English 3170

History of Film III: 1960-present

Winter 2009, Monday/Wednesday, 9:35am-11:35am, 326 State

Steven Shaviro
shaviro@shaviro.com
313-577-5475
5057 Woodward, room 9309
office hours: Monday noon-2pm and by appointment

Address of this page: http://www.shaviro.com/Classes/History3.html

Course Description

This class is the third part of a three-class sequence on the history of film; but it may be taken independently of parts one and two. The course gives an overview of the worldwide history of film since 1960. One film screening a week will be supplemented by clips from other important films. There will be a combination of lecture and class discussion.

Class Assignments and Requirements

One textbook is required for this class: Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, A Short History of Film (available at Marwil Books).
Class requirements include participation in class discussion (20% of grade), a weekly film diary (40% of grade), and two short papers (20% of grade each, for a total of 40% of grade).
The weekly film diary entries should each be approximately one page, single-spaced. Entries are due each Monday, and should discuss a film we saw in class the previous week. Over the course of the semester, you must submit at least 10 entries. (If you submit more than ten, the lowest grades will be removed). Late diary entries will not be accepted.
The two papers should each be 3 or 4 pages, double-spaced. For each of the papers, you should choose a film -- from list to be provided --that we have not watched and discussed in class, and write a précis, and a brief historical placement and critical discussion, of the film you have chosen. I will distribute lists of possible films to discuss for each of the historical periods we cover in class.

Schedule of Classes

January 12: The French New Wave.
Francois Truffaut, Antoine et Colette (France, 1962).
Jean-Luc Godard, Montparnasse et Levallois (France, 1965).
Jean-Luc Godard, Hell, from Notre Musique (France/Switzerland, 2004).
Other directors: Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, Eric Rohmer.
Reading: Short History, pp. 239-255.

January 14, 21: Italian film in the 1960s.
Michaelangelo Antonioni, Red Desert (Italy, 1964).
Federico Fellini, Toby Dammit (Italy, 1968).
Pier Paolo Pasolini, La Ricotta (Italy, 1963).
Other directors: Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci.
Reading: Short History, 212-217, 258-269.

January 26, 28: Other 1960s cinemas (Eastern Europe, USSR, Japan, India, Third World).
Vera Chytilova, Daisies (Czechoslovakia, 1967).
Other directors: Andrei Tarkovsky, Milos Forman, Jiri Menzel, Andrzej Wajda, Miklos Jancso, Dusan Makavejev, Nagisa Oshima, Shohei Imamura, Seijun Suzuki, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Glauber Rocha, Ousmane Sembene.
Reading: Short History, pp 290-301.

February 2, 4: Unclassifiable: other major figures of the 1960s/1970s.
Ingmar Bergman, Persona (Sweden, 1966)
Luis Bunuel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France, 1972).
Other directors: Robert Bresson.
Reading: Short History, pp. 255-258.

February 9, 11: Independent American voices, 1960s/1970s.
Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove (USA, 1964).
John Cassavetes, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (USA, 1976).
Reading: Short History, pp. 269-271, 279-290.

February 16, 18: The New Hollywood (1970s).
Alan Pakula, The Parallax View (1974).
Martin Scorsese, Life Lessons (1989).
Other directors: Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg.
Reading: Short History, pp. 274-279, 351-358.

February 23, 25: New German Cinema (1970s).
Rainier W. Fassbinder, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974).
Other directors: Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders.
Reading: Short History, pp. 271-274, 302-310.

March 2, 4: American film since 1980.
David Lynch, Blue Velvet (1986).
Other directors: Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Abel Ferrara, Todd Haynes.
Reading: Short History, pp. 358-379.
FIRST PAPER DUE.

March 9, 11: Eastern European film since 1980.
Krzsztof Kieslowski,The Double Life of Veronique (Poland/France, 1991).
Aleksandr Sokurov, Mother and Son (Russia, 1998).
Other directors: Emir Kusturica, Jan Svankmajer, Bela Tarr.
Reading: Short History, pp 322-326.

March 23, 35: Western European film since 1980.
Claire Denis, Beau Travail (France, 1999).
Aki Kaurismaki, The Match Factory Girl (Finland, 1990).
Other directors: Pedro Almodovar, Catherine Breillat, Olivier Assayas, Lars Von Trier, Michael Haneke.
Reading: Short History, pp 309-320, 326-329.

March 30, April 1: Iranian film since 1980. Other Third World cinemas.
Abbas Kiarostami, A Taste of Cherry (Iran, 1999).
Other directors: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Souleymane Cissé, Lucrecia Martel.
Reading: Short History, pp. 330-335, 342-350.

April 6, 8: Chinese (Hong Kong, Taiwan, China) cinema since 1980 (I).
John Woo, The Killer (1989).
Tsai Ming-liang, The Hole (1998)
Other directors: Jackie Chan, Tsui Hark, Johnnie To, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Reading: Short History, pp. 336-337.

April 13, 15: Chinese (Hong Kong, Taiwan, China) cinema since 1980 (II).
Wong Kar-Wai, In the Mood for Love (2000).
Other directors: Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Jia Zhang Ke.
Reading: Short History, pp 337-339

April 20, 22: Japanese, Korean, and other Asian cinemas since 1980.
Takeshi Kitano, Sonatine (1998).
Other directors: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sogo Ishii, Shunji Iwai, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shinji Aoyama, Takashi Miike, Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon; Im Kwon-taek, Hong Sang-soo, Chan-wook Park, Kim Ki-duk.
Reading: Short History, pp 339-342.

April 27: Film in the digital age. Film and post cinematic media.
Films TBA.
Reading: Short History, pp. 380-384.

Friday, May 1: SECOND PAPER DUE.