This course material © 1995 Jeremy Butler. It may be reproduced for non-profit, educational uses, but publication in any profit-making form or in any book or magazine form must first be cleared with the author.

Jeremy Butler (jbutler@bamanet.ua.edu), Telecommunication and Film Department, P.O. Box 870152, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.


TCF 112

Motion Picture History and Criticism


Spring 1996
Instructor: Jeremy Butler, jbutler@bamanet.ua.edu
Office: 430C Phifer Hall, 348-6350
Teaching Assistant: Julie Noble, jnoble@tcf.ua.edu
Office hours: MWF 1-2:00, TT 2-3:00


Course Objectives:

Texts:

In a sense, there are three "texts" for this course:
  1. The course textbook: Douglas Gomery, Movie History: A Survey (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1991).
  2. The course lectures
  3. The course films
Gomery will supply the student with the basic facts of film history. The lectures augment those facts with specific interpretations of them. The films themselves illustrate both the readings and the lectures.

Assignments:

There will be three objective (multiple choice, true/false) Readings Tests over the course of the semester. These closed-book tests will consist of questions drawn from the readings and the films, but not the lectures. They will be worth 15 points each.

Additionally, midterm (25 points) and final (30 points) exams will be given. These exams will consist of open-note, open-book essay questions drawn from the lectures and referring to the films. (Photocopied notes may not be used during these exams; any other notes or books are permissible.)

Dates of the tests/exams are indicated below. Makeup test/exams will be given at the discretion of the instructor. No tests/exams will be given before their scheduled dates.

Grading Summary:

Readings Tests (3@15) 45
Midterm Exam 25
Final Exam 30
TOTAL 100

Grading Scale:

A 93-100
A- 90-92
B+ 88-89
B 83-87
B- 80-82
C+ 78-79
C 73-77
C- 70-72
D+ 68-69
D 63-67
D- 60-62
F 59 and below

Posting of Grades:

Grades will be posted by an ID number unique to this course. If you do not wish your grade to be posted in this manner, please notify me in writing.

Absence Policy:

The tests/exams' questions assume the student has attended all lectures and film screenings.

Film Screenings:

There will be no other opportunity to see the films other than the in-class screenings. Most are not available on videocassette.

Course Schedule

Date Lecture/Film Readings
1/9 Intro/Origins of Film
1/11 Lumiére Shorts (1895) Chs. 1, 2
A Trip to the Moon (Méliès, 1902)
The Night Bird (Newmeyer, 1928)
1/16 German Silent Film: Expressionism
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
1/18 The Last Laugh (Murnau, 1924) Ch. 4
1/23 Silent Film Comedy: Buster Keaton
1/25 Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton, 1924) Ch. 3
Reading Test 1: Chs. 1, 2, 3, 4
1/30 Russian Formalism: Dziga Vertov
2/1 Man With a Movie Camera, (Vertov, 1 929) Ch. 5
2/6 Classicism and the Auteur Theory: Frank Borzage
2/8 A Man's Castle (Borzage, 1933) Ch. 6
2/13 Bazinian Realism: Jean Renoir
2/15 Rules of the Game (Renoir, 1939)
2/20 Midterm Exam
2/22 Documentary Form
Nanook of the North (Flaherty, 1922
Night and Fog (Resnais, 1955)
2/27 Auteur Theory II: Howard Hawks
3/1 Only Angels Have Wings, (Hawks, 1939)
3/6 Italian Neorealism: Roberto Rossellini
3/8 Open City (Rossellini, 1945) Ch. 9
3/13 Genre Study I: Screwball Comedy
3/15 My Man Godfrey (LaCava, 1936)
Reading Test 2: Chs. 5, 6, 8, 9
3/20 French New Wave: Jean-Luc Godard
3/22 The Married Woman (Godard, 1962) Ch. 12
Spring Break 3/24-4/2
4/3 Feminism and Film
4/5 Reassamblage (Trinh, 1982)
4/10 New German Cinema: Werner Herzog
4/17 Genre Study II: Film Noir
4/19 The Big Heat (Lang, 1953)
4/24 The Breakdown of Classicism
Course Summary
4/26 The Freshman (Bergman, 1992) Chs. 10, 11, 14
5/3 Wednesday, 2-4:30 p.m.
Reading Test 3: Chs. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Final Exam

Academic Misconduct Policy

  1. All students in attendance at The University of Alabama are expected to be honorable and to observe standards of conduct appropriate to a community of scholars. The University expects from its students a higher stan