VCM 130Film History and Analysis

Catalog

This course is an introduction to basic principles of cinematic form and to major movements and issues in the history of cinema since the late 1890s. Historical analysis will include the development of cinema since the emergence of film, both in the US and abroad. Primary emphasis given to principal methods of critical thinking in film studies, from close analysis of formal and stylistic elements in a single film to more global ways of understanding and interpreting films within their aesthetic, social, historical, and political contexts. Includes screenings of representative films, lectures, discussions, group activities, papers, and exams.