This course provides an advanced introduction to the history of cinema from the end of the
nineteenth century through the international development of film as a transformative technology,
art form, and commercial medium up to the present time. We will explore the major movements
in cinema (including the silent era; classical and post-classical Hollywood cinema; German
Expressionism; Soviet montage cinema; experimental, documentary, and avant-garde cinema;
Italian Neorealism; French New Wave; Black Cinema; global art cinema; video and installation
art). By concentrating on the historical development of filmic mise-en-scene, the photographic
image, editing, cinematography, and the relation of sound to the image, students will learn to
view film as a complex visual language and to understand how the combination of sound and
image articulate film’s narrative, psychological, social and ideological purposes. We will
integrate our investigations of cinematic issues with those of class, gender, and race.

In subject:

• Graduate Film

Graduate