Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

This course will examine the early development of cinema from 1890 until about 1945, with particular emphasis on the fundamental principles of film as an art form. May be of particular interest to students in other departments. Students with credit for FPA 136 may not take this course for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

An introduction to the aesthetics and history of cinema from its origins until the middle of the 20th Century. Students will be introduced to the cinemas of the United States, Germany, France and Russia/Soviet Union. We will explore the socio-economic, cultural and political contexts of cinema's emergence in the mid-1890s; Early Cinema and the full Silent Era up to the end of the 1920s; the emergence of sound, and the period of Hollywood Classical Cinema and its European alternatives. We’ll look at film’s early innovators, classical Hollywood narrative, the studio system, as well as European and avant-garde cinema, while also paying attention to genres, filmmakers, and moviegoers sometimes marginalized by these traditional narratives.Students will get a fantastic overview of the first 50 years of cinema history and get to know some films and filmmakers they've never encountered.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: