The concentration in Cinema and Media Studies provides a framework within which College students can approach film and related media from a variety of historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives. Focusing on the study of the moving image (and its sound accompaniments), the program enables students to analyze how meanings are created through representational devices specific to the medium and its institutions. At the same time, the goal is to situate the cinema (and related media) in broader cultural, social, and aesthetic contexts, such as visual culture and the history of the senses; modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde; narrative theory, poetics, and rhetoric; commercial entertainment forms and leisure and consumer culture; sexuality and gender; constructions of ethnic, racial, and national identities; transnational media production and circulation, globalization, and global media publics.

Students wishing to enter the program should consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the spring quarter of their freshman year. Participation in the program must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies before registration.

The concentration requires twelve courses and a B.A. research paper. Course work is divided into a major field specifically concerned with cinema and a minor field focusing on a separate but related area or topic.

Major Field. Of the eight required courses in the major field, students must take two introductory courses, one in methods of film analysis (Cinema and Media Studies 101) and one in modes of film practice (Cinema and Media Studies 102); if possible, these introductory courses should be taken in sequence and by the end of the third year. In the autumn quarter of the fourth year, students are expected to participate in a senior colloquium that helps them conceptualize their B.A. research paper and address more advanced questions of methodology and theory. The remaining five courses must be chosen according to the following distribution. Students must choose:

1. two courses in film history (at least one course in a cinema tradition other than mainstream American);

2. two courses dealing with genre (e.g., horror film, musical, or experimental film) or individual directors, actors, or stars (one course in this category may be replaced with a course in film/video making); and

3. one course in film theory, media theory, or theories of audiovisual representation.

Minor Field. In addition, students must take a cluster of four courses in a separate area that can be brought to bear on the study of cinema in significant ways. Such clusters could be imagined, for instance, as focusing on other media and art forms (e.g., photography, video, the visual arts, architecture, literature, theater, opera, or dance); cross-disciplinary topics or sets of problems (e.g., the urban environment, violence and pornography, censorship, copyright and industry regulation, concepts of the public sphere, or globalization); or subfields within area studies (e.g., East Asian, South Asian, African-American, or Jewish studies) and traditional disciplines, such as history, anthropology/ethnography, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, sociology, or political economy. Students develop these clusters in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and are expected to write a brief essay explaining the rationale for and coherence of their minor field by February 1 of the third year.

B.A. Research Paper. A B.A. research paper is required of all students in the program. During the spring quarter of their third year, students meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to discuss the focus of their B.A. project, a process to be concluded by May 15; they begin reading and research during the summer. During the autumn quarter of the fourth year, they should have selected a project adviser and be prepared to present an outline of their project to the senior colloquium; writing and revising take place during the winter quarter. The final version is due by the fourth week of the quarter in which the student plans to graduate. The B.A. research paper typically consists of a substantial essay that engages a research topic in the history, theory, and criticism of film and/or other media. In exceptional cases, students may apply to the Director of Undergraduate Studies to substitute a creative project for the essay, provided they have taken at least one course in the respective area of production (e.g., film/video making or screenwriting). Any creative project should include a research component that the student is expected to describe in an accompanying report. Registration for the B.A. research paper (Cinema and Media Studies 299) may not be counted toward distribution requirements for the concentration.

Grading. Students concentrating in Cinema and Media Studies must receive letter grades in all courses required for the concentration. Nonconcentrators may take Cinema and Media Studies courses on a P/N basis if they receive prior consent from the instructor.

Special Honors. Students who have done outstanding work in the program and have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher may be nominated for special honors. These honors are reserved for the student whose B.A. research paper shows exceptional intellectual and/or creative merit in the judgment of the first and the second readers, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and the Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division.

Advising. By the beginning of the third year, each student is expected to get his or her program of study approved by both the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the College adviser. For the construction of their minor field, students are encouraged to take courses and consult with members of the resource faculty. Consult the following lists for the names of core and resource faculty members.

101. Introduction to Film I (=ArtH 190, CMS 101, COVA 253, Eng 108, GS Hum 200). PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The first part introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles. T. Gunning. Autumn.

102. Introduction to Film II (=ArtH 191, CMS 102, Eng 109, GS Hum 201). PQ: This is the second part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. Not offered 1999-2000; will be offered 2000-2001.

236/336. Mastroianni and Keitel: Comparative Masculinities and Ethnicities (=CMS 236/336, GendSt 285/385, Ital 285/385). Using films in which Marcello Mastroianni and Harvey Keitel star, we study the diverse concepts of masculinity and ethnicity that these actors embody. We employ theoretical approaches to filmic representations of maleness and ethnic "types," to cultural assumptions and stereotypes regarding men, and to Italian and American styles of filmmaking in the analysis of such films as La dolce vita, Otto e mezzo, Una giornata particolare, La città delle donne, Stanno tutti bene, and Mean Streets, The Duelists, Two Evil Eyes, Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant, and The Piano. All work in English; Italian concentrators read critical materials and write a final paper and a book review in Italian. R. West. Winter.

240/340. Capra and Hollywood (=CMS 240/340, Eng 236/486). The primary focus of this course is on Capra's programmatic series of films from the 1930s and 1940s, especially Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, It's a Wonderful Life, and The State of the Union. But we also attend to a range of other achievements: his pioneering contributions to screwball comedy (e.g., Platinum Blonde and It Happened One Night); his less widely-known early work for Columbia Pictures (e.g., The Miracle Woman, American Madness, and The Bitter Tea of General Yen); the best of his silent films (Strong Man and Long Pants); and his contributions to the Why We Fight series of educational/propaganda films. J. Chandler. Spring.

241/341. Films in India (=Anthro 206/311, CMS 241/341, Hist 267/367, SoAsia 205/305). This course considers film-related activities from just before Independence (1947) down to the present. Emphasis is placed on the reconstruction of film-related activities that can be taken as life practices from the standpoint of "elites" and "masses," "middle classes," men and women, people in cities and villages, governmental institutions, businesses, and the "nation." The course relies on people's notions of the everyday, festive days, paradise, arcadia, and utopia to pose questions about how people try to realize their wishes and themselves through film. How film practices articulated with colonialism, nationalism, "socialist development," and, now, "free markets" is a major concern. R. Inden. Winter.

242. Cinema in Africa (=AfAfAm 219, CMS 242, Eng 276). PQ: Anthro 207-208-209 or CMS 101. This course places cinema in sub-Saharan Africa in its social, cultural, and aesthetic contexts ranging from neocolonial to postcolonial, Western to Southern Africa, documentary to fiction, and art cinema to television. Depending on availability, films include African filmmakers with international reputations such as Ousmane Sembene, Djibril Diop Mambety, Flora Gomez, Idrissa Ouedraogou, and Lionel Rogosin; neocolonial adventure pics such as Zulu (Enfield); ethnographic film; both metropolitan (Rouch's Maitres Fous) and local (Bringing Back the Goddess, about the revival of a Zulu tradition); and narratives of antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and anticolonial struggle elsewhere. L. Kruger. Winter.

244/344. Eastern European New Waves (=CMS 244/344, ComLit 220/320, EEuro 249/349, German 349). PQ: Knowledge of an Eastern European language or (film) culture helpful but not required. Throughout Eastern Europe, New Wave filmmaking emerged in the late 1950s as part of a larger political and cultural de-Stalinization process and in response to earlier modes of Communist film culture. This course follows the attempts of filmmakers to reform socialism (and the cinema as an institution), and their search for a form adequate to describe political life and historical experience in their full complexity. Screenings include films from Poland (Wajda, Zanussi, Skolimowski, and Kieslowski); the Soviet Union (Kalatozov, Paradjanov, and Kozintsev); the German Democratic Republic (Wolf, Beyer, and Klein); Hungary (Jancsó, Makk, Kovács, Meszáros, and Tarr); Czechoslovakia (Nemec, Forman, Chytilová, and Jakubisko); and Yugoslavia (Makavejev). Films subtitled. K. Trumpener. Spring.

263. The Films of Billy Wilder (=CMS 263, Eng 289, GS Hum 209). Known primarily for films that establish him as a Hollywood insider (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, and Some Like It Hot), Billy Wilder began his five-decade-long career in Weimer Germany and France. He returned to Germany in 1945, where he worked on a documentary on Nazi death camps (Todesmühlen / Mills of Death) and A Foreign Affair. Through close readings of exemplary films, we explore Wilder's range from gentle ethnographer of modern life to caustic satirist of American society and the culture industry, focusing on issues of authorship and reception (in particular his exclusion from the auteurist canon). M. Hansen. Spring.

273/373. Perspectives on Imaging (=ArtH 257/357, CMS 272/373). This course focuses on the evolution and history of the production and dissemination of knowledge by visual means. Topics include evaluation of light perception and vision; emergence of drawing, writing, and printing; early optical instruments to extend vision; photographic recording of images; X-rays and computer-based, nonoptical imaging methods; conceptual foundations of imaging science; visual knowledge, education, and multimedia learning; and the cultural impact of imaging in the twenty-first century. B. Stafford. Autumn.

275/375. Theories of Photographic Image and Film (=ArtH 272/372, CMS 275/375, COVA 255, GS Hum 233/333). This course is an introduction and survey of theories concerning photography and cinema. A variety of works by the following authors, among others, is discussed: Stanley Cavell, Erwin Panofsky, Siegfried Kracauer, André Bazin, Christian Metz, Susan Sontag, Edward Weston, Ernst Gombrich, Nelson Goodman, and John Szarkowski. J. Snyder. Winter.

276/376. Beginning Photography (=CMS 276/376, COVA 240). PQ: COVA 101 and 102, or consent of instructor. A camera and light meter are required. Photography affords a relatively simple and accessible means for making pictures. Through demonstration, students are introduced to technical procedures and basic skills, and begin to establish criteria for artistic expression. Possibilities and limitations inherent in the medium are topics of classroom discussion. Class sessions and field trips to local exhibitions investigate the contemporary photograph in relation to its historical and social context. Course work culminates in a portfolio of works exemplary of the student’s understanding of the medium. Lab fee $40. L. Letinsky. Autumn, Winter.

277/377. Advanced Photography (=CMS 277/377, COVA 278). PQ: COVA 101 or 102, and 240 or 241; or consent of instructor. Throughout the quarter, students concentrate on a set of issues and ideas that expand upon their experience and knowledge, and that have particular relevance to them. All course work is directed towards the production of a cohesive body of either color or black-and-white photographs. An investigation of contemporary and historic photographic issues informs the students’ photographic practice and includes visits to local exhibitions, critical readings, darkroom techniques, and class and individual critiques. Lab fee $40. L. Letinsky. Spring.

280. Sound in the Cinema (=CMS 280, Eng 281, GS Hum 205). This course develops our abilities to discuss, analyze, and research sound recording, audio media, and aspects of auditorship in theoretical and historical terms. Beginning with basic terminology and concepts specific to sound forms, we investigate specific historical and theoretical topics including the emergence of recorded sound from the 1870s to the 1890s, the coming of sound to the American and international cinemas from the 1920s to the 1930s, and theoretical investigations of acoustic technologies and of listening. Readings include essays by Edison, Benjamin, Adorno, Eisenstein, Prokofiev, Frith, and Altman. Films and videos include works by Vertov, Eisenstein, Disney, Kubelka, Lang, Coppola, and Cage/Cunningham. J. Lastra. Winter.

281/381. Issues in Film Music (=CMS 281/381, Music 229/309). This course explores the role of film music from its origins in silent film, through to its increasingly self-reflexive use in recent cinema (both avant-garde and commercial, Western and non-Western). We look at the ways music plays a central role both as part of the narrative and as nondiegetic music, how its stylistic diversity contributes its own semiotic universe to the screen, and how it becomes a central qualifying agent in twentieth-century visual culture. B. Hoeckner. Spring.

282/382. Styles of Performance and Expression from Stage to Screen (=ArtH 293/392, CMS 282/382, ComLit 227/327, COVA 259, Russ 280/380). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course focuses on the history of acting styles in silent film (1895 to 1930), mapping "national" styles of acting that emerged during the 1910s (American, Danish, Italian, and Russian) and various "acting schools" that proliferated during the 1920s (Expressionist acting and Kuleshov's Workshop). We discuss film acting in the context of various systems of stage acting (Delsarte, Stanislavsky, and Meyerhold) and the visual arts. Y. Tsivian. Spring.

283. Opera and Screen (=CMS 283, Music 221). PQ: Any 100-level music course or consent of instructor. This course explores opera of the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, with special attention to cinematic interpretations. Critical questions it raises include how the conjunction of these two media (staged and filmic) has been negotiated; how a variety of "texts" (verbal, musical, and visual) intersect as opera is realized in film; and how filmed opera attracts and shapes different modes of spectatorship from stage opera. Among the operas considered are Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, Verdi’s La Traviata and Bizet’s Carmen, and the Brecht/Weill Three Penny Opera. M. Feldman. Autumn.

285/485. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era (=ArtH 285/385, CMS 285/485, Eng 293/487, MAPH 336). PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The aim of this course is to introduce students to what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological; we also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking. Y. Tsivian. Winter.

286/486. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960 (=ArtH 286/386, CMS 286/486, Eng 296/489, MAPH 337). PQ: CMS 285/485 or consent of instructor. This is the second part of the international survey history for film covering the sound era up to 1960. The crystallization of the classical Hollywood film in terms of style and genre, as well as industry organization, is a key issue. But international alternatives to Hollywood are also discussed, from the unique forms of Japanese cinema to movements such as Italian Neo-Realism and the beginnings of the New Wave in France. Texts include Thompson Bordwell, Film History and Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, Godard and other. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir. T. Gunning. Spring.

297. Reading Course. PQ: Consent of faculty adviser and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

298. Senior Colloquium. PQ: CMS 101 and 102. Required of all Cinema and Media Studies concentrators. This seminar is designed to provide senior concentrators with a sense of the variety of methods and approaches in the field (such as formal analysis, cultural history, industrial history, reception studies, and psychoanalysis). Students present material relating to their B.A. research paper, which is discussed in relation to the issues of the course. J. Lastra. Autumn.

299. B.A. Research Paper. PQ: Consent of instructor. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. May not be counted toward distribution requirements for the concentration. Staff. Autumn, Winter