FS - Film Studies

Introduction to basic formal concepts in film analysis including mise-en-scène, cinematographic properties, editing, and sound, as well as narrative qualities.

A survey of world cinema from 1890 to 1950, with emphasis on major historical developments and important individual films. Prerequisite or corequisite: FS 100. Not to be taken by students with credit in FS 200.

A survey of world cinema from 1950 to present, with emphasis on major historical developments and important individual films. Prerequisite: FS 100. Not to be taken by students with credit in FS 200.

The socio-cultural role of TV from the network to multi-platform eras with an emphasis on theories of power and representation. Prerequisite/Corequisite: FS 100.

General survey of major currents and debates in film theory, including early theories on the ontology of the film image, semiotic approaches to film as language, Marxist and psychoanalytic concepts of spectatorship and the film image, the intersections of film and ideology, and the phenomenological theory of film as an embodied experience. Prerequisite: FS 100.

History and aesthetic developments in Quebec film, from 1930s to present. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Major trends in English Canadian film, such as documentary, feature film, animation, and experimental film. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Examining the ways in which crime and criminality have been represented in narrative cinema across cultures and nationalities. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Survey of the cinematic Western from the silent period to the present, with emphasis on the decades between 1930 and 1970. Prerequisite: FS 100.

A study of the stylistic, thematic, and ideological features of the melodrama as a film genre with strong ties to the woman's film and the general mode of storytelling of Hollywood cinema. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Survey of the Hollywood gangster film and related forms from the 1930s to the present. Prerequisite: FS 100.

A study of the Science Fiction film genre as an imaginative displacement of social and cultural concerns that define the context in which the films emerge. Prerequisite: FS 100.

A study of the stylistic, thematic, and ideological features of the American film genre known as film noir. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Examines the aesthetic, cultural and political principles animating the films of the 1960s cinematic movement known as the French New Wave. Prerequisite: FS 100. Not to be taken by students with credit in FS 362.

An overview of the development of the animated film in a global context. Production practices may include pin screen, cell, clay, collage, stop-motion, and computer animation. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Intersections between film and cultural notions and practices of gender and sexuality. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Examines the history of comedy across cinema, television, and digital platforms, drawing on theories of humor and laughter. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Examines the horror genre from the silent era to the present. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Theory and history of the documentary film, with emphasis on Flaherty, the Documentary Movement in Britain, the National Film Board of Canada, and recent developments in the field. Prerequisite: FS 100.

An investigation of silent film treated as a form distinct from sound film. Historical developments, important genres and major individual films with emphasis on American and European film. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Avant-garde, abstract and structural film. The history and changing conceptions of experimental film, with examples from the silent era to the present. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Examines the cultural and industrial dimensions of televisual production and distribution into the post-network era. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Analysis of specific genres within their cultural, historical, and industrial contexts. Prerequisite: FS 100.

An overview of the development of French cinema from the beginning of cinema to the present including major film movements such as Surrealism, Poetic Realism, Cinema Verité, the Nouvelle Vague, and contemporary movements. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Survey of German cinema, with emphasis on the films of the Weimar era (1918-1933) and the New German Cinema of the 1970s. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Historical and aesthetic developments in the cinemas of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary from the early years of cinema to the post-1989 period. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Survey of East Asian cinemas such as mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Concentrates on commercial American filmmaking since the 1960s. Special attention will be given to defining Postmodernism and to historically situating its rise within the development of American cinema. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Examines representations of race, ethnicity, and identity on screen with an emphasis on critical race theories. Prerequisite: FS 100.

An examination of how technology influences the patterns of film production. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Prerequisite: FS 100.

Concentrated study of a specific problem in film history, either a historical period or a problem in historiography. Prerequisite: FS 201 and 202, and *3 in FS at the 300-level; or instructor approval.

Concentrated study of the works of individual filmmakers. The course will deal with one to three important filmmakers through representative films. Prerequisite: FS 100.

A seminar-based examination of specialized topics in film. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Transnational flows of popular entertainment and their relationship to local and global cultural identities. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Critical studies of televisual narratives, ideologies, discourses, and audience reception practices. Prerequisite: FS 100.

Prerequisite: consent of Department.

Prerequisite: consent of Department.