Only Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Classical Hollywood Cinema 4219-SD0052
Borrowing its title from Richard Dyer’s seminal book on entertainment and utopia, the course addresses perhaps the most influential phenomenon of American popular culture of the 20th century. Classical Hollywood cinema – with its norms, styles and a consistent system of genres, stars and production practices – was an emanation of modernity and mass culture as well as a classical art of sorts. It was indebted in traditions of European storytelling and mixed experimentation with proven formulas. The course provides a critical re-examination of classical Hollywood films and their enduring legacy. By analyzing key films of the era, we will try to define the aesthetics and politics of Hollywood and its entanglements with American history and questions of national identity. The course will provide students with tools to analyze and interpret movies (in the tradition of David Bordwell and Patrick Keating) and will help them to navigate American cinema through the decades, arguing for the importance of Hollywood in shaping American imagination and values.
Examples of the films that we will be discussing:
"Trouble in Paradise", dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
"The Wizard of Oz", dir. Victor Fleming, 1939
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", dir. Frank Capra, 1939
"Casablanca", dir. Michael Curtiz, 1942
"Detour", dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945
"Sunset Boulevard", dir. Billy Wilder, 1950
"High Noon", dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1952
"Rear Window", dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1954
"The Night of the Hunter", dir. Charles Laughton, 1955
"Psycho", dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1960
Note: the above list may be subject to change.
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Upon completing this course a student:
1. KNOWLEDGE
- has advanced knowledge of 20th century American cinema, history and culture;
- understands the language of film – can recognize the key techniques and elements of the "grammar" of American cinema as a narrative art developing in a multicultural society;
- understands the specifics of the American film industry as a branch of the national economy and knows the basic principles of copyright law;
- is familiar with the major films of classical Hollywood cinema and their interpretations.
2. SKILLS
- is able to use critical tools correctly and apply them to film analysis;
- is able to formulate critical arguments in relation to classical Hollywood cinema;
- is able to relate classical Hollywood cinema to social and cultural processes taking place in the USA and to normative systems dominant in the society;
- is able to prepare and deliver a presentation on the history of American cinema using advanced information and communication techniques and film terminology in English;
- is able to research, plan and write an academic paper in the field of American film studies.
3. COMPETENCES
- is able to cooperate in a group and take active part in discussions;
- is open to conflicting readings of particular films supported by arguments, as well as to different visions of American culture and society;
- is able to formulate his/her own opinions in a coherent and articulate manner and with respect of other views.
Assessment criteria
Students are required to prepare regularly for classes (watch films, read the assigned materials), attend classes and participate in discussions (two absences are allowed), complete assignments on the Kampus platform, prepare a group presentation and write a final essay.
Final grade depends on the partial grades for:
1) active participation in classes, regular tasks – 25%
2) group presentation – 30%
3) final essay (analysis of a selected film; 5-6 pages) – 45%
Final grade (consisting of the above components):
• more than 95% - 5!
• 86-95% - 5
• 81-85% - 4+
• 76-80% - 4
• 70-75% - 3+
• 60-69% - 3
Bibliography
Bordwell, David, Kristin Thompson and Jeff Smith, eds. Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2019.
Corrigan, Timothy, Patricia White and Meta Mazaj, eds. Critical Visions in Film Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011.
Decherney, Peter. Hollywood: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Doherty, Thomas. Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
Doherty, Thomas. Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930–1934. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Dyer, Richard. Only Entertainment. London: Routledge, 2005.
Gabler, Neal. An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. New York: Anchor Books, 1989.
Keating, Patrick. The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Classical Hollywood. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
Lewis, Jon. Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry. NYU Press, 2002.
Maltby, Richard. Hollywood Cinema. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003.
Prince, Stephen. Classical Film Violence: Designing and Regulating Brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1968. New Brunswick, NY: Rutgers University Press, 2003.
Smyth, Jennifer E. Nobody's Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: