13703 - Film History Principles (M-Z)

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Docente: Sara Pesce
  • Credits: 12
  • Language: Italian

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the students: - are familiar with a canon of cinema, based on a selection of representative works and auteurs; - know film history from its origins to the New Hollywood; - know key styles, trends and periods of film history; - understand the historical, economical, technological and social reasons that drove the development of cinema as an expressive form.

Course contents

This course is divided into two parts: (A) GENERAL PART and (B) SPECIFIC PART

(A) GENERAL PART

The syllabus of this part includes the vision and the subsequent recognition of the exemplary films of film history listed in the filmography as an integral part of the complete syllabus, as well as the in-depth analysis of specific issues of film historiography. These films will be framed in the age of their realization; and it will be focused on their aesthetic, stylistic and technological factors, and the sociological, political and economic phenomena that contributed to form them.

(B) SPECIFIC PART

The syllabus of this part includes an in-depth study of the classic theories of Hollywood stardom, of the stars as a social phenomenon and as images, of actors' performance. The filmic examples are taken from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Readings/Bibliography

Readings/Bibliography

The texts for exam preparation are:

PART A: (compulsory for all students)

-P. Bertetto (a cura di), Introduzione alla storia del cinema, Utet, Torino, 2012.

-Francesco Casetti, L'occhio del Novecento, Bompiani, Milano, 2005 (chapters 1, 2, 4, 6)

- Giacomo Manzoli, 30 passi nella storia del cinema, I quaderni del Battello Ebbro, Bologna. This text is recommended as an auxiliary tool for film vision. However, it is not required for the final examination.

PART B: (only for students with a 12 credits program: students with a 5 or 10 credits program related to previous academic years or enrolled in previous master’s degree shall contact the teacher to agree variations)

Richard Dyer, Star, Kaplan, Torino, 2009.

Compulsory filmography:

Antologia cinema delle origini (available at the video library)

Nascita di una nazione (D.W. Griffith, 1915)

Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922)

Ottobre (S.M. Ejzenštejn, 1927)

Metropolis (F. Lang, 1926)

Napoléon (A. Gance, 1927)

The Cameraman (E. Sedgwick-B. Keaton, 1928)

L'uomo con la macchina da presa (D. Vertov, 1929)

La passione di Giovanna d'Arco (C. T. Dreyer, 1928)

La folla (K. Vidor, 1928)

Antologia avanguardie storiche (available at the video library)

M- il mostro di Düsseldorf (F. Lang, 1931)

Scarface (H. Hawks, 1932)

Tempi moderni (C. Chaplin, 1936)

Susanna (H. Hawks, 1938)

La regola del gioco (J. Renoir, 1939)

Ombre rosse (J. Ford, 1939)

Quarto potere (O. Welles, 1941)

Notorius (A. Hitchcock, 1946)

Paisà (R. Rossellini, 1946)

Ladri di biciclette (V. De Sica, 1948)

Diario di un curato di campagna (R. Bresson, 1950)

Rashomon (A. Kurosawa, 1950)

Senso (L. Visconti, 1954)

La finestra sul cortile (A. Hitchcock, 1954)

Il settimo sigillo (I. Bergman, 1956)

I 400 colpi (F. Truffaut, 1959)

La dolce vita (F. Fellini, 1960)

Fino all'ultimo respiro (J.-L. Godard, 1960)

Viridiana (L. Buñuel, 1961)

L'uomo che uccise Liberty Valance (J. Ford, 1962)

Blow up (M. Antonioni, 1966)

Il mucchio selvaggio (Peckinpah, 1969)

Taxi Driver (M. Scorsese, 1975)

Apocalypse Now (F. F. Coppola, 1979)

Filmography for PART B (compulsory only for a 12 credits program):

La regina Cristina (Queen Christina, R. Mamoulian, 1933)

Piccole volpi ( The Little Foxes, W.Wyler, 1941)

Perdutamente tua ( Now, Voyager, I. Rapper, 1942)

Gli uomini preferiscono le bionde (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, H. Hawks, 1953)

Un tram che si chiama desiderio (A Streetcar named Desire, E. Kazan, 1951)

Una squillo per l'ispettore Klute (Klute, A. Pakula, 1971)

All the films are available in the video library of the Department of Art's, Via Barberia 4/a, but also easily available in other video libraries. The two anthologies (1. Cinema delle origini, 2. Avant-gardes) are edited by the teacher and available therefore only at the Departmental Video Library.

SYLLABUS FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Non-attending students will have to prepare the same program as the attendants. But for them, the study 50 passi nella storia del cinema is MANDATORY. This book will be of fundamental help to guide the vision and analysis of the films of the compulsory filmography, especially for non-attending students.


Teaching methods

Lectures with discussion and analysis of the film scenes

The course starts in january 2020

wednesday 9-11

thursday 13-15

friday 13-15

 

Sala B via Berti 2

Assessment methods

The final examination will be a written test; in which it will be assessed whether students have acquired a knowledge of the fundamentals of cinema history, the characteristics of the individual movements, the works and the authors dealt with during the course. The test will be in a digital form, –verification will be done through computer application–, and it will take place at the computer classrooms.

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 ability to move within the cinema history as well as the knowledge of the recommended filmography.

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.

For students with a 12 credits syllabus:

In the written test, there will be:

(A) 4 recognition questions (multiple choice answers) of film scenes from the recommended filmography;

B) 24 questions (multiple choice answers) on the history of cinema and its connection with the major cultural forms of the 20th century (book reference: Introduzione alla storia del cinema);

C) 2 questions to be answered from a critical point of view (multiple choice answers) on L’occhio del novecento;

D) 2 open questions (to be answered by composing a text for each, to be richly written in the information and the ability to read the films) on the topic of Part B and the related filmography. In answering open questions, students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge and critical capabilities.

For students with a 6 credits syllabus:

In the written test, there will be:

(A) 4 recognition questions (multiple choice answers) of film scenes from the recommended filmography;

B) 24 questions (multiple choice answers) on the history of cinema and its connection with the major cultural forms of the 20th century (book reference: Introduzione alla storia del cinema);

C) 2 questions to be answered from a critical point of view (multiple choice answers) on L’occhio del novecento;

Grading method: each question is worth 1 point. Open questions for 12 credits can contribute up to 3 points to the final grade.

For all the students: the written test will last for 90 minutes with no exceptions. Accordingly, students registered to sit it are required to arrive in time for the test beginning, otherwise they will be excluded from the test.

Students are required to take a valid identity card with photos and headphones, as well as their access credentials (institutional mail and passwords with which they have enrolled in the exam on Alma Exams).

Students may register to the examination till a few days before the set date. Registrations beyond the date indicated on the site will be not accepted.

Teaching tools

Students are required to watch all the films listed in the filmography. For this purpose, they have the Video Library of the Department of Arts (Via Barberia 4). Here, they will be able to book video stations or take home borrowed materials. In order to avoid too much bookings, students are invited to attend the video library well in advance, and not go there all together the days before the exam date.

Office hours

See the website of Sara Pesce