SUBJECT OUTLINE

58225 Introduction to Film Studies

Course area

UTS: Communication

Delivery

Spring 2015; City

Credit points 8cp

Result type

Grade, no marks

Subject coordinator
Rayma Watkinson
Rayma.Watkinson@uts.edu.au

Teaching staff
Rayma Watkinson
Rayma.Watkinson@uts.edu.au
Tracy Miles
Email: Tracy.Miles@uts.edu.au
Luke Robinson
Email: Luke.Robinson@uts.edu.au
Maia Gunn Watkinson
Email: m.gunnwatkinson@unsw.edu.au

Subject description
This subject provides students with a comprehensive introduction to key movements and directors in the history of
cinema, and key theories and debates that have defined film studies as a discipline. Through a detailed engagement
with films from a diverse range of political, historical and national contexts, students develop the vocabulary and skills
to think and write about film in an informed, critical and scholarly way.

Subject objectives
a. Write about film in an informed, critical, and scholarly way
b. Explain key concepts, theories and ideas pertaining to film history and film theory
c. Analyse key arguments and positions within the field of Film Studies
d. Research independently in the field

Teaching and learning strategies

This subject consists of a weekly lecture, a film screening, and a tutorial. All of the weekly readings for the subject are
contained in the subject reader, and reading and viewing lists for further research are also available on UTS online. All
of the films viewed in the subject are available on DVD in the UTS library, with at least one copy held on closed
reserve at all times. While the weekly lectures provide the student with a comprehensive overview of the key issues
and ideas that are central to the weekly topic, in the tutorials, students participate in (a) close readings of the
film/readings, and (b) discussions that analyse and critique the issues and ideas raised by the weekly film, lecture, and
required readings. By undertaking a series of written assessment tasks, students will develop the necessary skills to
(a) undertake independent, scholarly research in the field of film studies, and (b) write about film in an informed,
critical, and scholarly way.

Content
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Content
This subject introduces students to key movements and directors in the history of cinema, and key theories and
debates that have defined film studies as a discipline. Key genres and movements explored during the semester may
include, among others: The Hollywood Melodrama, Italian Neo-Realism, the French New Wave, the New German
Cinema, Hong Kong Cinema, Dogma 95, and The New Iranian Cinema. Themes, topics, concepts, and theories
explored during the semester may include, among others: Authorship, Feminism, Realism, Spectatorship, Politics,
Affect, Style, and Genre.

Program
Week/Session

Dates

Description

31 Jul

Introduction
Screening:
The Five Obstructions (Lars von Trier and Jrgen Leth, 2003, 90 mins.)
Readings:
David Bordwell and Kristin Thomson, Glossary, in Film Art: An Introduction (Third
edition) (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990), pp.408-412.
Lars von Trier and Jrgen Leth, The Five Obstructions, Film (September, 2002),
pp.30-32.
Susan Dwyer, Romancing the Dane: Ethics and Observation, in Mette Hjort (ed.),
On the Five Obstructions (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2008), pp.1-14.

7 Aug

The Melodramas of Douglas Sirk

Screening:
All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955, 89 mins.)
Readings:
Mary Beth Haralovich, 'All That Heaven Allows: Color, Narrative Space, and
Melodrama', in Peter Lehman (ed.), An Anthology of New Film Criticism,
(Tallahassee, Fla.: The Florida State University Press, 1990), pp.57-72.
Nick James, Magnificent Obsession, Sight and Sound, 13: 3 (March, 2003),
pp.12-15, 40-4

14 Aug

Hitchcock and Feminist Film Theory

Screening:
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, 115 mins.)
Readings:
Laura Mulvey, 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', in Sue Thornham (ed.),
Feminist Film Theory: A Reader (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999),
pp.58-69
Tania Modleski, The Master's Dollhouse': Rear Window' in The Women Who Knew
Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Film Theory (New York and London: Routledge,
1989), pp.73-85.
Lawrence Howe, 'Through the Looking Glass: Reflexivity, Reciprocality, and
Defenestration in Hitchcock's Rear Window', College Literature, 35.1, Winter 2008,
pp. 16-37.

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21 Aug

Italian Neo-Realism
Screening:
Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948, 89 mins.)
Readings:
Andre Bazin, Bicycle Thief, trans. Hugh Grey, in What is Cinema?: Volume 2
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), pp. 47-60.
Millicent Marcus, De Sicas Bicycle Thief: Casting Shadows on the Visionary City,
in Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1986), pp. 54-75.
Frank P. Tomasulo, Bicycle Thieves: A Re-reading, Cinema Journal, 21: 2 (Spring,
1982), pp. 2-13.

28 Aug

Godard, Brecht and the French New Wave

Screening:
Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960, 90 mins.)
Readings:
David Sterritt, Breathless, in The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp.39-60.
George Lellis, A Short Summary of Brechts Theories, in Bertolt Brecht: Cahiers du
Cinma and Contemporary Film Theory (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982),
pp. 7-13.
Recommended text on The French New Wave:
Naomi Greene, The French New Wave: A New Look, (London and New York:
Wallflower Press, 2007). In library.
Notes:
Critical Analysis Assignment Due

4 Sept

The New German Cinema

Screening:
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlndorff,
1975, 106 mins.)
Readings:
Olaf Hoerschelmann, Memoria Dextera Est: Film and Public Memory in Postwar
Germany, Cinema Journal, 40:2 (Winter, 2001), pp.78-97.
Jack Zipes, The Political Dimensions of The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum, New
German Critique, no. 12 (Fall, 1977), pp.75-84.

11 Sept

Spanish Cinema under Franco

Screening:
Raise Ravens! (Carlos Saura, 1976, 105 mins.)
Readings:
Virginia Higginbotham, 'Carlos Saura' in Spanish Cinema Under Franco (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1988), pp.77-95.

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Marsha Kinder, 'The Children of Franco in New Spanish Cinema', Quarterly Review
of Film Studies, 8:2 (Spring, 1983), pp.57-76.

18 Sept

The Cinema of Wong Kar-Wai

Screening:
Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994, 94 mins.)
Readings:
Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli, 'Trapped in the Present: Time in the Films of
Wong Kar-Wai', Film Criticism, 25.2 (Winter, 2000).
David Bordwell, 'Romance on Your Menu: Chungking Express', in Planet Hong
Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2000), pp. 282-289.
Tsung-yi Huang, Hong Kong Blue: Flneurie with the Cameras Eye in a
Phantasmagoric Global City, JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory, 30:3 (Fall, 2000),
385-402.

25 Sept

WEEK 9: 22-26 SEPTEMBER - STUDY BREAK WEEK

28 SEPTEMBER 2 OCTOBER - VICE CHANCELLOR'S WEEK

10

9 Oct

Dogma 95 and the New Danish Cinema

Screening:
The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998, 105 mins.)
Readings:
Mette Hjort, 'Dogma 95: A Small Nation's Response to Globalisation', in Mette Hjort
and Scott MacKenzie (eds.), Purity and Provocation: Dogma 95 (London: BFI, 2003),
31-47.
Geoffrey Macnab, 'The Big Tease', Sight and Sound (February, 1999), pp.16-18.
Notes:
Research Essay Assignment Due

11

16 Oct

The New Iranian Cinema

Screening:
The Circle (Jafar Panahi, 2000, 95 mins)
Readings:
Paul Arthur, 'No Way Out' Film Comment, 37:2, (Mar/Apr 2001), pp.22-25
Hamid Naficy, Veiled Vision/Powerful Presences: Women in Post-Revolutionary
Iranian Cinema, in Rose Issa and Sheila Whitaker (eds.), Life and Art The New
Iranian Cinema (London: BFI, 1999), pp. 44-65.
Laura Mulvey, Afterword, in Richard Tapper (ed.), The New Iranian Cinema:
Politics, Representation, and Identity (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002), pp.
254-261.

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254-261.

12

23 Oct

The Cinema of Ivan Sen

Screening:
Beneath Clouds (Ivan Sen, 2002, 90 mins.)
Readings:
Adam Gall and Fiona Probyn-Rapsey, Ivan Sen and the Art of the Road, Screen,
47:4 (Winter, 2006), pp.425-439.
Tony Birch, Surveillance, Identity and Historical Memory in Ivan Sens Beneath
Clouds, in Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis (eds.), Empires, Ruins
+Networks: The Transcultural Agenda in Art (Carlton: Melbourne University Press,
2005), pp. 185-201.

13

30 Oct

The Cinema of Aki Kaurismki

Screening:
The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismki, 2002, 97 mins.)
Readings:
Tytti Soila, 'The Face of a Sad Rat: The Cinematic Universe of the Kaurismki
Brothers' in Yvonne Tasker (ed.), Fifty Contemporary FIlmmakers (London and New
York, 2002), pp.195-203.
Jonathan Romney, 'Last Exit to Helsinki: The Bleak Comedic Genius of Aki
Kaurismki, Finland's Finest', Film Comment (March/April, 2003), pp. 43-47.
Jonathan Romney, 'The Kaurismki Effect', Sight and Sound (June, 1997), pp.11-14.
Notes:
Revision Assignment Due

Assessment
Assessment task 1: Critical Analysis
Objective(s): a and c
Weight:

30%

Task:

Focusing on one of the films screened in the first four weeks of the subject, produce a detailed
analysis of the role that visual style plays in communicating the ideas, themes, and issues raised by
the film.

Length:

1000 words

Due:

Week 5

Criteria:

Depth of Analysis

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Criteria:

Depth of Analysis
Structure, organisation and coherence of analysis
Clarity of expression
Referencing accuracy

Assessment task 2: Research Essay

Objective(s): a, b, c and d
Weight:

40%

Task:

Students are required to undertake their own independent research to produce an essay in response
to questions that will be distributed in Week 5. The question chosen should not overlap with the
film/ideas explored in the first assessment item.

Length:

2000 words

Due:

Week 10

Criteria:

Independence of research
Structure, organisation, and coherence of argument
Originality in approach
Clarity of Expression
Referencing accuracy

Assessment task 3: Revision Assignment

Objective(s): a, b and c
Weight:

30%

Task:

Students are required to answer five questions that explore key concepts, theories, and ideas that
have been explored in the lectures and in the required readings. Each answer should be no more
than 200 words in length. Please note that you should focus on your lecture notes and the required
readings to answer these questions.

Length:

1000 words

Due:

Week 13
Please note: The revision assignment will only be returned if it is submitted to your tutor with a
stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Criteria:

Clarity of expression
Succinct writing
Depth of Analysis
Referencing accuracy

Minimum requirements
Students are required to attend the weekly lecture and screening and to attend class having read the weekly readings.
Since class discussion is an integral part of the subject, students are expected to attend classes and to actively
participate in the class discussions. An attendance roll will be taken in class each week and, where possible, students
should advise their tutor in advance if they are unable to attend. Students who miss more than three classes may not
have their final assignment assessed. Students who have a documented reason for an extended absence (eg. Illness)
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may be required to complete additional work to ensure that they meet the subject objectives.

Required texts
The weekly readings for the subject can be accessed online via the eReadings link on the UTS library website.

References
Abbas, Ackbar, 'Wong Kar-wai: Hong Kong Filmmaker', Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance
(London: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), pp.48-58.
Allen, Richard William et al. (ed.), Hitchcock: Past and Future (London and New York: Routledge, 2004).
Andrew, Dudley (ed.), Breathless (London: Rutgers University Press, 1987).
Brunette, Peter, Wong Kar-Wai (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005).
Corrigan, Timothy, New German Cinema: The Displaced Image (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994).
Dabashi, Hamid, Close-Up: Iranian Cinema, past, present, and future (London and New York: Verso, 2001).
D'Lugo, Marvin, The Films of Carlos Saura: The Practice of Seeing (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991).
Elsaesser, Thomas, New German Cinema: A History (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989).
Flynn, Caryl, The New German Cinema: Music, History, and the Matter of Style (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2003).
Gledhill, Christine (ed.), Home is where the heart is: Studies in Melodrama and the Womans Film (London: BFI, 1987).
Hake, Sabine, German National Cinema (London & New York: Routledge, 2001).
Kinder, Marsha, 'Carlos Saura: The Political Development of Individual Consciousness', Film Quarterly, 32 (Spring
1979), pp.14-25.
Kinder, Marsha, Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of Identity in Spain (Berkeley & London: University of California
Press, 1993).
Klinger, Barbara, Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture, and the Films of Douglas Sirk (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1994).
Lahiji, Shanhla, 'Chaste Dolls and Unchaste Dolls: Women in Iranian Cinema since 1979', in Richard Tapper (ed.), The
New Iranian Cinema: Politics, Representation, and Identity (London and New York: I.B Taurus Publishers, 2002),
pp.254-261.
Lalanne, Jean-Marc et al. (ed.), Wong Kar-Wai (Paris: Disvoir, 1997).
Langford, Michelle, Allegory and the aesthetics of becoming-woman in Marziyeh Meshkinis The Day I Became a
Woman, Camera Obscura, v. 64 (April, 2007).
Lellis, George, Bertolt Brecht: Cahiers du Cinma and Contemporary Film Theory (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press,
1982).
Lumholdt, Jan (ed.), Lars von Trier: Interviews (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2003).
MacCabe, Colin, Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at 70 (London: Bloomsbury, 2003).
Margretta, William R. and Joan Magretta, 'Story and Discourse: Schlndorff and von Trotta's The Lost Honor of
Katharina Blum (1975)', in Andrew S. Horton and Joan Magretta (ed.), Modern European Filmmakers and the Age of
Adaptation (New York: Friedrich Ungar Publishing, 1981), pp.278-294.
Moeller, Hans-Bernhard, Volker Schlndorff's Cinema: Adaptation, Politics, and the 'Movie Appropriate' (Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 2002).
Nestingen, Andrew (ed.), In Search of Aki Kaurismki: Aesthetics and Contexts - Special Issue of Journal of Finnish
Studies, Vol. 8, no. 2 (2004).
Samuels, Robert, 'Vertigo: Sexual Dis-Orientation and the En-gendering of the Real', in Hitchcock's Bi-Textuality:
Lacan, Feminisms, and Queer Theory (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), pp.77-92.
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Simons, Jan, Playing the Waves: Lars von Triers Game Cinema (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007).
Soila, Tytti et al. (ed.), Nordic National Cinemas (London and New York: Routledge, 1998).
Soila, Tytti (ed.), Cinema of Scandinavia (London: Wallflower Press, 2005).
Sorlin, Pierre, Italian National Cinema: 1896-1996 (London and New York: Routledge, 1996).
Sterritt, David, The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible (New York: Cambridge UP, 1999).
Sterritt, David, Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998).
Stevenson, Jack, Lars von Trier (London: BFI, 2002).
Stevenson, Jack, Dogme uncut: Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterburg, and the Gang that took on Hollywood (Santa
Monica: Santa Monica Press, 2003).
Teo, Stephen, Wong Kar-Wai (London: BFI, 2005).
Thornham, Sue (ed.), Feminist Film Theory: A Reader (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,1999).
White, Susan, 'Vertigo and Problems of Knowledge in Feminist Theory', in Richard Allen and S. Ishii Gonzals (ed.),
Alfred Hitchcock: Centenary Essays (London: BFI, 1999), pp.279-306.
Willett, John (ed. and trans.), Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (New York: Hill and Wang, 1978).
Wills, David, 'The French Remark: Breathless and Cinematic Citationality', in Andrew Horton and Stuart Y. McDougal
(ed.), Play it Again Sam: Retakes on Remakes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp.147-161.

Statement on UTS email account

Email from the University to a student will only be sent to the student's UTS email address. Email sent from a student
to the University must be sent from the student's UTS email address. University staff will not respond to email from
any other email accounts for currently enrolled students.

Disclaimer
This outline serves as a supplement to the Faculty's Student Study Guide. On all matters not specifically covered in
this outline, the requirements specified in the Student Study Guide apply:
www.fass.uts.edu.au/students/assessment/preparing/study-guide.pdf
This outline was generated on the date indicated in the footer. Minor changes may have been made subsequent to
this date.

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