Film

F/En 30. Introduction to Film. 9 units (3-0-6). This course examines film as an art and as an institution from 1895 through the present. Students will acquire the basic vocabulary and techniques of film analysis, focusing on questions of form (mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, sound) and narrative, as well as an understanding of the historical development of the medium with an emphasis on the American, European, and Asian contexts. Topics will include the early cinema of illusion, the actuality film, the transition to sound, the Hollywood star system, Italian neorealism, the French New Wave, Dogma 95, and Hong Kong action cinema. Not offered 2007–08.

F/Hum 32. Humanities on Film. 3 units (1-1-1); offered by announcement. A course centered around a series of films (usually five) screened as part of the Caltech film program. Students will be required to attend prefilm lectures and postfilm discussions, to do some reading, and to produce a short paper.

F 101. Classical Hollywood Cinema. 9 units (3-0-6); offered by announcement. This course examines the period of classical filmmaking in Hollywood from roughly 1925 through the 1950s. It emphasizes the study of films as texts with distinctive formal properties as well as the special features of Hollywood filmmaking. Topics include the rise of the studio system, technical transformations (sound, color, deep focus), genres (the musical, the Western), cultural contexts (the Depression, the Cold War), and the economic history of the film corporations. Students will develop an understanding of how a significant body of films, including The Jazz Singer, Public Enemy, Citizen Kane, Sunset Boulevard, and Singin’ in the Rain, functioned as commercial, aesthetic, and cultural artifacts during the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. Not offered 2007–08.

F 102. Hollywood in the ’40s. 9 units (3-0-6); offered by announcement. This course covers Hollywood filmmaking during the most tumultuous decade in its history, from the last days of the Depression, through the extraordinary boom of World War II, to the postwar bust and the decline of the studio system. It considers specific films (e.g., Sullivan’s Travels, Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Gentleman’s Agreement) as well as general strategies of filmmaking at a time when the ever-changing domestic and world situation made the movie-going public’s tastes and needs less predictable than ever. Topics include the rise of market research and public relations in Hollywood, the emergence and evolution of particular genres (the combat film, the homefront melodrama, film noir), wartime propaganda, the “maturing” of the movies, and the role of film in postwar reconversion. Not offered 2007–08.

L/F 104. French Cinema. 9 units (3-0-6). For course description, see Languages.

H/F 131. History on Film. 9 units (2-2-5). For course description, see History.

H/F 133. Topics in Film History. 9 units (2-2-5). For course description, see History.

H/F 134. The Science Fiction Film. 9 units (2-2-5). For course description, see History.

H/F 136. Ethnic Visions. 9 units (2-2-5). For course description, see History.