FAV105 Spirituality in cinema

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2010
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Jaromír Blažejovský, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Jiří Voráč, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 8:20–12:25 C34, Thu 18:20–20:45 C34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
God exists in some kind of diegetic worlds created by filmmakers. This course offers an introduction to the theory of spirituality in cinema with a special attention to works of Andrey Tarkovski, Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Wim Wendres, Béla Tarr and others. We will study images of Christ figure in the world film history, too.

At the end of the course students should be able to:
get acquainted with the large corpus of spiruital oriented films
decode spiritual messages in selected art and genre movies
analyze works of the masters of spiritual cinema.
Syllabus
  • 1. Film and religion: an introduction
  • 2. Theories of spirituality in cinema: Amédée Ayfre, Henri Agel, Paul Schrader, Peter Fraser, Vladimír Suchánek
  • 3. Spiritually inspired films, religious films, spiritual films
  • 4. The spiritual mode
  • 5. Carl Th. Dreyer, Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson
  • 6. Andrei Tarkovsky
  • 7. Ermanno Olmi, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Béla Tarr, Lars von Trier, Andrei Zvyagintsev
  • 8. Blasphemy and atheism, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luis Buñuel, Carlos Reygadas
  • 9. Images of Christ in the cinema
  • 10. Islam and Buddhism in cinema
  • 11. Spiritual elements in Czech and Slovak movies
  • 12. Conclusions
Literature
    required literature
  • BLAŽEJOVSKÝ, Jaromír. Spiritualita ve filmu (Spirituality in cinema). 1st ed. Brno: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, 2007, 288 pp. mimo edice. ISBN 978-80-7325-132-1. info
  • TARKOVSKIJ, Andrej and Miloš FRYŠ. Krása je symbolem pravdy. Rozhovory, eseje, přednášky, korespondence, filmové scénáře a jiné texty (Beauty is the Symbol of Truth). Příbram: Miloš Fryš, 2005, 456 pp. Camera obscura 1. ISBN 80-903678-0-1. info
    recommended literature
  • TARKOVSKIJ, Andrej and Alexandr MIŠARIN. Zrcadlo [Tarkovskij] (Obsaž.) : 4 filmové povídky. info
  • SUCHÁNEK, Vladimír. Topografie transcendentních souřadnic filmového obrazu : úvod do problematiky uměleckého obrazu jako duchovně-estetické skutečnosti. 1. vyd. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 2002, 261 s. ISBN 8024404176. info
  • BRESSON, Robert. Poznámky o kinematografu. Praha: Dauphin, 1998, 115 s. ISBN 80-86019-68-3. info
  • SUCHÁNEK, Vladimír. A vdechl duši živou -- : -- aneb malé zamyšlení nad duchovními souvislostmi animovaného a trikového filmu jako umělecké tvorby. 1. vyd. Olomouc: 2004, 1979, 384 s. ISBN 8090279864. info
  • TARKOVSKIJ, Andrej Arsen‘jevič and Andrej Sergejevič MICHALKOV-KONČALOVSKIJ. Andrej Rubľov. Vyd. 1. Košice: Východoslovenské vydavateľstvo, 1977, 173 s. info
    not specified
  • The Continuum companion to religion and film. Edited by William L. Blizek. London: Continuum, 2009, x, 426. ISBN 9780826499912. info
  • The Routledge companion to religion and film. Edited by John Lyden. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 2009, xiv, 503. ISBN 9780415448536. info
  • BIRD, Robert. Andrei Tarkovsky : elements of cinema. 1st pub. London: Reaktion books, 2008, 255 s. ISBN 9781861893420. info
  • Tarkovsky. Edited by Nathan Dunne. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2008, 464 s. ISBN 9781906155049. info
  • Andrei Tarkovsky : interviews. Edited by John Gianvito. 1st ed. Jackson: University press of Mississippi, 2006, xxxiv, 190. ISBN 1578062209. info
  • BIRD, Robert. Andrej Rublev. Translated by David Petrů. Vyd. 1. Praha: Casablanca, 2006, 110 s. ISBN 809037560X. info
  • MARTIN, Sean. Andrei Tarkovsky. Harpenden, Herts: Pocket Essentials, 2005, 255 stran. ISBN 1904048498. info
  • TARKOVSKY, Andrey. Sculpting in time : reflections on the cinema. Translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair. 9th University of Texas pres. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005, 254 s. ISBN 0292776241. info
  • VALUŠIAK, Josef. Základy střihové skladby. 3., rozš. vyd. V Praze: FAMU, 2005, 143 s. ISBN 8073310392. info
  • CUNNEEN, Joseph. Robert Bresson : a spiritual style in film. New York: Continuum, 2003, 199 s. ISBN 0826416055. info
  • FRASER, Peter. Images of the passion : the sacramental mode in film. 1st pub. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998, vi, 201. ISBN 0275964655. info
  • Five filmmakers : Tarkovsky, Forman, Polanski, Szabó, Makavejev. Edited by Daniel J. Goulding. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994, xi, 289 s. ISBN 0-253-32609-5. info
  • JOHNSON, Vida T. and Graham PETRIE. The films of Andrei Tarkovsky : a visual fugue. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994, xvii, 331. ISBN 0253208874. info
  • BORDWELL, David. Ozu and the poetics of cinema. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988, x, 406. ISBN 0691008221. info
Teaching methods
Lectures, class discussion, film screenings.
Assessment methods
An essay.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2004, Spring 2006, Spring 2014.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2010, recent)
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