96370 - Film History. Fundamentals (1)

Academic Year 2025/2026

  • Docente: Roy Menarini
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: L-ART/06
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Communication Sciences (cod. 5975)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student: has an in-depth knowledge of the films, the directors and the main trends of the history of cinema, from its origins to contemporary years; understands the historical, economic, technological and social reasons that have influenced the development of cinema both as an expressive form and an industry; knows how to place representative styles, currents and periods in their cultural context.

Course contents

The course addresses, through exemplary moments, the phases of evolution of Western cinema, at the intersection of historical events and theoretical elaborations that have marked its development. Fifteen films (plus one short film) will be used to exemplify the processes that will be explored in as many in-depth analyses.

Readings/Bibliography

Christian Uva e Vito Zagarrio, Le storie del cinema. Dalle origini al digitale, Carocci, Roma, 2020.

AAVV, 50 passi nella storia del cinema, Cue Press, Bologna, 2018.

Teaching methods

Lessons and classes in presence

Assessment methods

Written text with open questions 

Teaching tools

Films to be seen (required):

 

Le voyage dans la Lune (1902)

Metropolis (1926)

L'âge d'or (1930)

Modern Times (1936)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Roma città aperta (1945)

Ladri di biciclette (1948)

Rear Window (1954)

Les 400 coups (1959)

A bout de souffle (1959)

La dolce vita (1960)

Cléo (1963)

Clockwork Orange (1971)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Avatar (2009)

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019)

Office hours

See the website of Roy Menarini