This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Films and Readings

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

Selected video lectures from the Fall 2007 class, which have been published in MIT OpenCourseWare, are assigned as preparation for some class sessions.

Most films viewed in the first two weeks are in the public domain, and can be viewed online at the given links and via the Public Domain Films page. Links provided for films produced after 1923 go to reference webpages at IMDb.

Primary Course Text

[Cook] = Buy at Amazon Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. 4th ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2004. ISBN: 9780393978681.

LEC # TOPICS REQUIRED FILMS
(SCREENED IN ENTIRETY)		 SUPPORTING FILMS
(CLIPS SHOWN IN CLASS)		 ASSIGNED READINGS AND VIDEOS
I. THE SILENT ERA
1-2

Introduction

Keaton

The Great Train Robbery. Directed by Edwin S. Porter. 11 min. Thomas A. Edison, Inc., 1903.

A Beast at Bay. Directed by D. W. Griffith. 14 min. 1912.

Lonely Villa. Directed by D. W. Griffith. 7 min. 1909.

Muskateers of Pig Alley. Directed by D. W. Griffith. 17 min. 1912.

Cops. Directed by Buster Keaton. 18 min. First National Pictures, Inc., 1922.

The General. Directed by Buster Keaton. 75 min. United Artists, 1926.

The Public Domain Films page links to these and related films.

Introduction:

Keaton:

  • Cops: Opening sequence with Keaton behind bars, scene with bomb and the scene where he see-saws
  • Keystone Cops short sequence: cops dragged behind the car
  • Sherlock Jr.: scene with the motorcycle

View video lectures from the Fall 2007 class: Introduction and Keaton.

[Cook], pp. 1–41, 51–85.

Gunning, Tom. "An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator." Art and Text 34 (1989).

[Cook], pp. 177–82.

Buy at Amazon Mast, G. "Mack Sennett and the Chaplin Shorts" (pp. 87–103) and "The Comics". (pp. 134–44). In A Short History of the Movies. 6th ed. Prentice Hall College Div, 1996. ISBN: 9780023770753.
3-4 Chaplin

The Immigrant. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. 20 min. Mutual Film Corp., 1917.

Easy Street. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. 19 min. Mutual Film Corp., 1917.

Modern Times. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. 87 min. United Artists, 1936.

 See the Public Domain Films page for links to other Chaplin films.

View video lectures from the Fall 2007 class: Chaplin Part I and Part II.

Buy at Amazon Agee, James. "Comedy's Greatest Era." In Agee on Film. Vol. 1. Mcdowell Obolensky, 1958, pp. 2–19.
5-6 Film as a global and cultural form: German film

Nosferatu. Directed by F. W. Murnau. 93 min. Film Arts Guild, 1922. 

The Last Laugh. Directed by F. W. Murnau. 101 min. UFA, 1924.

   [Cook], Chapters 4–5.
II. HOLLYWOOD GENRES
7-8 Hollywood in the 1930s

It Happened One Night. Directed by Frank Capra. 105 min. Columbia Pictures, 1934.

His Girl Friday. Directed by Howard Hawks.  92 min. Columbia Pictures, 1940.

Ball of Fire clip: Stanwyck character meets Cooper and the other professors. Directed by Howard Hawks. Samuel Goldwyn Productions, 1941.

The Lady Eve clip:  Stanwyck character comments on the women trying to get the attention of Fonda. Directed by Preston Sturges. Paramount Pictures, 1941.

 [Cook], Chapters 7–8.
9-10 Hitchcock

Shadow of a Doubt. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 108 min. Universal Pictures, 1943.

Rear Window. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 112 min. Paramount Pictures, 1954.

Psycho clip: shower scene. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Paramount Pictures, 1960.

Battleship Potemkin clip:  "Odessa Steps" sequence. Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein. Goskino, 1925.

Cabinet of Dr Caligari clip: Sleepwalking monster takes woman. Directed by Robert Wiene. Decla-Bioscop, 1920.

  
11-12 The Musical

Singin' in the Rain. Directed by Stanely Donen and Gene Kelly. 103 min. MGM, 1952.

Cabaret. Directed by Bob Fosse. 124 min. Allied Artists, 1972.

Busby Berkeley sequence: Dick Powell and a universe of women.

Top Hat clip: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance to "Cheek to Cheek." Directed by Mark Sandrich. RKO, 1935.

 Buy at Amazon Braudy, Leo. "Genre: The Conventions of Connection." In Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 1979, pp. 443–68. ISBN: 9780195025033.
13-14 The Western The Searchers. Directed by John Ford. 119 min. Warner Bros., 1956.

My Darling Clementine clip: Wyatt and Clementine at the church dedication. Directed by John Ford. 20th Century Fox, 1946.

High Noon clip: opening ballad with villains riding through town. Directed by Fred Zinnemann. United Artists, 1952.

[Cook], Chapter 12.

Stone, Robert. "The Search Party." The New York Times, November 10, 2007.
15-16 Film in the 1970s McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Directed by Robert Altman. 120 min. Warner Bros., 1971.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller clip: gunfight on the bridge, young man is killed. Directed by Robert Altman. Warner Bros., 1971.

The Long Goodbye clip: detective Marlowe shoots a friend who got away with murder. Directed by Robert Altman. United Artists, 1973.

View video lectures from the Fall 2007 class: Film in the 1970s Part I and Part II.

[Cook], pp. 845–68.

Lethem, Jonathan. "The Greatest Death Scene." The New York Times, November 10, 2007.
III. INTERNATIONAL MASTERS
17-18 Renoir and Poetic Realism Grand Illusion. Directed by Jean Renoir. 114 min. World Pictures, 1937.

Boudu Saved From Drowning clip: Boudu leaves his own wedding party on the river. Directed by Jean Renoir. Les Établissements Jacques Haïk, 1932.

Grand Illusion clip: dinner scene in camp near the beginning. Directed by Jean Renoir. World Pictures, 1937.

 [Cook], pp. 303–26.
19-20 Italian Neorealism Bicycle Thieves. Directed by Vittorio De Sica. 93 min. Ente Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche, 1948.

Rome, Open City clip: child saboteurs return home to their parents. Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Minerva Film S.p.A., 1945.

Umberto D. clip: old men on a bus. Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Dear Film, 1952.

View video lectures from the Fall 2007 class: Italian Neorealism Part I and Part II.

[Cook], pp. 355–68.

Buy at Amazon Zavattini, Cesare. "Some Ideas on the Cinema." In Film: A Montage of Theories. Edited by R. Dyer MacCann. Dutton, 1966, pp. 216-28.
21-22 The French New Wave The 400 Blows. Directed by François Truffaut. 99 min. Cocinor, 1959.   [Cook], pp. 431–58.
23 Kurosawa's Rashomon Rashomon. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. 88 min. Daiei Film Co. Ltd., 1950. Seven Samurai clip: journey to village with Mifune's character fishing. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1954.  
24 Summary Perspectives: Film as Art and Artifact    

Supplemental Readings

Thorburn, David. "Television as an Aesthetic Medium." (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF) Critical Studies in Mass Communication 4, no. 2 (1987): 161–73.

Buy at Amazon ———. "Television Melodrama." In Television: The Critical View. Edited by Horace Newcomb. 7th ed. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195301168.

———. "Web of Paradox." The American Prospect, September 1 - October 1, 1998.