ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), KOLKATA
FILM STUDIES (GENERAL & PASS COURSE)
APPROACH PAPER
- This program aims to help students become critical viewers of movies today.
From a personal point of view, a movie is described as a state of awareness along with a set of emotions experienced by the viewer. While analyzing this state of the viewer, the students are in effect analyzing themselves. In the process, they rediscover themselves.
From a social point of view, rather than adopting a chronological study of the cinema, we emphasize those schools and styles of cinema, including those of the national cinemas, that have significantly contributed to world cinema. In the process, the students not only learn about different ‘cinemas’ but also gain significant knowledge of societies at home and abroad. - The students will study the similarities and differences between various movie cultures on the one hand and the classical Hollywood cinema on the other.
This approach to film studies through popular cinema makes the subject more interesting and meaningful. - The students will study Indian cinema through its similarities and differences with both Indian & Western traditions of art and culture.
Apart from making the study of Indian movie culture more rooted, it would help the students to grasp the nature of its ideology and its social imaginary. - Movies cannot be studied apart from the technology used to produce them. Hence, students will do practical exercises in each semester.
These exercises would include some digital hands-on experiences. - The students will study cinema through watching an open-ended list of movies.
The list of movies to be studied will be kept open to incorporate, on a continuous basis, significant developments occurring in cinema and to reach out to the new generation of students joining the course.
SYLLABUS for FILM STUDIES
( Three year general and pass course, 2007)
SEMESTER 1 – 75 MARKS
Theory: 50 (Ext. 40 + Int.10)
Practical: 25 (Ext. 20 + Int. 5)
PAPER 1: Classical Hollywood Cinema: The Dominant Film Paradigm
FS/UG(General)/1.1: Standardization of the Narrative Form
Screening: A Representative Hollywood Film
1. Standardization of Film Practices: Narrative Form
Linear Perspective
Formation of Genres
Melodrama, Family, Gender
2. Standardization of Film Practices: Basic Techniques
Semiotic Analysis of its Codes: Analysis of a Shot/Scene/Sequence
Camera, Lighting, Sound, Editing
3. Factors Motivating such Standardization
Ideology
Mode of Production: The Studio System
4. Evolution of the Hollywood Film Paradigm: An Overview
From Lumière to Griffith
5. Discussion of an ‘Author’ in the Studio System
Anyone of the Genre Authors
FS/UG(Genl)/1.2: Film and other Arts
Film and other Arts with special reference to Western Art
Discussing Cinemas’ dependence on other Arts for its Semiotic Codes
Literature, Painting, Theatre and Music
FS/UG(Genl)/1.3: Use of Supplementary Teaching Methods
Seminars, Workshops, Tutorials, etc, as per norms on the subject
FS/UG/1.4: Practical
1. Slide Project
Constructing a Narrative with Stills
Basic References
On Hollywood Cinema
Books
1. Classical Hollywood Cinema, Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960
- D. Bordwell, J. Staiger and K. Thompson
2. Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction – R. Maltby and I. Craven
3. The Hollywood Studio System – D. Gomery
4. Narration in Fiction Film – D. Bordwell
5. Narrative Comprehension in Film – E. Brannigan
Articles
6. ‘What is Realism?’ – H. Levin
7. ‘On Realism in Art’ – R. Jakobson
8. ‘Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on Family Melodrama’ – T. Elsaesser
9. ‘Melodramatic Field: An Investigation’ – C. Gledhill
10. ‘Mothering, Feminism and Melodrama’ – F. Ann Kaplan
11. ‘Cinema and Genre’ – R. Altman
12. ‘Film Genre and the Genre Film’ – T. Schatz
13. ‘The Evolution of the Western’ – A. Bazin
14. ‘What is an Author?’ – M. Foucault
15. ‘Death of an Author’ – R. Barthes
On Early Cinema
Books
6. Early Cinema, Space, Frame, Narrative – T. Elsaesser and A. Barker (Ed.)
7. Life to Those Shadows – N. Bürch
Articles
9. ‘Now you see it now you don’t: Cinema of Attractions’ – T. Gunning
10. ‘Origins and Survivals’ – P. C. Usai in Oxford History of World Cinema
11. ‘Early Cinema’ – R. Pearson in Oxford History of World Cinema
SEMESTER 2 – 75 MARKS
Theory: 50 (Ext. 40 + Int.10)
Practical: 25 (Ext. 20 + Int. 5)
PAPER 2: Filmmaker’s Response to Emerging Reality: 1920s – 1950s
FS/UG(General)/2.2: Introducing Film Movements: Alternate Film Paradigms
1. German Expressionist Cinema
Expressionist Mise-en-scène
Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari/
F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise/ Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, etc.
2. Soviet Montage Cinema
Introducing Modernism
Signification in Cinema: Montage
Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, etc.
3. Italian Neo-realist Cinema
Representing Reality As It Is
Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thief, etc.
FS/UG(Genl)/2.2: Indian Popular Cinema: The ‘Other’ Paradigm
Screening: A Representative Indian Popular Film
- Standardization of Film Practices: Narrative Form
Differences with Hollywood Cinema
Melodrama, Family, Gender
- Standardization of Film Practices: Basic Techniques
Semiotic Analysis of its Basic Codes vis-à-vis Hollywood Cinema
- Factors motivating such Practices
Ideology
Mode of Production: The Studio Years
- Evolution of Indian Popular Form: An Overview
From Silent Era to Studio Years
Emergence of Contemporary Forms
- Discussion of an Indian ‘Author’ in the Popular Form
FS/UG(Genl)/2.3: Film and other Arts
Film and other Arts with special reference to Indian Art
Discussing Cinemas’ dependence on other Arts for its Semiotic Codes
Literature, Painting, Theatre and Music
FS/UG(Genl)/2.3: Use of Supplementary Teaching Methods
Seminars, Workshops, Tutorials, etc, as per norms on the subject
FS/UG(Genl)/2.4: Practical
- Audio-Visual Presentation
2. Visual Dynamization
Basic References
On Film Movements
Books
1. Haunted Screen – Lotte Eisner
2. From Caligari to Hitler – Siegfried Kracauer
3. Film Sense – Sergei Eisenstein
4. Film Form – Sergei Eisenstein
5. Passion and Defiance: Film in Italy from 1942 to the Present - M. Liehm
6. Italian Cinema: From Neo-realism to the Present – P. Bondanella
Articles
1. ‘Italy from Fascism to Neo-realism’ – M. Morandini in Oxford History of World Cinema
2. ‘Italian Post-war Cinema and Neo-realism’ – S. Monticelli in Oxford Guide to Film Studies
On Indian Popular Cinema
Books
1. Pleasure and the Nation: History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India
- R. Dwyer and C. Pinney (Ed.)
2. Making Meaning in Indian Cinema – R. Vasudevan
3. Ideology of the Hindi Film: A Historical Construction – M. Madhava Prasad
4. The Painted Face – C. Dasgupta
5. Our Films Their Films – S. Ray
6. The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama & the Mode of Excess
- P. Brookes
7. Fingerprinting Popular Culture: The Mythic and the Iconic in Indian Cinema
- Vinay Lal and Ashis Nandy (Ed.)
Articles
1. ‘What Ails Indian Filmmaking?’ – S. Ray
2. ‘Towards a Definition of Popular Culture’ – L. Fiedler
3. ‘Encoding/Decoding’ – S. Hall
4. ‘Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ – T. Adorno and M. Horkheimer
5. ‘Culture Industry Reconsidered’ – T. Adorno
6. ‘Myth Today’ – R. Barthes
7. ‘The Politics of Cultural Address in a “Transitional” Cinema:
A Case Study of Indian Popular Cinema – R. Vasudevan
8. ‘An Intelligent Critic’s Guide to Indian Cinema’ – A. Nandy
SEMESTER 3 – 75 MARKS
Theory: 50 (Ext. 40 + Int.10)
Practical: 25 (Ext. 20 + Int. 5)
PAPER 3: Modern Trends in Cinema since the ‘50s
FS/UG(Genl)/3.1: Modern Trends as Departures from the Standard Narrative
1. The French New Wave
Cahière and Left Bank Filmmakers
2. New Latin American Cinema
Cinema as Memory/Political Practice
3. Japanese Cinema
Distinctive Features of Japanese Cinema
Anyone of the following:
Kurosawa’s Rashomon/Ozu’s Tokyo Story/Mizoguchi’s Life of Oharu
Kobayashi’s Kaidan/Revolution/Harakiri
Oshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence/Death by Hanging
Etc.
- New Iranian Cinema
Turning Constraints into a Language of Subversion after the Revolution
Anyone of the following:
Mohsin Makmalbaf/Abbas Kiarostami/Tehmine Milani
FS/UG(Genl)/3.4: Non-Fiction and Experimental Cinema
Evolution of World Documentary Cinema: An Overview
Digital Aesthetics and the Independent Filmmakers
Any one of the following:
Jim Jarmush, Wong Ker Wai, Jan Shankmayer, Peter Greenway,
Lars Von Trier, American Underground Cinema, etc.
FS/UG(Genl)/3.5: Use of Supplementary Teaching Methods
Seminars, Workshops, Tutorials, etc, as per norms on the subject
FS/UG(Genl)/3.6: Practical
Making a Non-Fiction Film
SEMESTER 4 – 75 MARKS
Theory: 50 (Ext. 40 + Int.10)
Practical: 25 (Ext. 20 + Int. 5)
PAPER 4: Modern Indian Cinema and the Text Films
FS/UG(Genl)/4.1: Modern Indian Cinema
- Standardization of the Realism Paradigm and its Departures
Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen
- Introducing the Indian ‘New Wave’
1. New Indian Cinema
2. A Representative Film from any of the following Directors:
Mrinal Sen, Mani Kaul, Adoor Gopalakrishna, Shyam Benegal
Ketan Mehta, M. S. Sathyu, Kumar Sahani, Syed Akhtar Mirza, etc.
FS/UG(Genl)/4.2: Five Text Films
This area is being completely left open with the following proviso:
One from Modern Indian Cinema
One from Indian Popular Cinema
One from Western Cinema
One from Documentary Cinema
One from Avant-garde Cinema
FS/UG(Genl)/4.3: Use of Supplementary Teaching Methods
Seminars, Workshops, Tutorials, etc, as per norms on the subject
FS/UG(Genl)/4.5: Practical
1. Continuity Film
SEMESTER 5 – 50 MARKS
Theory: 40 (Ext. 30 + Int.10)
Practical: 10 (Int.)
PAPER 5: Film Theory and Cinema in the Context of Globalization
FS/UG(Genl)/5.1: Film Theory
Major Concepts:
Sergei Eisenstein
Andrè Bazin
Christian Metz
FS/UG(Genl)/5.2: Cinema in the Context of Globalization
Changing Face of Cinema
Indian Cinema in the Context of Globalization
World Cinema in the Context of Globalization
FS/UG(Genl)/5.3: Use of Supplementary Teaching Methods
Seminars, Workshops, Tutorials, etc, as per norms on the subject
FS/UG(Genl)/5.3: Practical
- Internship
With any TV/Film/News/Etc Production Unit(s)
SEMESTER 6 – 50 MARKS
Theory: 25
Practical: 25 (Ext. 15 + Int. 10)
PAPER 6: Dissertation and the Degree Film
FS/UG(Genl)/6.1: Dissertation
Dissertation
On any topic related to Cinema
FS/UG(Genl)/6.2: Practical
Making a Short Film
Making a Degree Film