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Module Content and Indicative Topics

This module will ask questions such as: What are the key transformative moments of cinema and media history? How did cinema begin? How and why did it change? What is the function of cinema? How did/does cinema emerge and transform across the world? What happens to film and cinema after the digital revolution?

The module is designed to work as a postgraduate-level foundation module both for students without any training in film studies and for those with a first degree in it or a related discipline.Ìý

Moving Images focuses on the four-way relationship between changing moving image technologies; the communicative and expressive forms associated with them; the reception of these technologies and forms by contemporaries, including practising film-makers, critics and theorists; the political, social and economic contexts in which these technologies and forms emerged and proliferated.

The module begins with cinema as it emerged in the second stage industrial revolution and traces out the global transformations that re-shaped cinema and media thereafter, and is designed to be a useful introduction to the diverse global cinema histories that are explored at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº. It is taught over 20 weeks in Terms 1 and 2 and it concentrates on three periods of profound transition in cinema and media history: 1895-1927: The First Cinema(s); 1954-1992: The Third Cinema; 1999-2017 The Last Cinema?

The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class:

• · Early cinema and the emergence of a dominant form of fictional, narrative, commercial cinema (often labelled ‘classical Hollywood cinema’)
• · A range of mid-century cinema movements such as Third Cinema, documentary, national and international new waves
• · The advent of the digital and its film-theoretical and industrial implication

Teaching Delivery

One or more films are specified as set viewing per week, to be watched by the student in their own time via a variety of streaming platforms. Class meets weekly and may comprise live lecture content and/or group discussion. These meetings emphasise student participation in a supportive and open atmosphere. Students are expected to come to class having undertaken the weekly preparatory reading and viewing, and to be prepared to contribute to any class discussion.

This is a compulsory module for the MA Film Studies and is restricted to students on this programme only.

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

1. Describe and discuss key developments in cinema history as regards technology, industry, aesthetics and theory

2. Articulate the relations between cinema and society in terms of, for example, the politics of representation, national cinemas, distribution and reception

3. Identify appropriate primary and secondary sources for the study of cinema history, and engage with them in appropriate ways in class discussions and essays

4. Productively compare and contrast cinema cultures diachronically and synchronically

5. Undertake sequence analyses of films, incorporating the analysis into broader arguments about cinema history and practice

6. Design, research and write an essay on cinema history, under the guidance of the module tutor.

Recommended Reading:

In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts:

· Grieveson, L. and P. Krämer, eds., 2004. The Silent Cinema Reader. London: Routledge. [Available in hard copy via ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Library]

· Biltereyst, Daniel , R. Maltby and P. Meers (eds), 2019. The Routledge Companion to New Cinema History. Abingdon: Routledge. [Available as e-book via ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Library]

· Denson, S. and J. Leyda, J. (eds), 2016. Post-Cinema: Theorizing 21st-Century Film. Falmer: Reframe. [Open access]

Trigger Warnings

This is a module focusing on cinema history and visual culture, encompassing a range of world cinemas and movements. As such, during the module you will be expected to watch, and to discuss, films from a variety of traditions. Many of these emanate from film cultures and political movements dealing with challenging ideas. You are likely to encounter images, sounds, dialogue and narratives which some students may find challenging or disturbing, including violence, death, sexual violence, exploitation, and disease. Any student with concerns about the content of the week’s material can speak to the module convenor.