CNTV 201 Teaching Assistants: Hilary Neroni (lead)



CTCS 201 Spring 2009 Monday 2:00-5:50PM

Professor David E. James

INTERNATIONAL CINEMA SINCE WORLD WAR II

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Head TA : Chris Hanson (chanson@usc.edu)(ctcshanson@usc.)

TAs: Adan Avalos, Cristiani Bilhalva, Mike Dillon, , Veena Hariharan,

Brian Jacobson, Chera Kee, Alex Lykidis Noelia Saenz, Genevieve Yue

“The films created in each country are marked with their point of origin; they have nationalities.”-- Germaine Dulac

"Modern nations are forged less through militaristic activity or blood-lines than through more or less organized systems of language, education, and mass communication. . . . Cinema, both as a general cultural experience and entertainment form, and as the individual films which contribute to that experience, is of course one of these communication systems, one of the means by which the public sphere is constructed on a national scale." --Andrew Higson

"Hollywood can hardly be conceived . . . as totally other, since so much of any nation's film culture is implicitly 'Hollywood.’” --Thomas Elsaesser

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This course will address some of the social, political, historical, economic, and aesthetic aspects of international cinema since the end of World War II. The purpose of the course is two-fold: as we survey a number of national cinemas, we will study individual films and filmmakers as well as some international film movements. We establish the basic vocabulary and analytic methodologies of film studies, and will also ask larger theoretical and practical questions about how cinema functions as a cultural and ideological force, especially how it helps to construct ideas about the nation and national identities. As in any survey class, the actual films screened and film industries studied represent only a small portion of the wealth of available options. You are encouraged to view additional films from the nations we’ll study and to seek out films from nations not represented this term.

COURSE TEXTS

Required:

Course Reader available at the Magic Machine in University Village

Readings must be completed before the designated class.

Recommended: (on reserve at Leavey Library)

Film History: An Introduction by Kristen Thompson and David Bordwell (T&B)

The Oxford History of World Cinema edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (OWC)

A Short Guide to Writing About Film by Timothy Corrigan

SCHEDULE

12 January. Unit One. Italy: Neo-Realism

Ladri di biciclette. Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica, 1948, 93m.

Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), Sopyonjie (Im Kwon-Taek,1993) (excerpt)

Read: André Bazin, “An Aesthetic of Reality”

Morando Morandini, “Italy from Fascism to Neo-Realism”

*Millicent Marcus, “De Sica’s Bicycle Thief ”

See also: Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)

Recommended Reading: T&B 323-372

19 January. Martin Luther King Day: No Class

26 January. Unit Two. Scandinavia: Symbolism; the Idea of Authorship

Det Sjunde Inseglet. The Seventh Seal, Ingmar Bergman, 1957, 92m.

Read: Edward Buscombe, “Ideas of Authorship”

Peter Cowie, excerpt from Scandinavian Cinema

*Andrew Sarris, “The Seventh Seal”

See also: Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

Recommended Reading: T&B 383-385, 415-438

2 February. Unit Three. Britain: Kitchen Sink Realism; Film and Other Arts

Momma Don't Allow. Karel Reisz, 1956, 21m.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Tony Richardson, 1962, 104 m

Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964) (excerpt)

Read: John Hill, “Working-Class Realism”

John Hill, “Working-Class Realism and Sexual Reaction”

*John Hughson, “The ‘Loneliness’ of the Angry Young Sportsman”

See also: Riff-Raff (Ken Loach, 1990)

Recommended Reading: T&B 385-389, 454-456; OWC 604-613

9 February. Unit Four. Japan: Art Cinema

Rashomon. Akira Kurosawa 1950, 88m.

Read: David Bordwell, “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice”

Hiroshi Komatsu, “The Modernization of Japanese Film”

Donald Richie, “The Occupation of Japan”

Catherine Russell, “Men with Swords and Men with Suits: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa”

See also: Ugetsu monogatari (Ugetsu, Mizoguchi Kenji, 1953)

Recommended Reading: T&B 391-396

16 February. Presidents’ Day: No Class

23 February. Unit Five. France: La Nouvelle Vague (The New Wave); Sexuality & Reflexivity

Le Mépris. Contempt, 1963, 105m.

Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) (excerpt)

Read: Robert B. Ray, “Frontier Metaphors and New Waves”

James Monaco, “The Camera Writes”

*Colin MacCabe, “Le Mépris/Il Disprezzo/Contempt”

Phillip Drummond, “Jean-Luc Godard”

Janice Mouton, “From Feminine Masquerade to Flâneuse”

See also: Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)

Recommended Reading: T&B 373-383, 439-454; OWC 576-585

2 March. ********** TAKE-HOME MIDTERM******************************************

Unit Six. Germany: Das Neue Kino (The New Cinema); Genre

Die Ehe der Maria Braun. The Marriage of Maria Braun, R. Fassbinder, 1978, 120m.

Outer Space. Peter Tscherkassky 1999 Austria 10m.

Read: Eric Rentschler, “American Friends and the New German Cinema”

*Joyce Rheuban, “The Marriage of Maria Braun: History, Melodrama, Ideology”

See also: Faustrecht der Freiheit (Fox and His Friends, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)

Recommended Reading: T&B 456-457, 535-576; OWC 614-627

9 March *****************MIDTERM DUE*************************************************

Unit Seven. Africa: Decolonization

La Battaglia di Algeri. The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965, 117m.

Read: Olivier Barlet, “Decolonizing Thought”

Clyde Taylor, “Africa: The Last Cinema”

Joan Mellen, “An Interview with Gillo Pontecorvo”

See also: Xala (Ousmane Sembene, 1975)

Recommended Reading: T&B 511-534, 666-675; OWC 661-672

16 March. Spring Recess: No Class

23 March. *****************FIRST 3 JOURNALS DUE*************************************

Unit Eight. India: Postcoloniality; National Allegories

Bumbai. Bombay, Mani Ratnam, 1995, 140m.

Read: Ashish Rajadhyaksha, “India: Filming the Nation”

Rosie Thomas, “Indian Cinema: Pleasures and Popularity”

Nsreen Kabir, “Brief History of Bollywood ‘Film Songs’”

Lalitha Gopalan, “Introduction” from Bombay

See also: Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

Recommended Reading: T&B 407-411, 433-436, 640-644

30 March. Unit Nine. Latin America: Third World Cinema; Imperfect Cinema

Memorias del subdesarrollo. Memories of Underdevelopment, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968, 97m.

Read: Julio Garcia Espinosa, “For an Imperfect Cinema”

Glauber Rocha, “An Esthetic of Hunger”

Julianne Burton, “Film and Revolution in Cuba”

Julianne Burton, “Interview with Tomás Guttiérez Alea”

See also: Vidas Secas (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1963)

Recommended Reading: T&B 471-475, 633-640; OWC 740-749

6 April. Unit Ten. China: Socialist Realism; The Fifth Generation

Huang Tu Di. Yellow Earth, Chen Kaige, 1984, 90m.

Breaking With Old Ideas (Wenhua Li, 1975) (excerpt)

Read: Esther Yau, “China After the Revolution”

Chris Berry and Mary Farquhar, “Realist Modes: Melodrama, Modernity and Home”

Sumitra S. Chakravarty, “The Erotics of History: Gender and Transgression in the New Asian Cinemas”

See also: Haonan haonu (Good Men, Good Women, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1995)

Recommended Reading: T&B 648-654, 659-666

13 April. Unit Eleven. Hong Kong/China: Postmodernism

Do Ma Daan. Peking Opera Blues, Tsui Hark, 1986, 104m.

Read: Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”

Stephen Teo, “Postmodernism and the End of Hong Kong Cinema”

Stephen Teo, “Tsui Hark: National Style and Polemic”

Leo Ou-fan Lee, “Two Films from Hong Kong: Parody and Allegory”

See also: Die xue jie tou (Bullet in the Head, John Woo, 1990)

Recommended Reading: T&B 648-662; OWC 704-711

20 April. Unit Twelve. South Korea: Recapitulation of Main Themes

Chihwaseon. Im Kwon-Taek, 2002, 120m.

Read: Darcy Paquet, “The Korean Film Industry: 1992 to the Present”

Kyun Hyun Kim, “Korean Cinema and Im Kwon-Taek: An Overview”

Gary Indiana, “Gogol in Seoul”

See also: Gwoemul (The Host, Joon-ho Bon, 2006)

278 April. *****************SECOND 3 JOURNALS DUE*********************************

Unit Thirteen. Iran: Coda

Rang-e Khoda. The Color of Paradise, Majid Majidi, 1999, 90m.

Read: Azadeh Farahmand, “Perspectives on Recent Iranian Cinema”

Ali Reza Haghighi, “Politics and Cinema in Post-Revolutionary Iran”

Hamid Reza Sadr, “Children in Contemporary Iranian Cinema”

See also: Tam’e Guilass (Taste of Cherry, Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)

Recommended Reading: OWC 672-678

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Attendance at and participation in all lectures, screenings, and discussions is mandatory; if you do not attend lectures and participate creatively in the discussion section, you will fail the course. All readings must be completed prior to class except those marked with an asterisk (*) above; you may prefer to read these after seeing the film.

2. Four quizzes will motivate you to keep current; the lowest grade will be dropped and the remainder will make up 20% of your grade.

3. A take-home midterm (25% of grade). This must be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper; emailed papers are not accepted. It must be handed in before the lecture on 9 March. Any exam not handed in by this time will be considered late. Take-home exams may be up to 48 hrs late for 1 grade-point penalty; after 48 hours, they will not be accepted and will be graded F. For this essay (and indeed for all your writing in our school), you are strongly encouraged to read A Short Guide to Writing About Film by Timothy Corrigan.

4. Journal (25% of grade). For this you will in your own time screen the “See also” films, select any three from the first five weeks and another four from the last eight weeks, and write approximately 500 words about each, using the vocabularies and methodologies developed in class. The first three will be handed in to your TA on 23 March before the discussion section and the second four on 278 April. These must be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper; emailed papers are not accepted. Late turn-ins i.e., at any time after the beginning of discussion, are not permitted and will receive grade F. If appropriate, you may also refer to these films on your midterm and final exams.

All these “See also” films are available on DVD and/or VHS in the Cinema library; you may also obtain them from video rental agencies, including netflicks Netflix (online); Facets Video (online at ); Rocket Video, 726 La Brea, (323) 965-1100; Vidiots, 3rd and Pico, Santa Monica, (310) 392-8508; Cinefile, 11280 Santa Monica Blvd, (310) 312-8836; and Videoactive, 2522 Hyperion, (323) 669-8544.

5. A final exam during the scheduled two-hour period (30% of grade). Date and place of final exam are fixed by the university, and exceptions will not be allowed. We will announce the date as soon as we know it; do not buy plane tickets before this date is announced.

THERE WILL BE NO ALTERNATIVE MIDTERM OR FINAL EXAMS FOR ANY REASON

EXCEPT A DOCUMENTED MEDICAL EMERGENCY.

Notes:

1. Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to my your TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., tel. (213)740-0776.

2. All homework must be researched and written independently, or you will be penalized for cheating. The USC Student Conduct Code prohibits plagiarism. All USC students are responsible for reading and following the Student Conduct Code as it appears in the SCampus.

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