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Films and Readings

This page includes the films and readings for each week, and a list of additional recommended readings.

Most links on the films point to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The first few films (pre-1923) are in public domain, so where a legitimate online copy could be found, it has been linked instead and noted.

Primary Course Text

Amazon logo Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. 3rd ed. Kingston, MA: R. S. Means Company, 1996. ISBN: 9780393969399.

Required Supplementary Readings

Agee, James. "Comedy's Greatest Era." In Agee on Film. Vol. 1. New York, NY: McDowell, 1958, pp. 2-19.

Amazon logo Mast, Gerald. "The Comics: Mack Sennett and the Chaplin Shorts." In A Short History of the Movies. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 76-92. ISBN: 9780226509822.

Amazon logo ———. "Movie Czars and Movie Stars." In A Short History of the Movies. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 118-128. ISBN: 9780226509822.

Amazon logo Braudy, Leo. "Genre: The Conventions of Connection." In Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 443-468. ISBN: 9780195025033.

LEC # TOPICS REQUIRED FILMS SUPPORTING FILMS
(clips shown in class)		 REQUIRED READINGS
I. The silent era
1-2

Introduction

Keaton

Porter, Edwin. S. The Great Train Robbery. (view film)

Griffith, D. W. The Lonedale Operator. (view stills)

———. A Beast at Bay. (view film)

Keaton, Buster. One Week. (view film)

———. Cops. (view film)

———. The General. (view film)

Cook. A History of Narrative Film. 4th ed. pp. 1-41, 51-85.

———. 3rd ed. pp. 177-182.

Mast. From A Short History of the Movies.
3-4 Chaplin

Chaplin, Charlie. The Immigrant. (view film)

———. Easy Street. (view film)

———. Modern Times.

 Agee. "Comedy's Greatest Era."
5-6 Film as a global and cultural form: german film

Murnau, F. W. The Last Laugh.

 Cook. Chapters 4-5.
II. Hollywood genres
7-8 Hollywood in the 1930s: sound comedy Capra, Frank. It Happened One Night.

Ball of Fire: Stanwyck character meets Cooper and the other professors.

The Lady Eve: Stanwyck character comments on the women trying to get the attention of Fonda.

 Cook. Chapters 7-8.
Quiz
9-10 Hitchcock Hitchcock. Shadow of a Doubt. Strangers on a Train: climactic fight on merry-go-round.
11-12 The musical

Donen, Stanely, and Gene Kelly. Singin' in the Rain .

Fosse, Bob. Cabaret.

Love Me Tonight: "Isn't It Romantic?"

42nd Street: "Young and Healthy."

Top Hat: "Cheek to Cheek."

 Braudy. "Genre: The Conventions of Connection."
13-14 The western Ford, John. The Searchers

My Darling Clementine: Wyatt and Clementine at the church dedication.

High Noon: opening ballad with villains riding through town.

 Cook. Chapter 12.
15-16 Film in the 1970s Altman, Robert. McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Five Easy Pieces: an order of toast.

The Long Goodbye: detective Marlowe shoots a friend who got away with murder.

 Cook. pp. 845-868.
III. International masters
17-18 Renoir and poetic realism Renoir, Jean. Grand Illusion. Boudu Saved From Drowning: Boudu leaves his own wedding party on the river. Cook. pp. 303-326.
Hour test
19-20 Italian neorealism De Sica, Vittorio. Bicycle Thieves. Rome, Open City: child saboteurs return home to their parents. Cook. pp. 355-368.
21 Fellini Fellini, Federico. 8 ½.

La Strada: Zampano the strongman.

Nights of Cabiria: near drowning of Cabiria and rescue.

La Dolce Vita: statue flying over Rome.

 Cook. pp. 531-555.
22 Summary perspectives: film as art and artifact
Final exam

Recommended Readings

Brophy, Stephen. "Bicycle Thieves is a poignant neorealist work." The Tech, May 5, 1995.

On Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller: Lethem, Jonathan. "The Greatest Death Scene." The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2007.

On John Ford's The Searchers: Stone, Robert. "The Search Party." The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2007.

Thorburn, David, "Television as an Aesthetic Medium." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 4, no. 2 (June 1987): 161-173.

Amazon logo ———. "Television Melodrama." In Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. Edited by Horace Newcomb. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195301168.

———. "Web of Paradox." The American Prospect 9 no. 40, September 1, 1998 - October 1, 1998.