HSUHK | CCCO

GEN1015 Film and Society

Department
Social Science
Semester
AY2012/13 Sem 1, AY2012/13 Sem 2, AY2013/14 Sem 2, AY2014/15 Sem 1, AY2014/15 Sem 2, AY2015/16 Sem 1, AY2015/16 Sem 2, AY2016/17 Sem 1, AY2016/17 Sem 2, AY2017/18 Sem 1, AY2018/19 Sem 1, AY2019/20 Sem 2, AY2019/20 Summer Sem, AY2020/21 Sem 1, AY2020/21 Summer Sem
Method
Lecture 3 hours
Cluster
2 (Social Sciences)

Prerequisite

GEN1000 Perspectives on General Education

Exclusion

Nil

Module Description

This module aims to elucidate the complex ways in which films interpret, or interfere with, social realities from past to present. Each unit thus will focus on a particular film tradition/ movement of world cinema and its corresponding socio-cultural context. At the end of the course, students would be equipped with essential vocabularies of film histories, familiarized with up-to-date scholarly discussions of world cinema, and most important of all, cultivated with a critical awareness of the interactions between cinema and societies.

Module Intended Learning Outcomes (MILO)

Upon completion of this module, students should be able to: 
a. display an understanding of essential vocabularies of film histories; 
b. Engage in up-to-date scholarly discussions of world cinema with and beyond social scientific approaches 
c. Appraise the connection between styles and meanings in cinema; 
d. Demonstrate a media literacy when comprehending audio-visual forms of expression

Module Content

1. Film and Urban Culture

1.1 Film as modernity – early cinema and urban culture
1.2 Frankfurt School Critique of Cinema
1.3 Post-War Italy and France: Neo-realism and New Wave

2. Film and Politics/ Identity Politics

2.1. Film as Propaganda: Films in Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany
2.2. Film as Revolution: Soviet Cinema
2.3 Film as Nationalism: Taiwan Cinema
2.4 Film as Queer: Queer Cinema

3. Film Industry and Beyond

3.1 Hollywood Studio System
3.2 Production and Ideology of Blockbusters
3.3. Documentary Cinema: The Documentary Film Movement, Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité

Assessment Methods

1. Class participation (10%)
2. Midterm Paper (20%)
3. Final Paper (50%)
4. Group Presentation (20%)

Texts & References

  1. Barsam, R. (1975). Film Guide to Triumph of the Will. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  2. Bazin, A. (2004). What is Cinema? Vol. 2. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  3. Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson (2019). Film Art: An Introduction. 12th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  4. Bordwell, David. J. Staiger & K.Thompson. (2003/1985). The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960. London: Routledge.
  5. — and K. Thompson. (1979/ 2016). The Film Art: An Introduction. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
  6. Cook, P. (1947/2007). The Cinema Book. London: Palgrave.
  7. Eisenstein, S. (1949) Film Form – Essays in Film Theory. New York, Harcourt, Brace.
  8. Gledhill, Christine, and Linda Williams, ed. (2000). Reinventing Film Studies. London: Oxford University Press.
  9. Kracauer, S. (1963/1995). The Mass Ornament. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
  10. Neale, S. (2008). The Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. London and NY: Routledge.
  11. Nornes, A. M. & E. Y. Yeh (2014). Staging Memories: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A City of Sadness. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library, 2014
  12. Singer, B (2001). Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts. New York: Columbia University Press.
  13. Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell (2010). Film History: An Introduction. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
  14. Turner, Graeme (2006). Film As Social Practice IV. London: Routledge.