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Helen von Schmidt
hlvonschmidt@amherst.edu
Office: 3248 Home: 413-475-3779
Eng. 84:2 10 to 11:20, Merrill 4
Office hours: Tues. 2-3:30, Chapel 19
Fall 2010
ENGLISH 84: 2 THE ROMANCE IN FILM
Class: Tues/Thurs. 10 to 11:20 Merrill 4
Film Showings: Mon and Wed. 4 and 7:30 Mon.: At 4, in Merrill 3 At 7:30: Merrill 4
Wed.: 4 and 7:30 in Merrill 4
Attendance in class and film showings is required, as is participation in class discussion. If you cannot regularly attend the film showings, please do not take the class. Both attendance and class participation will be a factor in your final grade.
Lab fee: $45.00 To cover projection and xeroxing
Texts: Reading assignments will be given out for each film. The main emphasis in this course, however, will be on viewing. The field is very large; the calendar limits what we can see as a class. However, I have put a substantial number of films on reserve (and will be adding to that list: the up-to-date list will be available through the library web page). Many of your writing assignments will be based on reserve films. You will also be free, subject to my pre-approval, to write on romance films of your own choosing. I have also put on reserve several copies of Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art. If you are new to the study of film, I recommend your reading - and re-reading - the sections on “the Shot” and on “Sound in the Cinema.” (Any edition will do.)
There may be additional reading added at midsemester. The lack of a substantial number of required texts written shouldn’t mislead you; as I’ve said, this course is based on viewing. However, this shouldn’t discourage you from reading; the field of film history, criticism and theory has much to say about genre in general as well as about this genre, and about particular films. I encourage you to use the library, to use the standard indexes for film criticism, to browse on B level, to use whatever you find helpful. (The Reference desk can help you use those indexes.) Footnote, of course, if you cite any text or web source; beyond that, you should note briefly, either informally or in a bibliography, anything else you read in preparing your essay.
Written work: I will give out essay topics for each film or group of films; over the course of the semester, each of you must turn in four of those essays; each will be due no late than ten days after the film’s showing. Two of the four should be turned in by midsemester, that is by Friday, Oct. 22nd. A final somewhat longer essay will be due at the end of the term.
Journal: You are also required to keep a film journal, with a brief (approx. 1 page) entry for each of the assigned films. See attached sheet for journal instructions. Since we will never come close to covering everything in class discussion, your journal will give you a chance to go beyond/outside that discussion as well as allowing you to pursue your own particular questions.
Note: Many of our richest ideas come from discussion with others (most of our ideas, in fact) so I encourage you to discuss these films with your peers and to share your written responses with each other. Watch with others: doing so often helps you to see more. If you do work cooperatively with others, their names should be cited at the end of your essay. Feel free to invite friends to see the films with you; there is ample space. I ask only that those attending do so in the spirit of a class rather than in the perhaps less formal spirit that might otherwise mark your movie-going.
That means being in your seat before the film begins, staying in your seat until the final credits have run and the lights come up.
Our class discussion on each class day will focus on the assigned film. In every case, there will be more to be said than we can address in ninety minutes. Your journals and essays should provide space to add to the ongoing discussion as well as to pursue your own line(s) of inquiry. I may not always address the reading directly but your discussion and your writing should reflect your responses to the readings.
SCHEDULE
Wed. 9/6 Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli, Italy/Gt. Brit. 1968 138 min.
Mon. 9/13 City Lights, Charlie Chaplin, USA 1931 86 min.
Wed. 9/15 Sunrise, F.W. Murnau, USA 1927, 110 min.
Mon. 9/20 It Happened One Night, Frank Capra, USA 1934, 105 min.
Wed. 9/22 The Lady Eve, Preston Sturges, USA 1941, 94 min.
Mon. 9/27 Top Hat Mark Sandrich, USA, 1935, 101 min.
Wed. 9/29 History Is Made At Night, Frank Borzage, USA 1937 97 min.
Mon. 10/4 Back Street, Robert Stevenson, USA, 1941, 89 min.
Wed. 10/6 Now Voyager, Irving Rapper, USA 1942 117 min.
FALL BREAK
Wed. 10/13 Brief Encounter, David Lean, Gt. Brit., 1945 85 min.
Mon. 10/18 All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, USA, 1955, 89 min.
Wed. 10/20 Casablanca, Michael Curtiz. USA, 1942, 102 min.
TWO OF YOUR PAPERS ARE DUE ON OR BEFORE OCTOBER 22. IF YOU CHOOSE TO WRITE ABOUT CASABLANCA, YOUR ESSAY WILL BE DUE BY OCT. 29TH.
Mon. 10/25 Passione d’Amore, Ettore Scola, Italy, 1981, 118 min.
Wed. 10/27 Mississippi Masala, Mira Nair, USA, 1992, 118 min.
Mon. Nov. 1 Truly Madly Deeply, Anthony Minghella, Gt. Brit., 1991, 107 min.
Wed. Nov. 3 Oasis Lee Chang Dong, S. Korea, 2002, 131 min.
Mon. 11/8 The Crying Game, Neil Jordan, Ireland, 1992, 112 min.
Wed. 11/10 Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee, USA, 2005, 134 min.
Mon. 11/15 Wings of Desire, Wim Wenders, W. Germ/France, 1988, 130 min.
Wed. 11/17 Letter From an Unknown Woman, Max Ophuls, USA, 1948, 90 min.
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Mon. 11/29 Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1958, 128 min.
Wed. Dec. 1 The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Karel Reisz, Gt. Brit. 1981, 123 min.
Mon. Dec. 6 Before Sunrise, Richard Linklater, USA, 2004, 80 min.
Wed. 12/10 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michel Gondry, USA, 2004, 108 min.
Mon. 12/13 It’s a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra, USA, 1946, 129 min |