SCHEDULE (subject to change)

Week 1 Let’s Start at the Beginning: Or, What IS Central Europe?

Keywords: Central Europe,

Screening: Jiří Menzel, Closely Watched Trains. (CZ)

Required Readings:

Milan Kundera, "The Tragedy of Central Europe"

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, "Introduction" p.1-7,

Supplemental Readings:

Tony Judt, Borderlands, "The Coming of the Cold War" pp. 140-149

Week 2 What is ‘National’ Cinema, and How Do We Talk About It?

Keywords: Nationalism, Movie Making

Screening: Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos - The Little Shop on Main Street (SK)

Required Readings:

James Monaco, How to Talk About Film,Chapter 2 "Art and Technology" (selected excerpts)

Ľubica Mystríková, The Cinema of Central Europe, "Obchod na korze, A Shop on the High Street" pp. 97 - 105

Supplemental Reading:

Andrew Higson, Film and Nationalism "The Concept of National Cinemas" Pp. 52-67

Week 3 Politics and Form

Screening : Věra Chytilová, Daises (CZ)

Keywords: Formalism, Subversion, Gender

Readings:

Peter Hames "Věra Chytilová" p.183-201

Zdena Skupinová, "Sedikrásky / Daisies" p. 129-136

David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction, p.406, 428.

Supplemental Reading:

Egon Bondy, Selected Poems

Vaclav Havel, et al. "Charta 77"

Week 4 Experimentation and Mixed Media (Midterm 1 Due)

Keywords: Mixed Media, Surrealism

Screenings: Jiří Trnka, The Hand, Jan Švankmejer, A Week at the House, Punch and Judy, Jiří Barta, The Disk jockey (CZ)

Aesthetic Dictionary: Experimental film

Readings:

Fernand Leger, "The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth"

Peter Hames- "Jan Švankmejer"

Supplemental Reading: Tony Judt Borderlands, "Into the Whirlwind" [excerpts], pp.187-193

Pyotr Bogatryev- "Czech Puppet Theatre and Russian Folk Theatre" http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_drama_review/v043/43.3bogatyrev.html

Week 5 Politics and Films

Screening: Jan Nemec, Report on the Party and the Guests (CZ)

Keywords: Allegory, Dissidence, Show Trials

Readings:

Antonín Liehm, Closely Watched Films "Jan Nemec",

Peter Hames - "Jan Nemec" 167-183

Tony Judt, Borderlands, pp. 199-203, 436-449

Supplemental Readings:

Franz Kafka, "The Trial" (excerpts)

Week 6 Visualistic Journeys, Experimental Views

Screening: Karel Zeman, A Deadly Invention. (CZ)

Keywords: Visuality, Experimentation

Readings:

Dudley Andrew, "Adaptation"

Sigfried Kracauer, "Basic Concepts" - p.147-158

Supplemental Readings:

J.P. Telotte A Distant Technology: Science Fiction and the Machine Age, "Technology and Distance". P.1-27

Josef Škvorecký, All the Bright Young Men and Women. P.14-30

Week 7 Surreal Slovakia: The Slovak Avant-Garde

Screening: Juraj Jakubisko, Birds, Orphans, and Fools (SK)

Keywords: Ethnocentrism, The Slovak Problem

Peter Hames: "The Slovak Wave: Juraj Jakubisko, Elo Havetta, and Dušan Hanák" p.212-223

Martin Votruba, "Historical and National Background of Slovak Filmmaking", KinoKultura. http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/votruba.shtml

Suplemental Reading:

Petra Hanáková, "The Anti-Czech Agenda of Slovak Films 1939-1945" (excerpts)

Stanislaus Kirchbaum, Slovakia : The Struggle for Survival, "The Slovak Problem"

Week 8 The Genre Film (Midterm 2 Due)

Keywords: Genre, Spectacle

Screening: Oldřích Lipský, Limonádový Joe (or the Horse Opera) (CZ)

Readings:

Thomas Schatz, "Film Genre and the Genre Film"

David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction. "New Twists on Old Genres" p.314-316

Supplemental Reading:

Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, (excerpts)

Week 9 Folklore and Fantasy: Slovak Surrealism Revisited

Screening: Elo Havetta, Party in the Botanical Garden (SK)

Keywords: Visual Culture, Folklore, Magical Realism

Readings:

Jana Dudková, "Celebration in the Botanical Garden" KinoKultura.

http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/dudkova.shtml

Václav Macek, "From Czechoslovak to Czech and Slovak Film", KinoKultura. http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/macek.shtml

Antonín Liehm : "Elo Havetta"

Supplemental Reading:

Andrew Sarris, "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962"

Week 10 Black Comedy

Screening : Miloš Forman, The Firemen’s Ball (CZ)

Keywords: Black Humor, Farce, Slapstick

Required Readings:

Peter Hames "The Forman School: Milos Forman" pp.106-127

David Bordwell, Film History : An Introduction. Pp.426-427

Supplemental Reading:

Milena Jelinek, "An Interview with Miloš Forman" Cross Currents.

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/crossc/anw0935.1985.001/319:ANW0935.1985.001:25?page=root;rgn=subject;size=100;view=image;q1=Forman%2C+Milos

Week 11 Ethnicity, Diversity, and the Other: Minority Issues

Screening: Dušán Hanák, Rosy Dreams (SK)

Keywords: The Other, Roma, Normalization

Readings:

Jana Dudková, "The Problematic Other and the (Im)possibility of Cross-Cultural Dialogue in Slovak Cinema after 1993"

Eduard Said, Orientalism. "The Scope of Orientalism" pp.32-49

Supplemental Reading:

Jan Bernard, "About Gypsies, With Gypsies, Without Gypsies" (excerpts)

Week 12 : Life After Communism?

Screening: Jan Hřebejk, Cosy Dens (CZ)

Keywords: Nostalgia, Post-Communism

Required Readings:

Petra Hanáková, "Imagining National Identity in Czech Postcommunist Cinema",

Václav Havel "In a Time of Transition"

Supplemental Reading:

Slavoj Žižek, "Two Totalitarianisms", London Review of Books.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n06/slavoj-zizek/the-two-totalitarianisms

Final Paper Due