Film Criticism

FLM 2020

This course introduces students to the main elements of film form and criticism, principally style (mise-en-scene, cinematographic properties, editing, sound) and narrative (structure and narration). This course provides necessary terminology to analyze film as text, strengthens students’ general skills in textual analysis, and examines how different types of film operate through the analysis of narrative and non-narrative (documentary and avant-garde) film. This course considers different analytical approaches to Hollywood films of the studio era with a focus on how the critical categories of “genre” and “author” have proven relevant and examines several alternatives to Hollywood practice, including contemporary U.S. independent and European cinemas.