27867 - Cinema and Cultural Studies (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student understands the close relationship between the culture that produces a product and the product itself. The course is not about framing a film/book/whatever in a time period in the historicist way, but rather teasing unintentionally significant cultural deductions out of negligible details.

Course contents

12 cfu- 60 hours: students of Storia culturale dei media: 12 cfu

Part 1: (30 hours) A Cultural History of American Film Music -this course will deal, among others, with the following thematic blocks: film sound theory; music in silent films; Hollywood film score; American Film Musical; film and popular song; jazz and cinema; Media and industrial convergence.

Part 2 - (30 hours):The culture of cosmopolitism in American and European Cinema – This course will deal, among others, with the following thematic blocks: national and transnational identity in the movies - cinema and americanism - International style - cinema and modernism - runaway productions - art house cinema - dubbing and subtitles - cinema and globalization

 

6 cfu - 30 hours: students of Cinema e letteratura; Cinema e studi culturali; Storia del cinema; Storia culturale dei media da 6cfu).

The culture of cosmopolitism in American and European Cinema – This course will deal, among others, with the following thematic blocks: national and transnational identity in the movies - cinema and americanism - International style - cinema and modernism - runaway productions - art house cinema - dubbing and subtitles - cinema and globalization

Readings/Bibliography

A selection of essays will be available on the Virtuale platform (accessible through the link "Activities and contents in e-learning" in the teaching sheet on the right). starting from the beginning of the course.

Suggested bibliography:

 

Kathryn Kalinak, Musica da film. Una breve introduzione, EDT, Torino 2012.

Vanessa R. Schwartz, It's So French! Hollywood, Paris and the Making of Cosmopolitan Film Culture, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2007. (biblioteca della Arti, via Barberia)

Daniel Steinhart, Runaway Hollywood. Internationalizing Postwar Production and Location Shooting, University of California Press, Oakland 2019.

Gerd Gemunden, Continental Strangers.German Exile Cinema 1933-1951, Columbia UP, Chicago 2014 (disponibile su Almastart)

Federico Di Chio, Il cinema americano in Italia. Industria, società, immaginari, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2021.

Teaching methods

Lectures with supporting materials

We recommend students who intend to actively participate in the course to participate (in presence or remotely) in the first lesson where the program and teaching methods will be explained.

Of course, this methodological approach (as the subject itself) requires not only specific knowledge in the strictly cinematic context, but also a substantial knowledge of the culture/s in which the film has been produced.

Students are recommended to attend the course, this being a great advantage, since there are no teaching manuals related to this subject, so its basics will be dealt with and exemplified during the course. N.B. Students are expected to know English so well to be able to read academic essays in such language.

Assessment methods

Students are required to submit a final essay of about 15 sheet (2000 characters each, spaces included) on a topic at their choice and concerning the monograph part contents (to be agreed with the teacher at his Office hours). The essay shall be submitted for correction within 7 days of the date in which students wish to sit the examination.

It will be assessed as excellent the performance of those students achieving an organic vision of the course contents, the use of a proper specific language, the originality of the reflection as well as the familiarity with the historiographic tolls for analysing the subject.

It will be assessed as discrete the performance of those students showing mostly mechanical or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, not articulated synthesis and analysis capabilities, a correct but not always appropriate language, as well as a scholastic study of the discipline. It will be assessed as barely sufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, lack of knowledge of the discipline. It will be assessed as insufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, no orientation within the recommended bibliography and inability to analyse the subject.

Teaching tools

The study of the cases will be supported by audio-visual material.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students .

Office hours

See the website of Michele Fadda