FAVBPa02 Introduction to Film Theory

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2008
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Jiří Voráč, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Wed 10:00–11:35 C34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course offers a survey of early and classic film theories from Hugo Münsterberg to Jean Mitry. Main objectives: to understand the history of film theories; to understand the theories in a wider cultural and institutional context; to reflect the methodological approach towards a history of ideas. Literature: Casetti, Francesco: Theories of Cinema 1945-1995 (Austin 1999); Abel, Richard: French Film Theory and Criticism. Princeton University Press, 1993; Hake, Sabine: The Cinema’s Third Machine. Writing on Film in Germany, 1907-1933 (1993); Stam, Robert: Film Theory: An Introduction (Malden 2000); Andrew, Dudley J.: The Major Film Theories (New York 1976); Andrew, Dudley J.: Concepts in Film Theory (New York 1984); Stam, Robert & Burgoyne, Robert & Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy: New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Post-Structuralism and Beyond (London, New York 1992); Stam, Robert & Miller, Toby: A Companion to Film Theory (Malden 1999); Neale, Stephen: Genre (London 1980); Aumont, Jacques & Bergala, Alain & Marie, Michel & Vernet, Marc: Aesthetics of Film (Austin 1992); Bordwell, David: Narration in the Fiction Film (Madison 1985); Chatman, Seymour: Coming to Terms: the rhetoric of narrative in fiction and film (Ithaca, New York 1990); Bordwell, David: On the History of Film Style (Cambridge, London 1997); Bordwell, David; Staiger, Janet; Thompson, Kristin: The Classical Hollywood Cinema (New York 1985)
Syllabus
  • - modernity and early cinema - early film theory - Canudo, Münsterberg, Lindsay - Delluc, Epstein, surrealism - „formalism“ - Arnheim, Balázs - Russian school of montage - Vertov: The Man With the Movie Camera - „realism“ - A. Bazin; Lukács - modernity: Kracauer, Benjamin
Literature
  • Hake, Sabine: The Cinema’s Third Machine. Writing on Film in Germany, 1907-1933 (1993)
  • Casetti, Francesco: Theories of Cinema 1945-1995 (Austin 1999)
  • Abel, Richard: French Film Theory and Criticism. Princeton University Press, 1993
  • Stam, Robert: Film Theory: An Introduction (Malden 2000)
  • Andrew, Dudley J.: The Major Film Theories (New York 1976)
Assessment methods
Assessment: a written test.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2005, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2017.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2008, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2008/FAVBPa02