Bogazici University
Film Theory - Syllabus
Course Description
As an introductory study of film theory, this course is designed to provide
a survey of key discussions, perspectives, methods, and notions in film
theory. Through an examination of historically significant writings that
have approached the film form and its interactions with arts, politics,
history, culture, and philosophy, we will learn how to practice film
theory. The course traces the emergence of key film theories within their
context, from the advent of cinema within modernity to the evolution of
cinematic language with a particular focus on key debates. Through this
structure, we will consider how ideas have developed and transformed,
often in dialogue with one another. Our purpose will be to understand the
arguments at stake in these works and to create our own dialogue with
these theories through the screenings every week, also questioning their
impact on their contemporaneous film viewers and on viewing positions
today.
Lecturer
Drs. Asli Ozgen-Tuncer
Contact: [email protected]
Office hours: tba.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites. However, it is strongly recommended that
students with no film studies background familiarise themselves with
major filmmakers and film works in film history and film terminology.
Recommended reading: David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film
Art: An Introduction
Requirements
Reading of all assignments is strictly required. It is strongly
recommended that students plan adequate reading time for the theoretical
texts assigned for each session. Attendance of all screenings and lectures
is obligatory.
Assessment
%30 attendance and participation
%30 midterm exam
%40 final exam
Course Reader
Course reader will be provided by the lecturer. Details tba.
Course Schedule
Week 1 – Framing Film Theory and Film Analysis
1a
Introduction to the course + contextualising the emergence of film theory
Screening: Selection of films from Lumière Brothers, selection of films from
Georges Méliès, selection of films from Alice Guy Blaché, selection of films
from Edwin S. Porter (Running time: app. 100’)
Discussion
1b
.
.
Lecture + Discussion
Required Readings:
W. Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
T. Gunning, “The Cinema of Attractions”
T. Gunning, "Modernity and Cinema"
R. Stam, “The Antecedents of Film Theory”
G. Deleuze, “Theses on Movement”
Week 2 – Montage
2a
Introduction to the theory of montage
Screening: D. Vertov, The Man with a Movie Camera (1929, 68’); S. Eisenstein,
Battleship Potemkin (1925, 75’)
Discussion
2b
Lecture + Discussion
Required Readings:
Selections from D. Vertov, Kino-Eye
V. Pudovkin, “On Editing”
S. Eisenstein, “Methods of Montage”
G. Deleuze, “Montage”
Week 3 – Apparatus and the Gaze
3a
Introduction to the apparatus theory
Screening: A. Hitchcock, Rear Window (1954, 112’)
Discussion
3b
Lecture + Discussion
Required Readings:
J.L. Baudry, “Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus”
L. Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
F. Kessler, “Notes on Dispositif”
Week 4 – Realism and Physical Existence
4a
Introduction to the Aesthetics of Realism
Screening: R. Rossellini, Germany Year Zero (1948, 78’)
Discussion
4b
Lecture + Discussion
Required readings:
A. Bazin, “Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of Liberation”
A. Bazin, “Germany, Year Zero”
S. Kracauer, selections from The Redemption of Physical Reality
G. Deleuze, selections from Cinema 2: Time-Image
Week 5 – Semiotics of Film
5a
Introduction to semiotics and filmic language
Screening: O. Welles, Citizen Kane (1941, 119’)
Discussion
5b
Required readings:
Christian Metz, “Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema”
Peter Wollen, “Semiology of the Cinema”
Week 6 – Feminist and Queer Interventions
6a
Introduction to the feminist interventions in film theory
Screening: A. Varda, Vagabond (1985, 105’)
Discussion
6b
Required readings:
L. Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
K. Silverman, selections from the Acoustic Mirror
T. de Lauretis, “The Technology of Gender”
E. A. Kaplan, “Is the Gaze Male?”