Prof: Paul Watkins
Class Hours: Online and Zoom on Wednesday 7:30-8:30 pm
Office Hours: Tues/Thurs 2:00-3:00 pm or by Appointment
Email: paul.watkins@viu.ca
“[T]he camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.”
Susan Sontag
Film is a language of ideas and it is images and ideas that excite us when we watch a film in the dark. FILM 220 provides an extended look into cinema as a unique medium of art with a particular focus on cinematography and sound. We will, of course, consider other film elements, such as editing. In addition, we will consider concepts such as the cinematic gaze, voyeurism, and “pure cinema” as we watch films from around the world. We will discuss how we derive visual pleasure from looking at films (Laura Mulvey’s influential “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” will guide our early conversations) and we will explore themes such as the gaze and voyeurism (scopophilia), visual representation, and the political dimensions of various films. Finally, this course examines the persistent influence of cinema by placing films into conversation with one another. We will look at classics like Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), as well as modern films such as Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) and Parasite (Bong Joon-ho,2019). The course will include home screenings of required and recommended films, film theory, forum discussions, two film reviews, a film project, and a research essay. The course will take place entirely online with Zoom sessions on Wednesday evenings (7:30-8:30 pm). I look forward to an exciting semester with you!
Free Introductory Film Texts:
- Yale Film Analysis Guide: http://filmanalysis.yctl.org
- Film Reference Guide: https://collegefilmandmediastudies.com
- Walter Murch, “Womb Tone/ Dense Clarity”: https://transom.org/2005/walter-murch/
Evaluation:
- Participation 10%
- Two Short Film Reflections (500 words each) 30%
- Film Project with Proposal 20%
- Annotated Bibliography with Intro 10%
- Research Essay (1750-2000 words) 30%
See the full syllabus on VIULearn for a detailed breakdowns of assignments.
Schedule:
Please note that this schedule is subject to change as the term progresses. Complete all viewings and readings for the Wednesday of the week in which the viewings and readings are listed.
Zooms take place from 7:30-8:30 pm unless noted
Introduction to Film Studies
Week 1: Jan 11
Home Viewing: Chris Marker, La Jetée (1962 | 28 min) [Kanopy]
Video Lecture: Principles of Film Form
- La Jetée: Analysis
- La Jetée: The Film That Thinks It’s a Movie
- Critical Commons: The opening of Persona
Week 2: Jan 18
Home Viewing: Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera (1929 | 68 min) [Kanopy]
Recommended Viewings: Alice Guy-Blaché, The Cabbage Fairy (1896); Georges Méliès, A Trip to the Moon (1902); Lois Weber, “Suspense” (1913)
Reading: Turvey, “Can the Camera See?”; Gunning, “A Trip to the Moon”
- A Trip to the Moon (Film History video essay)
- The Cinema of Lois Weber
- The Technique of Parallel Editing
- See Roger Ebert’s Review of Man with a Movie Camera
Week 3: Jan 25
Home Viewing: Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928 | 81 min) [Kanopy]
Recommended Viewing: Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (1925 | Part Four “Odessa Steps”) [Criterion on Demand]
Reading: Nichols, “Film Form and Revolution”; Larson, “Risen from the Ashes”
- Close-up of Hands of Bresson
- Juxtaposition and Montage
- Soviet Montage: Crash Course Film History
- Odessa Steps and Homage
Unit 2: The Cinematic Gaze, Voyeurism, and Pure Cinema
Week 4: Feb 1
Home Viewing: Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958 | 128 min) [Audio Cine Films]
Reading: Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”; Hitchcock on “Pure cinema”
Also see: “Visual ‘Drive’ and Cinematic Narrative: Reading Gaze Theory in Lacan, Hitchcock, and Mulvey” (Manlove) and “In the Gallery of the Gaze” (Jacobs)
No Zoom today (online discussion)
Film Reflection 1 due
- 10 Essential Doppelgänger Films
- A Distillation of Laura Mulvey’s Visual Pleasure…
- On Mulvey and Vertigo
- Five Video Essays on Vertigo
- Roger Ebert on Vertigo
- Vertigo is the Ultimate Male Gaze Movie
Week 5: Feb 8
Home Viewing: David Lynch, Mulholland Drive (2001 | 146 min) [rent]
Reading: Vernon Shetley, “The Presence of the Past: Mulholland Drive against Vertigo”
- Sam Walker, “The Visualisation of Memory in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive”
- Podcast, The Perfect Shots of Mulholland Drive
- Trish Bendix, “The importance of “Mulholland Drive” in Sapphic cinematic history“
- Roger Ebert Review of Mulholland Drive
- On Typography in Lynch films
Video Essay 1: “How Lynch Manipulates You“
Video Essay 2: “Mulholland Drive Explained
Week 6: Feb 15
Home Viewing: Wong Kar-Wai, In the Mood for Love (2000 | 98 min) [Kanopy]
Recommended Viewing: Ana Lily Amirpour, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) [Kanopy]
Reading: Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, “Psychoanalysis and the Scene of Love: Lars and the Real Girl, In the Mood for Love, and Mulholland Drive”
- Review of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and another review, here.
- Behind the Scenes of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
- Gawker interview with Ana Lily Amirpour
- Blog post, Cinematography and Voyeurism
- Blog, on Christopher Doyle and In the Mood for Love
- Most Beautiful Movies Ever
- 25 Films with the Best Cinematography of the 21st Century
- Useful video here on Criterion website on In the Mood for Love
- Jenkins on Wong kar-wai: Under the Influence
- The Troubled Production of In the Mood for Love
Reading Week: No classes (Feb 21-24)
Week 7: March 1
Viewing: Jane Campion, The Piano (1993 | 117 min) [Criterion on Demand]
Recommended Viewing: Julie Dash, Daughters of the Dust [Kanopy, local library version or Rent]
Reading: Attwood, “Weird Lullaby”; Pacharee Sudhinaraset, “‘We Are Not an Organically City People”: Black Modernity and the Afterimages of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust”; Caroline Brown, “The Representation of the Indigenous Other in Daughters of the Dust and The Piano”
- Carina del Valle Schorske, “The Uses of Beauty: On Daughters of the Dust and Diasporic Influence”
- Julie Dash on Daughters of the Dust
- Movie of the Week by Richard Brody (The New Yorker)
- Solange music videos: “Don’t Touch My Hair” and “Cranes in the Sky“
- Beyoncé vs Daughters of the Dust: How an American indie classic inspired Lemonade
- The Mardi Gras Indian of Lemonade
- The Lemon Tree Of Life (Mashup)
- The Seven Directors Behind Lemonade
https://player.vimeo.com/video/164400041VIDEO ESSAY: Film Fidelity: Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” from Nelson Carvajal on Vimeo.
(breakdown of visual video essay, here)
Unit 3: Contemporary Responses (2011-2019)
Week 8: March 8
Viewing: Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014 | 100 min) [Criterion on Demand]
Recommended Viewing: Stanley Kubrick, The Shining (1980 | 144 min) [Criterion]
Reading: Lee, “Wes Anderson’s Fabulous Fancy” and Sunderland, “The Autonomous Camera”
Film Reflection 2 Due
- ‘I stole from Stefan Zweig’: Wes Anderson on the author who inspired his latest movie
- Mise-en-scène: Visual Themes of Wes Anderson
- Anka Muhlstein, His Exile Was Intolerable (On Zweig and Grand Budapest)
- Grand Budapest Görlitz
- 7 Films to Watch Before Seeing Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Wes Anderson’s Cinematic Debt to Stanley Kubrick Revealed in a Side-By-Side Comparison
- Seitz, Anderson’s Influences (2009-video essays)
- BFI on Kubrick
- How The Shining’s Camera Creates Constant Unease
- References to The Shining and other films in Get Out
- Twin Peaks / Shining Mashup
- What is Mise en Scene — How Directors Like Kubrick Master the Elements of Visual Storytelling
Week 9: March 15
Viewing: George Miller, Mad Max, Fury Road (2015 | 120 min) [Criterion on Demand]
Recommended Viewing: Buster Keaton, The General (1927 | 75 min) [Criterion on Demand]
Reading: Pesses, “‘So Shiny, so chrome’”
Film Script Due
- Miller Looks Back on Mad Max
Week 10: March 22
Viewing: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight (2016 | 111 min) [Criterion on Demand]
Recommended Viewing: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma (2018 | 135 min) [Netflix]
Reading: “One Step Ahead: A Conversation with Barry Jenkins”
- Anatomy of a Scene from Moonlight
- Arab actor on stereotypes and La La Land
- New York Times, Moonlight: Is This the Year’s Best Movie?
- Claire Denis, Beau Travail, “Rhythm of the Night” (ending)
- The Black Film Canon (video)
- Moonlight and Wong Kar-wai
- Under the Influence: Jenkins on Wong Kar-wai
- The Uncomfortable and Profound Authenticity of Roma
- Video Essay: On Roma’s Beach scene
- Roma Explained (video essay): The Beauty We Overlook
Week 11: March 29
Viewing: Céline Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019 | 119 min) [Criterion on Demand]
Recommend Viewing: Chan-wook Park, The Handmaiden (2016 | 144) [Criterion]
Reading: “Deconstructing the Filmmaker’s Gaze” and “Painted Looks of Love”
Film Project due
- Cinematography and Portrait of a Lady on Fire
- More than the Female Gaze
- Video Essay on how the Film Reveals Its Secrets
- Article: ‘The Handmaiden’ Reframes Lesbian Sex And Queer, Feminist Cinema‘
- Vertiginous Memories: Traces of Hitchcock in La Jetée and Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Week 12: April 5
Viewing: Bong Joon-ho, Parasite (2019 | 132 min) [Criterion on Demand]
Recommended Viewing: Kim Ki-young, The Housemaid (1960 | 108 min) [Criterion Channel]
Reading: Interview with Bong Joon-ho and “Parasite: Notes from the Underground”
Annotated Bibliography Due
- Films that Inspired Parasite
- Bong Joon-ho’s favourite films
Week 13: April 12
Home Viewing: Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown, SGAAWAAY K’UUNA, Edge of the Knife (2018| 100 min) [VIUTube]
Research Essays Due
Student Film Festival
- Sgaawaay K’uuna the first feature film abut the Haida people
PAUL WATKINS 