Syllabus
1
Introduction 2
Jean-Luc Godard and Cinematic Histories
Screening : Jean-Luc Godard, Histoire(s) du cinéma (2007). Post-film talk. 3
Buster Keaton and the Aesthetic of Dizziness
Pre-film talk and screening: Clips from Our Hospitality (1923, 75 min., dir. Buster Keaton and co-dir. John Blystone).
Sherlock, Jr. (1924, silent with English intertitles, 44 min. dir. Buster Keaton).
The General (1926, silent with English intertitles, 75 min., dir. Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman).
Rdgs: L. Bersani and U. Dutoit: Arts of Impoverishment pp. 1-9.
E. Roraback: "Layering Dizziness in the Autopoietic Cinema of Buster Keaton"; revised version of a paper given at the 31st annual conference of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature Nicosia, Cyprus, Europe, 4-9 June 2007; conference theme: Layering: Textual, Visual, Spatial, Temporal.
S. Shaviro: The Cinematic Body, pp. 255-69. 4
German Expressionism, the Political & the Heroizing Epic I
Pre-film talk and screening:
The Ring: Siegfried (Die Nibelungen: Siegfried, 1924, 143 min., German intertitles with English subtitles, dir. Fritz Lang). 5
German Expressionism, the Political & the Heroizing Epic II
Pre-film talk and screening:
The Ring: Kriemhild's Revenge (Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's
Revenge, 1924, 148 min., German intertitles with English subtitles, dir. Fritz Lang). 6
Post-film lecture/discussion on Die Nibelungen (The Ring)
Rdgs: D. Cook: A History, pp. 113-15.
S. Kracauer: The German Film, pp. 91-97.
E. Roraback: "The Mediatization of German Expressionism & the Politics of Filmic Adaptation: Lang's Die Nibelungen (The Ring, 1924)". Revised version of a lecture given at the 30th Annual conference of the International Association of Philosophy and Literature, Freiburg, Germany, 4-9 June 2006. German Expressionism and the Socio-Economic
Pre-film talk and screening: The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann, 1924, silent with English intertitles, 91 minutes, dir. F.W. Murnau).
Post-film lecture/discussion on The Last Laugh
Readings: L. Bersani and U. Dutoit: Arts of Impoverishment pp. 1-9.
D. Cook: A History of Narrative Film, pp. 115-23.
S. Kracauer: From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of German Film, pp. 99-106.
E. Roraback: "The Social and the Negative: Murnau's Der letzte Mann (The Last Laugh, 1924) and Walter Benjamin's 'Angelus Novus'"; revised version of a talk given at a conference in Prague, October, 2007.
S. Shaviro: The Cinematic Body, pp. 255-69. 7
Silent Film and the Close-Up
Pre-film lecture and screening: The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, 1928, 82 min., French intertitles with English subtitles, dir. Carl Th. Dreyer).
Post-film lecture/discussion on The Passion of Joan of Arc
Rdgs: S. Barber: The Screaming Body, pp. 5-32.
D. Cook: A History, pp. 372-73.
E. Roraback: "Autopoietic World-Forming Cinema and Spiritual Life: Dreyer's Early-Style La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928)". Revised version of a lecture given at The Evergreen State College (USA, 1/2007). 8
Silent Soviet Film, Dialectical Montage and the Camera-Eye
Pre-film lecture, screening and post-film lecture/discussion: Man with a Movie Camera (1929, 68 min., Russian intertitles with English subtitles, dir. Dziga Vertov).
Rdgs: D. Cook: A History, pp. 133-35.
G. Deleuze: pp. 39-43 in Cinema 1: The Movement-Image.
E. Roraback, "The Whirligig of Autopoietic Cinema: Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera, 1929". 9
Orson Welles, American Film & the Advent of the Time-Image
Pre-film lecture and screening: Citizen Kane (1941, 119 min., dir. Orson Welles). 10
Post-film lecture/discussion
Rdgs: D. Cook: A History, pp. 391-420.
G. Deleuze: Cinema 2, pp. 98-155.
E. Roraback: "Cosmic Autopoietic Self-Reference, Participation & Actuality: Citizen Kane (1941)". Revised version of a lecture given at the University of Szeged (Hungary, 2003). 11
The Lost Nirvana and Orson Welles's Lost Magnum Opus
Pre-film lecture and screening: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, 82 min.). 12
Post-film lecture and discussion of The Magnificent Ambersons
Rdgs: D. Cook: A History, pp. 391-420.
G. Deleuze: Cinema 2, pp. 98-155.
E. Roraback: "Autopoietic & Multisensorial Evocations & Provocations of Lost Paradise: Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)". Revised version of a lecture given at the University of Constance (Germany, 2006).
F. Truffaut: "Foreword" to André Bazin's Orson Welles: A Critical View, pp.1-27.
Annotation
OBJECTIVES
This seminar is a select examination of films from D.W. Griffith, Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Dziga Vertov,
Sergei Eisenstein, and Orson Welles (i.e., pre-1945 Euro-American cinema) with special focus given to those cinematic moments that teach and train us in new non-dominatory viewing strategies, in new creative ways of circulating, and in new nonsadistic ways of engaging with the most essential element of the cinema: the aesthetic unit of the image. Film criticism and film philosophy from Leo Bersani-Ulysse Dutoit, David A. Cook, Gilles Deleuze, Siegfried Kracauer, Erik Roraback, and
Steven Shaviro will be our textual objects of focus. All films are either in English or have English inter-titles or sub-titles. Clips and special features from the DVDs will also be shown, including from Jean-Luc Godard´s Histoire(s) du cinéma, 4 dvd set
(2007). The course is conducted in English and consists of three clock hour long sessions (i.e., four academic hours) to allow sufficient time for both the screenings and for seminar lecture/discussion.
MATERIAL
DVD and VHS tapes: see schedule that will be handed out in class
ASSESSMENT
To receive credit for the seminar students must: have no more than three absences, give one oral presentation on a film and on the required text(s) for that week, submit a mid-term essay and a final essay.
Final essay (3000-4000 words): 40%, Mid-term essay (2000 words): 20%, Oral presentation: 20%, Attendance and participation: 20%.