Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

School of Letters, Arts, and Media

Film Studies
ENGL1011: Introduction to Film Studies
Semest er 2, 2014
Uni t of St udy Out l i ne




Arrival of a Train at a Station (The Lumire Brothers, 1895) [Image: thefilmstage.com]
Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011)


Unit Coordinators
Unit coordinators are listed on undergraduate and postgraduate coursework semester
timetables, and can be consulted for help with any difficulties you may have. Unit
coordinators (as well as the Faculty) should also be informed of any illness or other
misadventure that leads students to miss classes and tutorials or be late with assignments.


UNIT CO-ORDINATOR
Dr Bruce Isaacs
Location: 305 RC Mills Building A26
Phone: +61 2 9351 3568
Email: bruce.isaacs@sydney.edu.au
Consultation Hours:
Best by appointment please email to arrange a time.

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UNIT LECTURERS

Dr Bruce Isaacs (as above)

Dr James Wierzbicki
Location: Seymour Centre J09
Email: james.wierzbicki@sydney.edu.au
Phone: +61-2-9351 2066

Mr Ian David
Location: S317, John Woolley Building A20
Email: ian.david@sydney.edu.au
Phone: +61-2- 9351 4286

Associate Professor Kate Lilley
Location: N356, John Woolley Building A20
Email: kate.lilley@sydney.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 9351 2434


UNIT TUTORS

Dr Marita Bullock: marita.bullock@sydney.edu.au
Dr Daniel Binns: daniel.binns@sydney.edu.au
Mr Stuart Cottle: scot4237@uni.sydney.edu.au
Mr David Fitzgerald: dfit3089@uni.sydney.edu.au
Dr Bruce Isaacs: bruce.isaacs@sydney.edu.au
Dr Kieryn McKay: kieryn.mckay@sydney.edu.au
Mr Patrick Marland: pmar2246@uni.sydney.edu.au
Mr Paul Sunderland: psun9374@uni.sydney.edu.au
Ms Kim Wilkins: kwil8773@uni.sydney.edu.au

Your tutors will provide further contact information in your first tutorial (week 2)

This Unit of Study Outline MUST be read in conjunction with the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences Student Administration Manual
(http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/student_admin_manual.shtml) and all applicable
University policies. In determining applications and appeals, it will be assumed that every
student has taken the time to familiarise themselves with these key policies and procedures.

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ENGL1011: Introduction to Film Studies


UNIT DESCRIPTION
How do form and style structure our experience of film? This unit provides a critical
introduction to elements of film production and viewing, moving through an exploration of
formal components of film to consider film aesthetics in relation to the history of film
scholarship. We will consider films in a variety of cultural and historical contexts, from early
cinema to digital technologies, and introduce a series of case studies to explore historical,
cultural and material contexts of film production and consumption.


LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students will be able to:
Analyse film shots and sequences utilising the language of film analysis
Introduce and explore basic concepts in film analysis and interpretation
Articulate key concepts in film studies scholarship, such as auteurism, genre theory, and
national cinemas
Articulate the historical, cultural, and material contexts that underpin concepts such as
genre, auteur, spectator, and audience
Relate film analysis and interpretation to wider historical, cultural and material processes
Analyse new cinema forms within a field of changing technologies and media structures


LEARNING STRUCTURE
Lecture: 1 x 2hrs per week
Tuesdays 11-1pm, Wallace Lecture Theatre
* All lectures will be recorded and made available through the Blackboard site.
Tutorial: 1 x 1hr per week
You will have been assigned a tutorial time during enrolment. It is imperative that you
attend this tutorial throughout semester.
Screening: 1 x 2hrs per week
Thursdays 11-1pm, Old Geology Lecture Theatre
The unit will screen one feature film each week. If you cannot attend the screening, it is
imperative that you view the film in your own time prior to the tutorial. It is expected that
you will be familiar with the film during tutorial discussions.


ONLINE COMPONENTS
This unit requires regular use of the Universitys Learning Management System (LMS), also
known as Blackboard Learn. You will need reliable access to a computer and the Internet to
use the LMS.
The easiest way to access is through MyUni (click on the MyUni link on the university home
page, http://sydney.edu.au or link directly to the service at https://myuni.sydney.edu.au/.
There is a BlackBoard LMS icon in the QuickLaunch window on the left hand side of the
screen.
If you have any difficulties logging in or using the system, visit the Student Help area of the
LMS site, http://sydney.edu.au/elearning/student/help/.

Blackboard will provide access to lecture recordings, unit of study announcements by

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lecturers and tutors, as well as supplementary materials posted during semester. The
Blackboard site will also house a discussion forum for questions, general comments, and
engagement in the unit beyond tutorials.
I encourage you to visit Blackboard at least once a week. You may also wish to open a topic
for discussion in the forum, engaging with students both within and beyond your tutorial.



ASSESSMENT TASKS AND DUE DATES

All assessment tasks in this unit must be submitted online through the Blackboard site. From
the Blackboard menu, click on Assessment Dropboxes, which will take you to the
Compliance Declaration Forms (your electronic cover sheet required for submission) and the
Submission Boxes for each assessment task. Note that you are required to complete the
Compliance Declaration before you are granted access to the Submission Box. In the
Submission Box, follow the instructions to upload your assessment as a word document.

For more information on assessment task submission, see the Instructions for Online
Submission in the Assessment Dropboxes page, or ask your tutor.


1. Film Sequence Analysis (1000w). Weighting 25%
Due Wednesday Sep 10, 11:59pm
Select a sequence from one film discussed in Modules 1 and 2 of the unit (see Detailed
Tutorial Schedule below) and offer an analysis of the function of film form within the
sequence. While a film sequence is relatively open as a descriptive category, I encourage
you to limit the sequence to a manageable duration.
In your analysis, you may wish to consider the following formal film elements:
The Shot as film unit (Bordwell and Thompson, Chapters 4 and 5).
A film sequence is a collection of shots strategically set in relation to each other. Prior to
embarking on your written analysis, you should view your sequence as a breakdown of
individual shots. Consider how these shots impact on the sequence as a whole.

Within the shot, you may choose to consider mise en scne (in the frame) and
cinematography (including lighting, position and movement of the camera, and duration).

Montage (Bordwell and Thompson, Chapter 6).
In Bordwell and Thompson, the concept of montage (shots in relation to each other) is
covered under The Relation of Shot to Shot. What is the montage strategy employed in
the sequence you have chosen? Is the sequence founded upon a series of shots building
continuity, discontinuity or a combination of the two? And what is the effect of this
series of cuts within your chosen sequence? To take an example, what is the
effect/function of the jump cut in an early sequence in Godards Bout de Souffle
[Breathless], examined in week 9?

Sound (Bordwell and Thompson, Chapter 7)
Consider the effect of diegetic and non-diegetic sound in your sequence. In what way
does sound work with (or even against) the visual field? What is the overall effect of
sound on your engagement with the sequence as a whole? Can sound enhance the
function of visual formal elements? Can sound work autonomously that is, can its
function ever separated from the visual image of film?


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Narrative (Bordwell and Thompson, Chapter 3).
Mainstream film has evolved primarily as a narrative form. However, narrative is more
than simply story and character. In your analysis, consider the how of storytelling. How
does your sequence reveal a narrational strategy above and beyond story, character
and theme? How is this story being told to us? And what is the purpose of this mode of
storytelling?

In this assessment, you may build on your sequence analysis by strategically drawing on
topics discussed on the course in Modules 2 and 3: the screenplay as film form, film genre,
auteur cinema, film and ideology, new digital cinema, etc. However, your sequence analysis
should draw on and identify formal elements outlined above: the shot, montage, sound,
and narrative, exploring their function as formal strategies in production, and their effect on
on the spectator.


2. Reflective Journal: The Film Viewing Experience (1500w). Weighting: 30%
Due Friday October 10, 11:59pm.

Maxim Gorkys account of a film viewing experience in July, 1896:
I was at Aumonts and saw Lumires cinematograph moving photography. The
extraordinary impression it creates is so unique and complex that I doubt my ability
to describe it with all its nuances! As you gaze at it, you see carriages, buildings
and people in various poses, all frozen into immobility! But suddenly a strange
flicker passes through the screen and the picture stirs to life. Carriages coming
from somewhere in the perspective of the picture are moving straight at you, into
the darkness in which you sit; somewhere from afar people appear and loom larger
as they come closer to you! All this moves, teems with life and, upon approaching
the edge of the screen, vanishes somewhere beyond it!

In Walter Murch, Black and White and in Color, McSweeneys, Oct 3, 2007.

This assessment requires you to keep a reflective journal of your experience of film viewing
in this unit of study. In your journal, you are required to comment on at least 4 films screened
during semester, paying attention not only to your response to the film (ie, what I thought of
the film), but the conditions of viewing was it a unit of study screening, was it viewed in
isolation on a laptop, or with friends at a public screening? What is the unique affect of a
viewing experience, rather than simply a film?
In the journal, I want you to consider:
Your evaluation: what did you think of the film, or films, or the films in comparison? But
evaluation is a critical process; it is not purely a matter of personal taste. For two
excellent pieces on approaches to film analysis and criticism, see:
Bordwell and Thompson, Evaluation: Good, Bad, or Indifferent, pp. 60-62; and David
Bordwell, Studying Cinema, David Bordwells Website on Cinema, 2000, accessed May
20, 2014, http://www.davidbordwell.net/essays/studying.php
A personal assessment of your experience how were you affected by the film/s
throughout semester?
As a reader of your journal, Im looking for subtle, exploratory, adventurous readings of
how you experience cinema. How have these films impacted on you as spectator or as
the member of an audience? How does the film experience enter into the wider context of
your life experience? How have these films come to mean something to you?
Your engagement with the film within the context of the unit as a whole.
How has your viewing experience been enriched through the various film studies
discourses weve opened up in the course? How has the material in lectures, tutorial

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discussions, and your readings enriched your viewing of the films each week? How has
the material enriched your capacity to reflect on this body of cinema?
While I encourage you to attend all screenings, I understand that this will not be possible for
all. Thus, I ask you to be sensitive to the unique form of your viewing experience. In your
selection of films, reflect upon your relationship to the series of films youve chosen as a
whole. In this assessment, you thus become a curator of a program, providing a reflective
rationale for your selection of films.
While this is a personal reflection of a viewing experience, it is not a diary. You should
reference any material cited, and situate your written reflections within a scholarly discourse.
I encourage you to reflect on your subjective response to the films, but this response should
nonetheless be contextualized within the broader field of study in the unit.
Last (and I cant stress this enough): your journal should be a work informed through
development and reflection. It should be maintained, added to, revised, raised as a topic for
discussion in tutorials, and so on, as you progress through the unit. It should not be cobbled
together on the morning of submission! I would anticipate anywhere from three to ten
separate entries in your journal.


3. Research Essay (2000w). Weighting 35%
Due Thursday November 6, 11:59pm.
A series of topics for the research essay will be provided in week 7, and discussed in detail
in tutorials. Your essay must examine at least two films on the course not examined in
assessment 1 (Film Sequence Analysis). However, you are free to use any films discussed
in your Reflective Journal as the basis for your Research Essay.


4. Tutorial Participation Mark. Weighting 10%
Tutorials are a space in which to present ideas in an open, interactive forum. Tutorials in the
unit of study should be thought of as collaborative and organic. You will find your tutorial a
friendly, welcoming space, as you work between small and large group discussions. It is
expected that you will complete required reading prior to you tutorial each week.


LIBR1000: Library and Research Skills Non-Assessable Online Quiz
In addition to the assessment tasks of the unit, you are required to complete a brief online
quiz on Library and Research Skills. This quiz is not assessable, though completion of the
quiz is required to pass the unit. The quiz can be completed at any point in semester through
the link in Blackboard.


ALL ASSESSMENT TASKS MUST BE COMPLETED TO PASS THIS UNIT OF STUDY




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UNIT SCHEDULE

Semester Two
Wk Wk beg- Lecture and Screening Tutorial
1 28 Jul Why Film?
Introduction to Film Studies (BI)
No tutorials week 1
Screening: Hugo (Scorsese, 2011)
2 04 Aug Film Form:
Technology, Images, Narrative (BI)
Introduction to unit
Screening:
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Wiene, 1920)
3 11 Aug The Evolution of Film Style (BI) Film Form
Screening: Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
4 18 Aug Storytelling: Film Narrative (BI) Form and Style:
German Expressionism Screening: Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
5 26 August Case Study:
Orson Welles, Hollywood Rebel (BI)
Story, Plot, Narrative
Screening:
The Artist (Hazanavicius, 2011)
6 01 Sep Sound, and Vision: Listening to Film (BI)
Special Guest:
Jenny Ward: Award Winning Film
Sound/Dialogue Practitioner
Welles and Hollywood
Screening: Cat People (Tourneur, 1942)
7 08 Sep Film Music (JW) Film Sound
Screening: Fargo (The Coen Brothers,
1996)
8 15 Sep The Screenplay as Film Form (ID) Film Music
Screening: High Noon (Zinneman, 1952)
9 22 Sep Film Genre (KL) The Screenplay
Screening:
Bout de Souffle [Breathless] (Godard,
1960)
BREAK 29 September SESSION BREAK
10 06 Oct* Auteurs and Auteur Theory (KL) Film Genre
Screening: Marie Antoinette (Coppola,
2006)
11 13 Oct Film and/as Ideology (BI) Auteur
Screening: Children of Men (Cuarn, 2006)
12 20 Oct The Digital Turn, or, Where are we now?
(BI)
Film and/as Ideology
Screening:
In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
13 27 Oct Film Studies: Legacies and Projections (BI)
No Screening
The Digital Turn
STUVAC 03 November STUVAC
EXAMS 10 November EXAM PERIOD commences
* NB: Public holiday on Monday 6 October. If you have a Monday tutorial, please attend another
tutorial for this week only.
Two important notes on the unit of study schedule:
The film screened each week relates to the lecture topic of the following week. Thus, from
the schedule, Hugo screens in week 1, but is discussed in the lecture on Film Form in
week 2; similarly, Marie Antoinette is screened in week 10, but is discussed in the lecture
on Film and/as Ideology in week 11.

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Tutorial topics lag one week behind lecture topics. Thus, the lecture on The Evolution of
Film Style in week 3 is discussed in the tutorial in week 4, and so on. This gives you time
to reflect on the materials in preparation for the tutorial discussion.


READING REQUIREMENTS
There are two major sources of readings for this unit:
Unit of Study textbook:
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (10th Edition).
The textbook is available for purchase in hard copy through the University Co-op
bookshop located on the ground floor of the Sports and Aquatic Centre (G09). It is also
available in Fisher Library and Schaeffer Library (in the RC Mills building). There are
three copies in the 2hr collection in Fisher.
The textbook is also available in electronic form at a reduced cost through the McGraw-
Hill website: https://create.mcgraw-hill.com/shop/#/catalog/details/?isbn=9781308217383
As the textbook is foundational reading for the entire unit, you will need to use it in
preparation for lectures, tutorials and assessment tasks.

Further Electronic Readings:
Are available through the Blackboard site. Click on the icon, eReserve Readings, and
click on the author tab to alphabetize the list of readings by author surname. Then simply
click on the hyperlink and download the reading as a pdf.
In the Detailed Tutorial/Reading Schedule below, all electronically held readings are
marked [ER].






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DETAILED TUTORIAL/READING SCHEDULE

Week 1: 28 Jul
There are no tutorials this week.



MODULE 1
UNDERSTANDING FILM FORM AND ITS FUNCTION

Week 2: 4 Aug
Course introduction

Required Reading
! Bordwell and Thompson, The Significance of Film Form, pp. 50-60.
! Tom Gunning, The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-
Garde, in Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative, ed. Thomas Elsaesser (London:
BFI, 1990), pp. 56-62. [ER]

Tutorial Discussion
Why study film?


Week 3: 11 Aug
Film Form: Hugo; Arrival of a Train at the Station; A Trip to the Moon
Note: there is a bit of textbook reading this week to flesh out key background concepts in
your engagement with film form. But rest assured, this material underpins all of our
discussions of film form in Module 1.

Required Reading/Viewing
! Bordwell and Thompson, The Shot: Mise en Scne, pp. 112-133.
! Bordwell and Thompson, Putting It All Together: Mise en Scne in Space and Time,
pp. 140-154.

Additional Reading/Viewing
! Sergei Eisenstein, Beyond the Shot [The Cinematographic Principle and the
Ideogram], Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, ed. Leo Braudy and
Marshall Cohen (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 27-34. [ER]
Note: this is a challenging but very important reading in the history of film theory.
What does Eisenstein mean when he suggests that montage (and all of cinema, for
that matter) is more than a succession of shots?
! Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
! Kristin Thompson, Hugo: Scorseses birthday present to Georges Mlis, David
Bordwells Website on Cinema (blog), 7 Dec. 2011,
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2011/12/07/hugo-scorseses-birthday-present-to-
georges-melies/

Tutorial Discussion
Consider the Lumire Brothers Arrival of a Train at a Station (1896), Mlis Trip to the
Moon (1902), and Scorseses Hugo (2011). In what sense do these films reveal a rich history
of film form? You may wish to consider technology (film and digital production), formal image
elements such as mise en scne (the contents of the frame), cinematography (particularly
light and movement) and editing, and the use of narrative (or non-narrative) conventions.
Discuss the famous opening sequence of Hugo as a sequence shot. What makes this shot

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such a striking example of how cinema has evolved from the time of the Lumire Brothers to
today? Consider early and recent films as forms of what Tom Gunning calls a cinema of
attractions.


Week 4: 18 Aug
Form and Style: German Expressionism. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Required Reading
! Paul Cooke, From Caligari to Edward Scissorhands: The Continuing Meta-Cinematic
Journey of German Expressionism, World Cinemas Dialogues With Hollywood, ed.
Paul Cooke (London: Palgrave, 2007), pp. 17-34. [ER]
! Bordwell and Thompson, German Expressionism, pp. 469-472.
! Bordwell and Thompson, Framing, pp. 178-182.

Additional Reading/Viewing
! Bordwell and Thompson, The Shot: Cinematography, pp. 160-215. This chapter is
extremely detailed in its examination of various aspects of cinematography. However,
it is critical foundational material for Module 1 and Assessment 1.
! Un Chien Andalou [The Andalusian Dog] (Luis Buuel and Salvador Dal, 1929)
! Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922)
! The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

Tutorial Discussion
How do the formal qualities of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (and the style of German
Expressionism) provide an experience of anxiety and fear? Consider specifically mise en
scne in Caligari. In what sense does the film display a world out of kilter? How is
expressionist style realized through the devices of framing, contrast, and set design? Time
permitting, you may wish to consider the effect of transposing Caligaris German
Expressionist style to contemporary Hollywood in Scorseses loose remake, Shutter Island
(2010). Is Scorseses image of madness as convincing as Wienes?


Week 5: 26 Aug
Story, Plot, Narrative. Casablanca
Required Reading
! Bordwell and Thompson, Narrative Form, pp. 72-97.
! Bordwell and Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema, pp. 97-99;
! Peter Wollen, Godard and Counter Cinema: Vent DEst, Movies and Methods,
Volume 2, ed. Bill Nichols (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1985), pp. 501-508. [ER]

Additional Reading/Viewing
! Bordwell and Thompson, Continuity Editing, pp. 233-238.
! Warren Buckland, Introduction: Puzzle Plots, Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in
Contemporary Cinema (London: Blackwell, 2009), pp. 1-13.
! Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
! Lola Rennt [Run Lola Run] (Tom Tykwer, 1998)

Tutorial Discussion
Casablanca utilizes what Bordwell and Thompson call classical narrative form. How do they
define classical narrative within the Hollywood production mode? Consider the sequence in
which Rick is first introduced to the spectator. In what way is his revelation a strategic
narrative device, that is, a way of situating his character (and Bogart as screen persona)

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within the broader narrative frame of the film? View the final glorious sequence in which Rick
and Ilsa take leave (sadly!) of each other. Would you describe this as a distinctly classical
narrational outcome? In what way does this famous ending depict a classical narrational
logic? Wollen argues aggressively for a counter-cinema, deploying radically different forms
of narrative structure. Can you think of any films that challenge the classical narrational logic
displayed in Casablanca? To start you off, what on earth is going on in that final shot in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?


Week 6: 1 Sep
Welles and Hollywood: Citizen Kane
Required Reading
! Bordwell and Thompson, Narrative Form in Citizen Kane, pp. 99-109.
! Bordwell and Thompson, Frame Mobility: Functions, pp. 200-204.
! Bordwell and Thompson, Duration of the Image, pp. 210-216.
! Bordwell and Thompson, The Lens: Depth of Field and Focus, pp. 174-175

Additional Reading/Viewing
! Andr Bazin, "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema," in What Is Cinema?
Volume 1, trans. Hugh Gray (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1967), pp. 23-40.
! Bordwell and Thompson, Spatial and Temporal Discontinuity, pp. 257-264.
! The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
! Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

Tutorial Discussion
In terms of film form, Citizen Kane is the true curiosity of the Hollywood studio cinema: it is
classical in style, and yet deeply experimental. In your tutorial discussion, you might consider
aspects of mise en scne, cinematography, editing and narrative form, all now very famous
elements of Citizen Kane, all underpinning the emergence of Welles as Hollywoods most
visible auteur. Discuss the use of the long take and deep focus in a sequence in Citizen
Kane, or in the opening to Welless Touch of Evil (1958). What is the purpose of these highly
expressive formal film elements? What is the function of Rosebud within the narrational
logic of the film?



MODULE 2
FORM, INTERPRETATION, THEORY

Week 7: 8 Sep
Film Sound: The Artist
Required Reading
! Bordwell and Thompson, Sound in the Cinema, pp. 266-298.
! Michel Chion, Projections of Sound on Image, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, ed.
And trans. Claudia Gorbman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 3-24.

Additional Reading/Viewing
! Roger Ebert, The Artist (Review). December 21, 2011. Accessed 19 June, 2014,
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-artist-2011
! Singin in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)
! The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)


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Tutorial Discussion
Michel Chion suggests that sound has conventionally been thought of as part of the visual
image, or even as emanating from the visual image. I would argue that this is our most
common spectatorial engagement with sound in film: often peripheral to our viewing
experience, almost an afterthought. Thus, Chion coins the term added value sound
merely adds value to what is already there in the visual field. But can sound do more? Can
sound be a fundamental part of the meaning-making process of film? Can sound even work
against our expectations derived from visual form? In its most radical incarnation in cinema,
can sound work autonomously from the visual image? Consider the transition to sound
cinema in the late 1920s. What must that experience of film sound have been like for the
spectator attuned to a silent cinema? What would you say to a filmmaker like F. W. Murnau,
who argued that the coming of sound would effectively destroy film as an art form?


Week 8: 15 Sep
Film Music: The 39 Steps; Cat People; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Jaws
Required Reading
! James Wierzbicki, Film Music in the Post-Classical Period (1958-2008), Film Music:
A History (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 187-236.

Tutorial Discussion
Two of the most famous scenes in Cat People are those involving the bus and the
swimming pool. How does sound affect these scenes? Would the scenes benefit from
underscore? Speaking of films in general, when does film music rise to the foreground and
when does it remain, to use the phrase from Claudia Gorbmans book and Keatss poem, an
unheard melody? Is a musical accompaniment, or an underscore, really necessary in the
modern film? Can you think of any films that are almost devoid of music? Can you think of
any films in which there seems to be too much music? Or inappropriate music?


Week 9: 22 Sep
The Screenplay: Fargo
Required Reading
! Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Fargo (Screenplay), 1996,
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Fargo.txt

Tutorial Discussion
To be confirmed.


Week 10: 6 Oct
Film Genre: High Noon
Required Reading
! Bordwell and Thompson, Film Genres, pp. 328-348.

Tutorial Discussion
To be confirmed.


Week 11: 13 Oct
Auteur: Bout de Souffle [Breathless]
Required Reading
! Bordwell and Thompson, The French New Wave (1959-1964), pp. 485-488

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! Bordwell and Thompson, The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking, 1970s-
1980s, pp. 488-494.
! Bordwell and Thompson, North by Northwest, pp. 406-410.
! Bordwell and Thompson, Breathless, pp. 415-420.

Tutorial Discussion
To be confirmed.


Week 12: 20 Oct
Film and/as Ideology: Marie Antoinette
Required Reading
! Theodor Adorno, Culture Industry Reconsidered, The Audiences Studies Reader,
ed. Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 55-60. [ER]
! Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young, Marie Antoinette: Fashion, Third-Wave
Feminism, and Chick Culture, Literature/Film Quarterly 38/2 (2010), pp. 98-116. [ER]

Additional Reading/Viewing
! Bordwell and Thompson, Form, Style, and Ideology, pp. 438-449.
! Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

Tutorial Discussion
All film is ideological. All film is depicted through a lens that offers a very particular vision of
the world. Do you agree? Is Coppolas Marie Antoinette a cinema of attractions? How is
Versailles constructed as a virtual space and Dunsts teenage Marie Antoinette a virtual
historical figure? In what sense is Coppolas vision of the past (the late 18
th
century) in fact a
reflection of our present attitudes toward identity and history? In what sense is spectatorship
in Marie Antoinette a form of consumption? What is the function of music in the I Love
Candy montage diegetic and non-diegetic? Offer a reading of Coppolas film as teen
genre cinema.


Week 13: 27 Oct
Film and Digital: Children of Men
Required Reading/Viewing
! Joe Fordham, Children of Men: The Human Project, Cinefex 110 (July 2007), pp.
33-44 [ER].
! Dave Frederick, Children of Men George Richmond. Bsc, Soc - 2012 Society of
Camera Operators Historical Shot Award Recipient. VIMEO 2012. Accessed 17 Apr.
2014, http://vimeo.com/40314279.

Additional Reading/Viewing
! Bruce Isaacs, New Cinematic Imaginaries, The Orientation of Future Cinema:
Technology, Aesthetics, Spectacle (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013), pp. 239-263.
! David Bordwell, Pandoras Digital Box: Films, Files and the Future of Movies (2012),
! http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/05/17/pandoras-digitalbook/
! The Matrix (The Wachoskis, 1999)
! Gravity (Alfonso Cuarn, 2013)

Tutorial Discussion
Kids dont believe in movies anymore Martin Scorsese (Side by Side, 2012). What does
Scorsese mean? How has the digital turn fundamentally transformed our experience of
cinema? In Children of Men, Cuarn seems invested in both a traditional form of cinema
based on realism, and a cinema of new digital effects. Do you agree? What is the fate of

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cinema in the age of 3-D, virtual technologies of production, high-frame rate imaging, and
increasingly abstract forms of image creation? Are we truly entering what Steven Shaviro
has called the post-cinema era? Offer a comparative reading of the opening long take
sequences of Welless Touch of Evil and Cuarns Gravity. How radically cinema has
changed in 50 years, and yet how familiar it still seems!


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ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND PLAGIARISM
Academic honesty is a core value of the University. The University requires students to act
honestly, ethically and with integrity in their dealings with the University, its members,
members of the public and others. The University is opposed to and will not tolerate
academic dishonesty or plagiarism, and will treat all allegations of academic dishonesty or
plagiarism seriously.
The Universitys Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy 2012 and associated
Procedures are available for reference on the University Policy Register at
http://sydney.edu.au/policies (enter Academic Dishonesty in the search field). The Policy
applies to the academic conduct of all students enrolled in a coursework award course at the
University.
Under the terms and definitions of the Policy,
academic dishonesty means seeking to obtain or obtaining academic advantage (including
in the assessment or publication of work) by dishonest or unfair means or knowingly
assisting another student to do so.
plagiarism means presenting another persons work as ones own work by presenting,
copying or reproducing it without appropriate acknowledgement of the source.
The presentation of another person's work as one's own without appropriate
acknowledgement is regarded as plagiarism, regardless of the authors intentions.
Plagiarism can be classified as negligent (negligent plagiarism) or dishonest (dishonest
plagiarism).
An examiner who suspects academic dishonesty or plagiarism by a student must report the
suspicion to a nominated academic in the relevant faculty. If the nominated academic
concludes that the student has engaged in dishonest plagiarism or some other sufficiently
serious form of academic dishonesty, the matter may be referred to the Registrar for further
disciplinary action under the terms of the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy 2012
and Chapter 8 of the University of Sydney By-Law 1999 (as amended).

SPECIAL CONSIDERATION
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences assesses student requests for assistance relating to
completion of assessment in accordance with the regulations set out in the University
Assessment Policy 2011 and Assessment Procedures 2011. Students are expected to
become familiar with the Universitys policies and Faculty procedures relating to Special
Consideration and Special Arrangements.
Students can apply for:
Special Consideration - for serious illness or misadventure
Special Arrangements - for essential community commitments
Simple Extension an extension of up to 5 working days for non-examination based
assessment tasks on the grounds of illness or misadventure.
Further information on special consideration policy and procedures is available on the
Faculty website at http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/special_consideration.shtml.
OTHER POLICIES AND PROCEDURES RELEVANT TO THIS UNIT OF STUDY
The Facultys Student Administration Manual is available for reference at the Current
Students section of the Faculty Website (http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/). Most
day-to-day issues you encounter in the course of completing this Unit of Study can be
addressed with the information provided in the Manual. It contains detailed instructions on

15
processes, links to forms and guidance on where to get further assistance.

STAYING ON TOP OF YOUR STUDY
For full information visit http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/staying_on_top.shtml
The Learning Centre assists students to develop the generic skills, which are necessary for
learning and communicating knowledge and ideas at university. Programs available at The
Learning Centre include workshops in Academic Reading and Writing, Oral communications
Skills, Postgraduate Research Skills, Honours, masters Coursework Program, Studying at
University, and Workshops for English Language and Learning. Further information about
The Learning Centre can be found at http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/learning_centre/.
The Write Site provides online support to help you develop your academic and professional
writing skills. All University of Sydney staff and students who have a Unikey can access the
WriteSite at http://writesite.elearn.usyd.edu.au/.
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has units at both an Undergraduate and
Postgraduate level that focus on writing across the curriculum or, more specifically, writing
in the disciplines, making them relevant for all university students. To find out more visit
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/teaching_learning/writing_hub/index.shtml and
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/teaching_learning/pg_writing_support/index.shtml.
In addition to units of study on writing, The FASS Writing Hub offers drop-in sessions to
assist students with their writing in a one-to-one setting. No appointment is necessary, and
this service is free of charge to all FASS students and/or all students enrolled in WRIT units.
For more information on what topics are covered in a drop-in session and for the current
schedule, please visit
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/teaching_learning/writing_hub/drop_in_sessions.shtml.
Pastoral and academic support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is
provided by the STAR Team in Student Support services, a dedicated team of professional
Aboriginal people able to respond to the needs of students across disciplines. The STAR
team can assist with tutorial support, mentoring support, cultural and pastoral care along
with a range of other services. More information about support for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students can be found at
http://sydney.edu.au/current_students/student_services/indigenous_support.shtml.
The Library offers students free, online tutorials in library skills at
http://sydney.edu.au/library/skills. There's one designed especially for students studying in
the Humanities and Social Sciences at http://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/. And don't forget
to find out who your Faculty Liaison Librarians are.
OTHER SUPPORT SERVICES
Disability Services is located on Level 5, Jane Foss Russell Building G20; contact 8627 8422
or email mailto:disability.services@sydney.edu.au. For further information, visit their website
at http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/disability/.
Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS) are located on Level 5, Jane Foss Russell
Building G20; contact 8627 8433 or email mailto:caps.admin@sydney.edu.au. For further
information, visit their website at http://sydney.edu.au/current_students/counselling/.