UMASS COURSES: GRADUATE
SPRING 2013
UMASS Graduate Film Studies Certificate Course Requirements:
- one course in film theory
- a minimum of two courses taken outside the student’s degree-granting department and college
- a minimum of two courses with an international or intercultural focus
* Category notations are specified at the end of each course description.
See the complete list of Graduate Film Studies Certificate requirements.
Note: This guide is a work-in-progress. Course info may be subject to change.
COMM 693D - 01 Sem-Intro Film Theory Cap 15
Anne Cieko
Tu 4:00-6:55PM South College 108
COMM 793N - 01 S-Film & The Civil Rights Era
Demetria Shabazz Cap 15
Fri 1:25-4:25PM Rm TBA
COMPLIT 695C: MELODRAMA: FASSBINDER, SIRK & GODARD
Don Levine Cap 15
W 3:35-7:30 Rm TBA
What were Godard's early films for Fassbinder? Instead of rejecting the most influential avant-garde film maker of the sixties, Fassbinder adopted Godard as father. Yet this fathering was a highly selective progeneration. What does the juxtaposition of these film makers reveal and conceal - and not only about Fassbinder's films, since we cannot now see those of Godard without having our past viewings of Fassbinder films in our heads. Fassbinder sets us on track with two remarks: "Godard believes that film is the truth 24 frames per second, while I believe film is the lie 25 frames per second," and "Both Godard and I despise our characters." The course will raise theoretical issues of spectatorship, tone (irony, distanciation, citation) gender, genre, while being firmly grounded in the formal analysis of filmic text; the construction of the filmic text and its "meaning," and the destruction of subject by means of abyssal structures (mises-en-abyme, structural or metaphoric infinite regresses); Fassbinder's ideological fatigue and complex sexual politics, Godard's political innocence (which is not the same as naivete), his cinematic energy amidst his films' increasing cultural despair. Pre-requisites: familiarity with film theory and discourse, preferably by at least two courses in film analysis. Course meets as intensive seminar, once a week for 4 hours. Films selected from: Why Does Herr R. Run Amok and Breathless; American Soldier and Les Carabiniers; The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant & Une Femme Mariée; Effie Briest & Vivre sa Vie; Beware of the Holy Whore and Contempt. Undergraduates need instructor permission.
Undergraduate UMass Film Studies Certificate category: IIB, IV, V
Five College Film Studies Major category: 4, 7
PORTUG 697A – BRAZIL IN FILM AND FICTION
Daphne Patai
T/TH 4:00PM – 6:30PM
SPANISH 797PA: FILMS OF PEDRO ALMODOVAR
Barbara Zecchi
M 4:00PM – 6:30PM
