be used as the basic text in the
Film History seminar to be offered next year.
Assignments:
Written Work -- The primary focus of the assignments in this course will be to help you
become more adept at writing critical essays about film. We want you to think through the
course topics and apply them systematically to selected films. We want you to learn how
to develop a strong thesis about a film and to explore it through systematic argumentation
and support throughout a paper. To achieve this end, the student will be asked each week
to form a thesis statement based on that week's screenings, readings, and/or lectures and
to write a one page summary of how that thesis might be developed through arguments
and evidence. (A more detailed set of instructions and an example will be provided.) These
Thesis-reports will be due by 10 a.m. each Thursday and should be left under the
instructor's office door. The Instructor will choose several of these thesis statements to
form the basis of class discussion and will give students feedback on their work. As the
semester progresses, the student will be asked to select three of these thesis-reports to
develop more fully into short five page essays. (See syllabus for due dates). Those essays
should expand upon the basic arguments and develop their implications more fully. You will
be able to build upon the teacher's comments and suggestions in writing those papers. At
the end of the term, you will be asked to take one of those five page papers and expand
it into a ten page essay. You may do this by more fully exploring the implications of the
original essay and/or by applying its key concepts to look at one or more additional films
from the course. We will also expect there to be a research component of the ten page
essays; you will look more closely at the production context of the film or its reception by
critics and audiences.
Final Exam -- There will be a final exam scheduled during exam week. The exam will be open-book, open-notes, and will take about three hours. Students will be asked to pull together what they have learned throughout the course. Primary focus will be on readings and lecture notes, though students should be up to date on all of the films. The exam will include identifications, short answer questions, essay questions, and at least one question which asks the student to look more closely at a film clip.
NOTE: IT IS EXPECTED THAT ALL WORK SUBMITTED FOR A GRADE IN THIS COURSE REFLECTS THE WORK OF THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT ALONE. STUDENTS MAY EXCHANGE DRAFTS OF PAPERS TO BE READ FOR COMMENTS FROM OTHER STUDENTS BUT ONLY AFTER BOTH STUDENTS INVOLVED HAVE COMPLETED AN ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE PAPER. STUDENTS SHOULD CITE ANY WORKS WHICH ARE REFERENCED IN WRITING THE PAPER. PLAGIARISM OR ANY OTHER FORM OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY SHALL BE BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF THE COMMITTEE ON DISCIPLINE FOR THEIR STRICT ENFORCEMENT. ANY STUDENT WHO DOES NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND THE STANDARDS OF ACADEMIC HONESTY SHOULD SPEAK TO THE INSTRUCTOR IN ADVANCE OF SUBMITTING COURSEWORK.
Your course grade will be calculated based on:
Weekly Assignments 20%
First Paper (5 pages) 10%
Second Paper (5 pages) 15%
Third Paper (5 Pages) 15%
Final Paper 20%
Final Exam 20%
NOTE: STUDENTS CAN ANTICIPATE THAT MOST OF THE SCREENINGS WILL RUN FROM 7-11 P.M.
Sept. 8 Introduction, Writing Film Criticism
Week #1 Sept.13
Language and Grammar of Film
Screening: Brazil
Read: Understanding Comics, Chapter 1-3
Week #2 Sept. 20
Classical and Postclassical Cinema: Two Paradigms
Screening: It Happened One Night, Drugstore Cowboy
Read:David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, "The Classical Hollywood Cinema,"
From Film Art: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990).
Donald Lyons, "Gus Van Sant: Lawless as Snow-Flake, Simple as Grass,"
Film Comment, September-October 1991.
Understanding Comics, chapters 4-6
OUTSIDE SCREENING: Visions of Light Wed. Sept. 21 7 p.m. (Location to be Announced)
Week #3 Sept. 27
Authorship and the Business of Film Art
Screening: Psycho
Read:Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
Understanding Comics, Chapter 7
Week #4 Oct. 4
Genre and Conventions
Screening: A Night at the Opera
Read: Frank Krutnik, "A Spanner in the Works?" and Henry Jenkins, "Acting
Funny" from Kristine Karnack and Henry Jenkins (Eds.), Classical Hollywood
Comedy (New York: Routledge/AFI, 1994).
First Paper Due
Week #5 Oct. 13
The Documentary Tradition
Screening: Talk 19 (Will be shown in Thursday Discussion Section)
Read: Brian Winston, "Documentary: I Think We Are In Trouble," in Alan
Rosenthal (Ed.), New Challenges For Documentary (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1988).
Understanding Comics, remaining chapters
Week #5 Oct. 18
Realism -- What Is It Any Way?
Screening: Reservoir Dogs
Read: Gavin Smith, "Quentin Tarantino," Film Comment, July-August
1994.
Week #6 Oct. 25
Escapism and Ideology
Screening: The Band Wagon; Zoot Suit
Read: Richard Dyer, "Entertainment and Utopia" from Only Entertainment
(London: Routledge, 1991).
Rosa Linda Fergoso, "Zoot Suit's Intertextual Logic" and "The
Pachuco as Desire," from The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film
Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993)
Week # Nov. 1
Art Cinema, Exploitation Cinema
Screening: The Virgin Spring; Last House on the Left
Read: Robin Woods, "Neglected Nightmares," Hollywood From Vietnam to
Reagan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986).
Thomas Elsaesser, "Putting on a Show: The European Art Movie,"
Sight and Sound, April 1994.
"The Director: Ingmar Bergman," in Joseph McBride (Ed.), Filmmakers
on Filmmaking (Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1983).
John Russo, "Wes Craven," Scare Tactics (New York: Dell, 1992).
Second Paper Due
Week Nov. 8
Excess, Spectacle and Irony
Screening: All That Heaven Allows; Serial Mom
Read: Linda Williams, "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess," Film
Quarterly, Summer 1991.
Mary Beth Haralovich, "All that Heaven Allows: Color, Narrative Space,
and Melodrama" from Peter Lehman (Ed.) Close Viewings (Tallahassee: Florida
State University Press, 1990.
Scott MacDonald, "John Waters," A Critical Cinema: Interviews with
Independent Filmmakers (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988)
Week # Nov. 15
Film and National Identity
Screening: Farewell My Concubine
Read: "Chen Kaige and the Shadows of the Revolution," Sight and
Sound, February 1994.
Chen Kaige, "Breaking the Circle: The Cinema and Cultural Change in
China," Cineaste, February 1990.
Ma Ning, "New Chinese Cinema: A Critical Account of the Fifth Generation,"
Cineaste, February 1990.
Week # Nov. 22
Popular Cinema in Europe and Asia
Screening: La Femme Nikita; The Killers
Read: Elizabeth Cowie, "Film Noir and Women" in Joan Copjec (Ed.) Shades
of Noir (London: Verso, 1993).
Maitland McDonagh, "Action Painter John Woo," Film Comment,
September-October 1993.
"Woo in Interview," Sight and Sound, May 1993
John Woo, "Chinese Poetry in Motion," Sight and Sound, July
1994
Third Paper Due
Week #9 Nov. 29
Independent Cinema
Screening: Sidewalk Stories; Modern Times
Read: David Robinson, "Modern Times," Chaplin: His Life and Art (New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1985).
Roy Campenella II, "A Minute a Year," Black Film Review, v.5,
n.3, 1991.
Week #11 D 6
Gender, Sexuality and Desire
Screening: The Wind; The Piano
Read: Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"
Stella Bruzzi, "Bodyscape," Sight and Sound, October 1993.
Final Paper Due
Week #14 D 13
A World of Animation
Screening: Selected Animation