Film Theory and Criticism
Major ideas about what cinema is and does, and how to use them in criticism: theory, criticism and analysis, formalism and Soviet montage, Bazin and Kracauer's realism and American direct cinema, auteur theory from Cahiers du cinéma to Sarris and Kael, genre theory, ideology, apparatus theory and counter-cinema, semiotics and structuralism, psychoanalysis and the gaze, feminist, queer and intersectional theory with USC Annenberg inclusion data, race, Third Cinema, the LA Rebellion, Indigenous screen sovereignty and American national cinema, cognitive and phenomenological theory, digital and streaming culture, and the history and practice of criticism, ending in a theoretically informed critical essay.
FILM-430 Year 4 3 credits 12 lessons · 5 h 7 min
Offered by HSM University · Visual Media Foundations
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Distinguish film theory, criticism, history and analysis, and explain how the major theories answer questions about the medium, meaning and the spectator.
- Explain formalist and montage theories, including Arnheim, the Russian formalists, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Eisenstein and Vertov, and apply them to edited sequences.
- Explain the realist theories of Bazin and Kracauer, their relation to neorealism and documentary, and the main critiques of realism.
- Evaluate auteur theory from the politique des auteurs to Sarris, Kael, auteur-structuralism and the commerce of auteurism, including who has been excluded from the canon.
- Apply genre theory, including iconography, Schatz's genre types and life cycle, and Altman's semantic, syntactic and pragmatic approach, to individual films and cycles.
- Apply ideological criticism, apparatus theory, counter-cinema and encoding and decoding to films and audiences.
- Use semiotic and structuralist concepts, including signifier and signified, icon, index and symbol, connotation, Metz's segments and Propp's functions, in film analysis.
- Explain psychoanalytic theories of spectatorship, Mulvey's male gaze and its revisions, including the final girl and the oppositional gaze.
- Apply feminist, queer, trans and intersectional theory, and interpret quantitative representation data responsibly.
- Analyze race, postcolonial theory, Third Cinema, Indigenous screen sovereignty and national cinema, with Canadian and American examples.
- Explain cognitive, phenomenological and Deleuzian approaches, and assess how digital imaging, streaming and algorithms challenge classical theory.
- Write a theoretically informed critical essay with an arguable thesis, timecoded evidence, counterarguments and consistent citation.
Course content
12 lessons · 5 h 7 min total · final exam
- 1 What film theory is for 27 min · quiz
- 2 Formalism and montage 26 min · quiz
- 3 Realism 25 min · quiz
- 4 Auteur theory and its critics 25 min · quiz
- 5 Genre theory 25 min · quiz
- 6 Ideology, apparatus and counter-cinema 25 min · quiz
- 7 Semiotics and structuralism 27 min · quiz
- 8 Psychoanalysis, spectatorship and the gaze 27 min · quiz
- 9 Feminist, queer and gender theory 25 min · quiz
- 10 Race, postcolonial, Indigenous and national cinemas 25 min · quiz
- 11 Cognitivism, phenomenology and cinema after film 25 min · quiz
- 12 Film criticism and capstone: writing a critical essay 25 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Major ideas about what cinema is and does, and how to use them in criticism: theory, criticism and analysis, formalism and Soviet montage, Bazin and Kracauer's realism and American direct cinema, auteur theory from Cahiers du cinéma to Sarris and Kael, genre theory, ideology, apparatus theory and counter-cinema, semiotics and structuralism, psychoanalysis and the gaze, feminist, queer and intersectional theory with USC Annenberg inclusion data, race, Third Cinema, the LA Rebellion, Indigenous screen sovereignty and American national cinema, cognitive and phenomenological theory, digital and streaming culture, and the history and practice of criticism, ending in a theoretically informed critical essay.
Part of the Film & Photography stream, typically taken in year 4.