English 161B - Winter, 2014

Film History II: 1945 to the Present

Class Information

Instructor: Simmon, Scott
CRN: 84131
Time: MW 2:10-5:00
Location: 1309 Surge 3

Description

This course is the second half of a two-quarter overview of the cultural and aesthetic history of filmmaking. (The courses may be taken separately.) Our loosely chronological survey begins this quarter at the end of World War II with the development of “film noir” in the United States and the international spread of Italian neorealist styles. Of particular focus will be the flourishing of Japanese film in the postwar decade, of the French New Wave after the late 1950s, of European “art cinema” in the 1960s, and of “third world” and post-colonial cinemas. We will also look into the expanded options for independent American filmmaking that arose alongside the breakdown of the Hollywood studio system and its Production Code censorship. Especially through recent Asian, British, Latin American, and post-communist Eastern European cinemas, we will carry global film history into the 21st century.

Grading

Two quizzes (15% each), out-of-class viewing notes (20%), paper (25%), final (25%).

Texts

Film History (third edition, 2010), Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell
And readings on SmartSite