American Cinema American Culture Syllabus

   FTVE-200: AMERICAN CINEMA / AMERICAN CULTURE

SPRING 2019

Lecture Tuesday, Thursday 11:10-12:35

Room: FORUM

Instructor: David Foulds

Email: dfoulds@dvc.edu

Office: ATC 110A

Office Hours: Tuesday 3:15-4:00

Prerequisites: None.

TEXT:  American Cinema / American Culture (5^th Edition) by John Belton (ISBN: 0073514292)

Note: 3^rd or 4^th editions OK

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course presents the history of cinema focusing on various genres in American filmmaking in a larger cultural context including literature, drama, vaudeville, and related art forms. The course will investigate the interplay of economic, industrial, aesthetic, and cultural forces that shape the language of film - how film conveys meaning and functions as a work of art. Other themes to be explored include how Hollywood functions as a business, reflects societal values and concerns, and responds to evolving technology. 

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will be able to:

1. Identify major events and trends in American film history from the silent era to the present.
2. Assess how the technology of cinema influences the art of cinema.
3. Describe the economic structure of the film industry.
4. Describe genres, styles, and story-structure and discuss their importance in film.
5. Analyze the contributions that literature, drama, television, and radio have made to film.
6. Critically evaluate the language of film.
7. Separate story from theme and assess the impact of each.
8. Compare and contrast the artistic realities created by drama, literature, and film.
9. Discuss how camera, editing, lighting, sound, music, and mise-en-scene collectively convey meaning.

CONTENT

  The mode of production

1. Technical
2. Historical
3. Artistic considerations

  The emergence of cinema from roots in literature and drama

1. Classical Hollywood cinema
2. The Hollywood style of camera, lighting, editing, etc.
3. The studio system
4. The star system

  Genre and the genre system

1. Silent film
2. American comedy
3. The war film
4. Film Noir
5. The Western  

   History

1. The beginning
2. Rise of Hollywood
3. Coming of sound
4. Great Depression
5. World War II
6. Hollywood and the Cold War
7. Hollywood in the age of television
8. Rise of the independents
9. The film school generation
10. . Corporate Hollywood
11. . Impact of digital technology

  Cinema and American culture

1.     Racism and ‘minority’ voices

2.     Civilization vs. Wilderness

3.     American Femininity / Masculinity

4.     Capitalism and The American Dream

5.     Morality and Phobias

6.     Liminality and Play

FILMS WE WILL WATCH IN CLASS (NOT IN ORDER OF VIEWING, IN ORDER OF RELEASE DATE FOR REFERENCE)

1.     Sunrise – F.W. Murnau (1927)

2.     It Happened One Night ­– Frank Capra (1934)

3.     Stagecoach – John Ford (1938)

4.     Casablanca – Michael Curtiz (1942)

5.     Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder (1944)

6.     Singin’ in the Rain – Gene Kelley, Stanley Donen (1952)

7.     Rear Window– Alfred Hitchcock (1954)

8.     Midnight Cowboy –  John Schlesinger (1969)

9.     Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese (1975)

10.  The Front - Woody Allen (1976)

11.  Alien – Ridley Scott (1979)

12.  Platoon – Oliver Stone (1986)

13.  Crash – Paul Haggis (2004)

14.  The Florida Project – Sean Baker (2017)

ASSIGNMENTS

2 Papers – topics TBA. 1250-1500 words (roughly 5-6 pages)

-       25% of grade each

-       Paper 1 due March 12.

-       Paper 2 due May 14.

Midterm Exam – March 19. Multiple Choice.

-       20% of grade

Final Exam – May 21. Multiple Choice.

-       20% of grade

Attendance and participation

-       10% of grade

-       Attendance is required

-       If you miss more than 4 classes (2 weeks), you will not pass the course.

If you have an excused absence from the midterm or final, you may substitute the exam with an essay on a pre-approved topic. You must have permission to do so PRIOR to exam time.

COURSE SCHEDULE:

                                    TUESDAY                                                                    THURSDAY

Week One – January 29 Lecture: -       Introduction to course -       Classical Hollywood Style / Film Language o   An invisible style o   Camera placement o   Lighting o   Sound o   Editing -       America and race Begin Viewing: - Crash – Paul Haggis (2004) – 1 hr. 55 min.	January 31 Finish Viewing: - Crash – Paul Haggis (2004) – 1 hr. 55 min. Class discussion about Crash Homework for the week - Read Ch. 3 “Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style” in Belton
Week Two – February 5 Lecture: -       Classical Hollywood: Narration o   Classical principles o   Equilibrium and Disruption o   Characters and goals o   Segmentation -       Rear Window and scopophilia Begin Viewing: - Rear Window– Alfred Hitchcock (1954) – 1 hr. 55 min.	February 7 Finish Viewing: - Rear Window– Alfred Hitchcock (1954) – 1 hr. 55 min. Class discussion about Rear Window Homework for the week: - Ch. 2 “Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narration” in Belton
Week Three - February 12 Lecture: -       Cinema as an American Institution o   Cinema history timeline o   Edison’s Kinetoscope o   Nickelodeons o   Camera as Narrator o   Early Movie Palaces -       Silent Film Melodrama o   Melodramatic Mode o   Morality o   19th century virtue o   Tool for Reformation o   Tool for Revolution o   Birth of a Nation and racism o   The Crowd and conformity o   City versus country values Begin Viewing: - Sunrise – F.W. Murnau (1927) – 1 hr. 46 min.	February 14 Finish Viewing: - Sunrise – F.W. Murnau (1927) – 1 hr. 46 min. Class discussion about Sunrise Homework for the week: - Read Ch. 1 “The Emergence of Cinema as an Institution” and  Ch. 6 “Silent Film Melodrama” in Belton
Week Four – February 19 Lecture: -       The Studio System o   Mass Production o   Major and Minor Studios o   Vertical Integration o   Block Booking o   Contracts o   The end of an era Begin Viewing: -  Casablanca – Michael Curtiz (1942) – 2 hrs	February 21 Finish Viewing: -  Casablanca – Michael Curtiz (1942) – 2 hrs. Class discussion about Casablanca Homework for the week: - Ch. 4 “The Studio System” in Belton
Week Five – February 26 Lecture: -       The Star System o   Why stars? o   Persona o   Typecasting -       The Genre System: The Musical o   Narrative vs musical reality o   Registers o   Forms o   Space Begin Viewing: - Singin’ in the Rain – Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen (1952) – 1 hr. 43 min	February 28 Finish Viewing: - Singin’ in the Rain – Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen (1952) – 1 hr. 43 min. Class Discussion about Singin’ in the Rain Homework for the week: - Ch. 5 “The Star System” and Ch. 7 “The Musical” in Belton
Week Six – March 5 Lecture: -       Genres: American Comedy o   Lloyd, Chaplin, Keaton o   Comedy and Repression o   Social Classes o   Workplace comedy o   Screwball o   War comedy Begin Viewing: - It Happened One Night ­– Frank Capra (1934) – 1 hr. 45 min.	March 7 Finish Viewing: - It Happened One Night ­– Frank Capra (1934) – 1 hr. 45 min. Class discussion about It Happened One Night Homework for the week: - Read Ch. 8 “American Comedy” in Belton
Week Seven – March 12 PAPER 1 DUE Lecture: -       Genres: War o   Morality or not? o   Masculinity/Femininity o   Propaganda o   WW1 / WW2 / Korea / Vietnam / Gulf Begin Viewing: - Platoon – Oliver Stone (1986) – 2 hrs. 11 min.	March 14 Finish Viewing: - Platoon – Oliver Stone (1986) – 2 hrs. 11 min. Class discussion about Platoon Homework for the week: - Ch. 9 “War and Cinema” in Belton
Week Eight - March 19 MIDTERM EXAM	March 21 Lecture/Viewing: Experimental Cinema
Week Nine – March 26 Lecture: -       Genres: Film Noir o   Origins o   Style or Genre or Mode? o   Aesthetics, Themes, Characters o   Noir and the Production Code o   The Femme Fatale o   Neo-Noir Begin Viewing: - Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder (1944) – 1 hr. 50 min.	March 28 Finish Viewing: - Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder (1944) – 1 hr. 50 min. Class discussion about Double Indemnity Homework: - Ch. 10 in “Film Noir: Somewhere in the Night” in Belton
Week Ten – April 2 SPRING BREAK	April 4 SPRING BREAK
Week Eleven – April 9 Lecture: -       Genres: The Western o   The Frontier and Manifest Destiny o   Western Literature o   Nature versus Culture o   Women in the West o   Anti-heroes o   As a liminal place of “play” o   Racism and Stagecoach Begin Viewing: - Stagecoach – John Ford (1938) 1 hr. 39 min.	April 11 Finish Viewing: - Stagecoach – John Ford (1938) 1 hr. 39 min. Class discussion about The Searchers Homework for the week: - Ch. 11 “The Making of the West” in Belton
Week Twelve – April 16 Lecture: -       Genres: Horror and Science Fiction o   Human vs. Animal o   Human vs. Machine o   The Monstrous o   The Final Frontier Begin Viewing: - Alien – Ridley Scott (1979) - 1 hr. 57 min.	April 18 Finish Viewing: - Alien – Ridley Scott (1979) - 1 hr. 57 min. Class discussion about Alien Homework for the week: - Ch. 12 “Horror and Science Fiction” in Belton
Week Thirteen – April 23 Lecture: -       Hollywood and the Cold War o   Communism and Hollywood o   HUAC o   The Hollywood 10 o   The Blacklist and naming names Begin Viewing: - The Front - Woody Allen (1976) – 1 hr 36 min.	April 25 Finish Viewing: - The Front - Woody Allen (1976) – 1 hr 36 min. Class discussion about The Front Homework for the week: -  Ch. 13 “Hollywood and the Cold War”
Week Fourteen – April 29 Lecture: -       The Counterculture Strikes Back o   The Kennedy Era o   Civil Rights Movement o   Women’s Movement Begin Viewing: - Midnight Cowboy – John Schlesinger (1969) – 1 hr. 53 min.	May 2 Finish Viewing: - Midnight Cowboy – John Schlesinger (1969) – 1 hr. 53 min. Class discussion about Midnight Cowboy Homework for the week: - Ch. 15 “The Counterculture Strikes Back” in Belton
Week Fifteen – May 7 Lecture: -       The Film School Generation o   French New Wave and Andrew Sarris o   Film Schools o   Roger Corman School o   Frederick Jameson and Postmodernism Begin Viewing: - Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese (1975) – 1 hr. 54 min.	May 9 Finish Viewing: - Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese (1975) – 1 hr. 54 min. Class discussion about Taxi Driver Homework for the week: - Ch. 16 “The Film School Generation” in Belton
Week Sixteen – May 14 PAPER 2 DUE Lecture: -       Into the 21st Century o   Post Regan o   Nostalgia o   The Return of the Father o   Scorsese -       The Independents Begin Viewing: - The Florida Project– Sean Baker (2017) – 1 hr. 55 min.	May 16 Finish Viewing: - The Florida Project– Sean Baker (2017) – 1 hr. 55 min Discussion of The Florida Project Homework for the week: - Ch. 17 “Into the Twenty-First Century” in Belton - Study for Final Exam
Week Seventeen – May 21 FINAL EXAM