Professor Mike Griffin
Office: HUM 301
HMCS 128-01
Film Analysis and Visual Culture
Fall 2008
TTh 1:20-2:30 HUM 401
Catalog Description: This course explores the nature of visual representation, building from a focus on the formal analysis of cinema (the basic features of film form and style) and developing tools of socially critical visual textual analysis applicable to other visual media (advertising, museum installations, photography, television, and digital and graphic representations of all kinds). We start by concentrating on the basic features of cinematic form: narrative and non-narrative structure, the shot, editing, sound, and the construction of film style. Students will gain a familiarity with cinematic elements and vocabulary, practice in formalist critical analysis, and an introduction to theories and methods of visual cultural studies. Students will also make an abstract video. The primary goal of the course is to develop complementary analytical tools that can be used to illuminate representations and their implications. No prerequisites. The core course in the Film Studies focus within the Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies major, HMCS 128 also counts for the Fine Arts divisional requirement and may count for the minor in Media Studies.
Consumer Alert:
This course has no prerequisites, and I am careful to assume in the assignments and in class lectures and discussions no prior knowledge in the area. (Indeed, I will cut off discussion of readings not assigned and of films/videos not familiar to the whole class.)
The course does not include discussion of films/videos or other representations as if they were transparent windows on the psychologies or actions of living human beings. The human beings we will discuss are those who make the films and find them meaningful, not characters inside the narratives, although we will discuss how characters and other textual elements are constructed and understood.
I expect that on average the course will require about eight hours per week of work outside of class. You might want to read ahead or complete projects early to even out the course requirements and balance them with those of other classes.
Students in the class come from a wide range of backgrounds. Our work this semester will cover new ground for many of you. For that reason, I take it as my main job to help you develop an introductory understanding of the readings. That means most of the time will be spent explaining or discussing questions about the reading or considering alternative arguments. How much time we will have to discuss the reading (as in, "What do you think about it?"), in groups or in the class as a whole, will depend on the volume and complexity of questions. I hope you will talk about what you think with your classmates, your friends, and with me, but in class I give first priority to answering questions. As a result, we may discuss some readings quite briefly. Please do not hesitate to write to me with questions or ideas that you were not able to explore in class. I check my email daily during the term, and I expect you will as well. I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Disability Accommodations: I am committed to providing assistance to help you succeed in this course. Reasonable accommodations are available for students with documented disabilities. Please visit Irene Kao (kao@macalester.edu; 651-696-6220; 119 Weyerhaeuser), the coordinator for disability student services, at the beginning of the semester to seek information or to qualify for accommodations. She must approve all accommodations.
Grades: Course work will be evaluated in several ways (you must complete the papers, the tests, and the video and to pass the course):
1) Tests: There will be three one-hour, open-book essay examinations, one on Hall, one on Shklovsky and an essay by David Bordwell from Boyd-Barrett and Newbold, and one on Hall and Williamson, each counting 15 percent, and one test, graded pass/fail, on the film terms in the glossary of the 8th ed. of Bordwell and Thompson. You need to score a 70 on the Bordwell and Thompson test or a failure counting 10 percent will be averaged into your final grade.
2) Video: One abstract video (silent, no more than 35 seconds, responsive to Bordwell and Thompson, 356-363) (20 percent). You should attach a 1-2 page analysis of abstraction in your video. The video will be evaluated according to the criteria of originality, complexity, attention to detail, and relevance to the work of the course—not on production qualities.
3) Essay: You will write one paper of 2,000-2,250 words responsive to this classs use of Russian Formalism and of Bordwell and Thompson (35 percent). I urge you to call on Peter or me for help with your papers and to work with other students, as long as you do not plagiarize their ideas. Plagiarism will be handled according to the Macalester policy on academic integrity at http://www.macalester.edu/deanofstudents/deanofstudents/handbook/2007-2008/academicpolicies.htm. See the handout Academic Honesty, distributed with the syllabus of your first-year course. Also see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html. For help with quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_quotprsum.html. See the Guidelines for Papers below for my grading standards and for other writing requirements. Note the requirement that all papers have appropriate documentation and use the Modern Language Association system for citations. An excellent, detailed discussion of issues involving sources (when and how to use and credit them) can be found at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/index.html. The MLA system is described in Gibaldi. Contact the MAX Center in Kagin about writing and studying strategies. Use Writing at Macalester: A Handbook for First Year Students as a resource.
4) Attendance and class participation: I expect you to attend every class meeting, to be on time, and to participate actively based on the reading and viewing. Your participation allows others the benefit of your views and allows you to refine your own ideas. I will not evaluate the positions you take in class, but speaking off topic or without having done the reading or assigned viewing is not welcome. Feel free to ask questions and to disagree, but please remember that it is vital that our classroom be a safe and supportive space for participation and listening, especially when we talk about issues that affect people personally, such as gender, race, and sexualities. Exceptional participation will be rewarded, but students whose attendance is irregular (more than three absences) or who are routinely late or unprepared risk a reduction in their final evaluation of as much as one letter grade.
From the MAX Center:
The Macalester Academic Excellence (MAX) Center (x6121; Kagin Commons) is here to help you do your best at Macalester in meeting your own goals and highest standards. Through academic enrichment and support services, ranging from workshops to individual assistance, the MAX Center can help you excel in your academics.
Professional counselors and peer tutors in writing, mathematics, science, and study skills provide personal assistance in:
General hours are 9:00 A.M. – 4:30 P.M., M-F and 7 P.M. – 10 P.M., S-Th. Peer tutors are usually available in all areas during the evening, but as schedules vary during the day, it is useful to call x6121 (daytime) or x6193 during evening hours to schedule an appointment.
The MAX Center also provides testing accommodations. Students must verify the need for accommodations through the Dean of Students Office.
Writing Statement
The Macalester Academic Excellence (MAX) Center, located in Kagin Commons, has peer tutors available for assisting students in all stages of their writing. Hours are 9:00 A.M. – 4:30 P.M., M-F and 7 P.M. – 10 P.M., S-Th. Becky Graham and Jenny White also provide writing assistance to students during the daytime hours, M-F. You may drop in for help or call x6121 (daytime) or x6193 during evening hours to schedule an appointment.
How to get the best help from MAX Center writing tutors:
Go well before an assignment is due.
The MAX Center:
MAX Center staff members do not provide a proofreading service to students, nor do they rewrite student papers. They do provide writing instruction and guidance (including helping students learn how to proof-read their own work), helping students to do better with their own work.
Assignment Options: If you have a paper or video you would like to work on instead of one of the assigned papers, you need to secure my approval at least a week before the paper is due. Your proposal should be in writing and specify which assignment it replaces.
Late Papers: Late papers will be penalized one letter grade for each class day or portion late (for example, a "B" paper submitted one class late will receive a "C"). Late papers will not receive comments.
Missed Deadlines/Tests: Call or e-mail me if you are going to miss a deadline or test due to illness or other unforeseen circumstance (you can always leave a message). Failure to call in advance or lack of documented disability may result in your work being considered late. Makeup tests will be given only in cases of documented medical or other emergency.
Readings: Except where noted, readings have been ordered at the Macalester Bookstore and for 2-hour library reserve (the 2-hour reserve is designed for copying) or have been placed on e-reserve (noted in the syllabus). You can save money by copying materials on reserve, and save even more by sharing copies. However, you are required to bring a copy (individual or shared) of every reading to class. I expect you to prepare for class by looking up unfamiliar terms and noting questions on the material. Let us know if you find any of the readings or class discussions unclear. Peter and I would be happy to go over any of the reading with you outside of class, either individually or in small groups. Because of the screenings and because some material takes longer to discuss than others, readings are not evenly distributed over the weeks. You may want to read ahead to even them out.
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 2008. Most of this book assigned. The rest is recommended. I know of no justification for the frequent new editions of this book except greed, but for course purposes you are required either to have the 8th edition or to take responsibility for keeping track yourself of differences in pagination and material if you use an earlier one. I have ordered a copy of the new edition for reserve in case you have an older edition and need to refer to the new one for information unique to it or for papers or tests. There is a wealth of material made available by the publisher for students using Film Art at www.mhhe.com/filmart8. Make sure to check out the chapter sites. Another helpful Web location is Yales Film Analysis site, which has superb clips, though its definitions are occasionally less reliable than those in Film Art: http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/. Film Art also comes with a CD-ROM with clips and other learning materials; in general, it is more basic than the book itself but might be worth going through for a review of the terms mentioned.
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver, and Chris Newbold, eds. Approaches to Media: A Reader. Foundations in Media.
London: Arnold, 1995. Two essays assigned as e-reserve. The rest is recommended. Not ordered
at the bookstore. On 7-day reserve for optional reading.
Carroll, Nol. The Philosophy of Motion Pictures. Foundations of the Philosophy of the Arts. Malden,
MA: Blackwell, 2008. One essay assigned as e-reserve. Not ordered at the bookstore or for
library reserve.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern
Language Association, 2003. A reference book essential in college humanities courses; not on
reserve but at the library reference desk.
Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage-Open
U, 1997. All but the last chapter will be assigned.
Lemon, Lee T., and Marion J. Reis, eds. and trans. Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays.
Regents Critics Series. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1965. Introduction assigned as e-reserve. The rest is recommended. Not ordered at the bookstore. On 7-day reserve for optional reading.
Meehan, Eileen R., and Ellen Riordan, eds. Sex & Money: Feminism and Political Economy in the
Media. Commerce and Mass Culture Series. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2001. Two essays assigned as e-reserve. Not ordered at the bookstore. On 7-day reserve for optional reading.
Shklovsky, Viktor. Theory of Prose. 1929. Trans. Benjamin Sher. Normal, IL: Dalkey, 1990.
Translators introduction and two essays assigned.
Williamson, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising. 1978.
London: Marion Boyars, 2002. A bit more than half of this book will be assigned. The rest is recommended. Earlier editions differ only in their preface.
SCHEDULE (subject to change):
Films/videos marked DVD and VHS are on reserve in Media Services. All films/videos will be screened during designated class meetings. If you need to leave before a screening ends, please do so through the left door.
M 1/28 Work due for Fall 1007 Incompletes.
T 1/29 Introductions, syllabus.
Discussion of an excerpt from Gerald L. Bruns, Toward a Random Theory of
Prose, Shklovsky, ix (distributed in class).
Screening and analysis:
Rhythmus 21 (1921, Germany, Hans Richter) (DVD: Avant-Garde: Films
from the Raymond Rohauer Collection).
Clay Steinman, The Sign, forthcoming in the International Encyclopedia of
Communications, ed. Wolfgang Donsbach for the International Communication Association (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008), 12 pp. (distributed in class).
Th 1/31 Hall, Introduction, 1-11.
Hall, The Work of Representation, 15-43. Skip Readings A, B, and D but read C
(68), Roland Barthes, from Myth Today, Mythologies, ed. and trans.
Annette Lavers (New York: Hill and Wang, 1972), 109-159.
T 2/5 Hall, The Work of Representation, 44-63. Skip Reading F but read E (70-71),
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, from New Reflections on the Revolution of our Time (London: Verso, 1990), 100-103.
Peter Hamilton, Representing the Social: France and Frenchness in Post-War
Humanist Photography, Hall, 75-150.
Th 2/7 One-Hour In-Class Open-Book Essay Test #1 (on material 1/29-2/5).
Screening and discussion:
Ethnic Notions (1987, USA, Marlon Riggs) (DVD).
F 2/8 Last day to register or validate.
T 2/12 Lemon and Reis, Introduction, ix-xvii (e-reserve).
Bordwell and Thompson, from the Preface, xvii.
The Gold Rush (excerpt) (1925, USA, Charles Chaplin) (DVD).
Benjamin Sher, Translators Introduction: Shklovsky and the Revolution, Shklovsky,
xv-xxi.
Ballet mcanique (1924, France, Fernand Lger and Dudley Murphy) (DVD: Unseen
Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film, 1894-1941; Vol. 3, Light
Rhythms: Music and Abstraction).
A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945, USA, Maya Deren and Talley Beatty
[silent]) (DVD: Maya Deren: Experimental Films). (Most of Derens films can be found at http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Maya+Deren&sitesearch).
Duck Amuck (1951, USA, Chuck Jones) (DVD: Looney Tunes #2).
Th 2/14 Carroll, Medium Specificity, 35-52 (e-reserve).
Analysis of The Gold Rush (DVD) (excerpt).
Shklovsky, Art as Device, 1-14.
Analysis of Ballet mcanique I (DVD: Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde
Film, 1894-1941; Vol. 3, Light Rhythms: Music and Abstraction).
Analysis of A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945, USA, Maya Deren and Talley
Beatty [silent]) (DVD: Maya Deren: Experimental Films).
Analysis of Duck Amuck I (DVD: Looney Tunes #2).
F 2/15 Last day to add/drop and designate grading options.
T 2/19 Shklovsky, Art as Device, 1-14 (continued).
Bordwell and Thompson, Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business, 2-
3, 8-51.
Th 2/21 North by Northwest (1959, USA, Alfred Hitchcock) (DVD)
T 2/26 If you havent already seen it, please watch The Wizard of Oz (1939, USA, Victory
Fleming) (DVD) by class today.
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Form and The Significance of Film Form, 54-
73.
Analysis of The Wizard of Oz (DVD).
Bordwell and Thompson, Narrative as a Formal System I, 74-94.
Analysis of North by Northwest (DVD).
Our Hospitality (1923, USA, Buster Keaton and Jack Blystone) (DVD: Our
Hospitality and Sherlock Jr.).
Th 2/28 Citizen Kane (1941, USA, Orson Welles) (DVD).
T 3/4 Bordwell and Thompson, Narrative as a Formal System II, 94-109.
Analysis of Citizen Kane (DVD).
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Style and The Shot: Mise-en-Scene, 112-161.
Analysis of Our Hospitality (DVD: Our Hospitality and Sherlock Jr.).
Shklovsky, The Relationship between Devices of Plot Construction and General
Devices of Style, 15-51.
Th 3/6 Shklovsky, The Relationship between Devices of Plot Construction and General
Devices of Style, 15-51 (continued).
Grand Illusion (1937, France, Jean Renoir) (DVD).
T 3/11 Bordwell and Thompson, The Shot: Cinematography I, 162-207.
Analysis of Grand Illusion (DVD).
Shklovsky, The Structure of Fiction, 52-71.
Th 3/13 One-Hour In-Class Open-Book Essay Test #2 (on essays by Shklovsky).
Gion no Shimai (US: Sisters of Gion) (Japan, 1936, Mizoguchi Kenji) (VHS).
Touch of Evil (excerpt) (1958, USA, Orson Welles) (DVD [1998 restoration]).
The Birds (excerpts) (1963, USA, Alfred Hitchcock) (DVD).
F 3/14 Midterm grades due (will not include Test #2).
Sa-Sun 3/15-3/23 Spring Break.
T 3/25 Bordwell and Thompson, The Shot: Cinematography II, 207-217.
Analysis of Gion no Shimai (US: Sisters of Gion) (VHS).
Analysis of Touch of Evil (excerpt) (DVD).
Touch of Evil (excerpt) (VHS [original studio version of opening]).
Bordwell and Thompson, The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing I, 218-231.
Analysis of The Birds (excerpts) (DVD).
The Maltese Falcon (excerpt) (1941, USA, John Huston) (DVD).
The Road Warrior (excerpt) (1981, Australia, George Miller) (DVD).
L.A. Confidential (excerpt) (1997, USA, Curtis Hanson) (DVD).
Th 3/27 The River (1937, USA, Pare Lorentz) (DVD: The New Deal Documentaries).
Gap-Toothed Women (1987, USA, Les Blank) (DVD).
Battleship Potemkin (1924, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Sergei Eisenstein)
(DVD [2007 restoration]).
October (excerpt) (1928, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Sergei Eisenstein)
(DVD).
[Several of Eisensteins feature films can be viewed at
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Eisenstein.]
T 4/1 Bordwell and Thompson, The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing II, 231-263.
Lecture: The Gendered Camera in Classical Hollywood Cinema.
Analysis of The Maltese Falcon (DVD).
Analysis of The Road Warrior (DVD).
Analysis of L.A. Confidential (DVD).
Analysis of October (DVD).
Analysis of Potemkin (DVD).
Bordwell and Thompson, Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films,
338-381.
Analysis of Gap-Toothed Women (DVD).
Analysis of The River (DVD).
Analysis of Ballet mcanique II (DVD: Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde
Film, 1894-1941; Vol. 3, Light Rhythms: Music and Abstraction).
Analysis of Duck Amuck II (DVD: Looney Tunes #2).
Abstract video assigned.
Th 4/3 Rear Window (1954, USA, Alfred Hitchcock) (DVD)
Henrietta Lidchi, The Poetics and Politics of Exhibiting Other Cultures, Hall,
151-222.
F 4/4 Last day to withdraw from a class.
T 4/8 David Bordwell, Principles of Narration, Boyd-Barrett and Newbold, 485-492 (e-
reserve).
Analysis of Rear Window (DVD).
Un condamn mort s'est chapp, ou, Le vent souffle o il veut (US: A
Man Escaped) (1957, France, Robert Bresson) (DVD).
Th 4/10 David Bordwell, Principles of Narration, Boyd-Barrett and Newbold, 485-492 (e-
reserve) (continued).
Bordwell and Thompson, Sound in the Cinema, 264-303.
Analysis of A Man Escaped (DVD).
Screening and analysis of an excerpt from Love Me Tonight (1932, USA, Rouben
Mamoulian) (DVD).
Film analysis paper previewed; film announced.
T 4/15 Abstract video due on CD-ROM or DVD in Clays box, HU 301.
Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) (1953, Japan, Ozu Yasujiro) (DVD).
Th 4/17 I recommend that you watch Citizen Kane (DVD) yet again, either shortly before or
shortly after doing the following reading.
Bordwell and Thompson, Summary: Style as a Formal System, 304-316.
Analysis of Citizen Kane (DVD).
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Criticism: Sample Analyses, 388-392, 401-405.
Analysis of North by Northwest (DVD).
Analysis of Tokyo Story (DVD).
Film analysis paper assigned.
Bordwell and Thompson, Writing a Critical Analysis of a Film, 431-434 (ignore
the model paper that follows).
Stuart Hall, The Spectacle of the Other, Hall, 223-290.
M 4/21-F 5/2 Fall 2008 Registration
T 4/22 Film Art vocabulary quiz.
Chungking Express (Chung Hing sam lam) (1994, Hong Kong, Wong Kar-Wai) (DVD).
Th 4/24 Bordwell and Thompson, Film Criticism: Sample Analyses, 405-410.
Analysis of Chungking Express (DVD).
Sean Nixon, Exhibiting Masculinity, Hall, 291-336.
Eileen R. Meehan, Gendering the Commodity Audience: Critical Media Research,
Feminism, and Political Economy, Meehan and Riordan, 209-222 (e-
reserve).
Williamson, 2002 Preface, Foreword, and Introduction: Meaning and Ideology,
Part I: Advertising-Work, and Signifier, Signified, Sign, 6-19.
T 4/29 Robin Andersen, The Thrill is Gone: Advertising, Gender Representation, and the
Loss of Desire, Meehan and Riordan, 223-239 (e-reserve).
Williamson, A Currency of Signs, Signs Address Somebody, 20-70.
Th 5/1 Film analysis paper due.
HMCS 128 abstract video screenings.
Williamson, Signs for Deciphering: Hermeneutics, 71-95.
T 5/6 Nicholas Mirzoeff, Invisible Empire: Visual Culture, Embodied Spectacle, and Abu
Ghraib, Radical History Review 95 (Spring 2006): 21-44 (e-reserve).
One-Hour In-Class Open-Book Essay Test #3 (on Hall and Williamson).
Reflections/Evaluations.
Papers must be double-spaced, stapled, punctuated in standard U.S. English, responsive to all aspects of the assignment, including word limits (please put a word count on the front page), and prepared
according to MLA style in Gibaldi, using the MLA option of placing only one space after a period. Make sure that you document every reference, whether quotation or paraphrase, including page numbers whenever possible. Feel free to write in the first person. Support claims not common knowledge with evidence and conclusions with argument. Avoid hyperbolic words like extremely. In general, paraphrase rather than quote, unless the language to which you are referring is particularly distinctive; this gives you more control over the flow of the argument. Avoid internal ellipses and bracketed letters (use paraphrases instead); these make the writing more difficult to read. Do not use dictionaries as sources unless they are scholarly or unless you are analyzing the dictionary itself. Take time to plan your papers, and to revise them. A major writing problem of Macalester students is wordiness; comb your paper for possibilities for cuts and condensations. Never submit a paper unless at least two other people (any two you choose) have read and have commented upon it and have signed the front page. You are responsible for saving a copy of your work file. Define all terms whose definitions are controversial or obscure. Unless a paper assignment tells you otherwise, you can assume your reader is an advanced Macalester student who has not taken this course. When discussing reception, avoid claiming without evidence how audiences have responded to any text, or that there is a universal spectator called we or the viewer. A paper may combine characteristics of different levels of work. In that case the grade will depend on the papers overall demonstration of knowledge of the material and of college writing skills. Rewritten papers will be evaluated in part on how well they improve in response to comments offered on the original, which must be attached. Please see me if you have questions about my comments, my standards, or any of your grades. Here are my grading standards:
--An NC paper demonstrates that the writer has little, if any, understanding of the concepts of the course. Because of the writers lack of skill or concern, the work includes gross errors as well as a conspicuous lack of content. Documentation is negligible. The paper may also fail to address parts of the assignment.
--A D paper demonstrates that the writer has only minimal understanding of the concepts of the course. Significant gaps in the writers comprehension indicate the need for more study. The paper shows the writers basic compositional skills are below satisfactory for college work. Documentation is unsatisfactory.
--A C paper demonstrates that the writer has understood most of the concepts of the course, but needs to pay more attention to detail in reading or writing. Documentation is erratic.
--A B paper demonstrates that the writer has understood the concepts of the course, has a sense of their complexity, and has applied them with some originality. The paper shows the writer can organize a coherent essay with few mechanical errors. The thesis statement is clear and is responsive to the assigned topic, and it is supported with strong, logical argumentation and use of evidence. The paper for the most part includes adequate documentation.
--An A paper demonstrates that the writer has not only mastered the concepts of the course, but has applied them in an imaginative and incisive way. The paper shows a command of the language that allows the writer to express worthwhile ideas or perceptions clearly, effectively, in detail, and with virtually no mechanical errors. There is grace to the sentence structure, which is clear and varied throughout. Documentation is consistent. The A grade is reserved for exceptional papers; A- papers tend to be exceptional in part but marred by one or two problems.