Conducted in term: 2024L

Erasmus code: 08.9

ISCED code: 0229

ECTS credits: 5

Language: English

Organized by: American Studies Center (for: University of Warsaw)

Related to study programmes:

New Hollywood Cinema: Texts and Contexts 4219-SD0086-OG

The course offers a critical look at one of the most influential periods in US film history: the late 1960s and the decade of 1970s. Throughout these years, American cinema went through seismic changes in terms of mode of production, style, level of violence, ideology, and status of directors. Built upon the debris of classical Hollywood, New Hollywood was a loosely defined movement led by ambitious directors who embraced the discoveries of the French New Wave and often considered themselves true auteurs. Changes in society and demographics fostered a new type of audience that was looking for quality American movies tackling important, hitherto forbidden or repressed subjects. The result was what some historians call “The Last Great American Picture Show” – a moment when a mature medium gained social significance and produced a number of classic, unflinching portraits of American society.

The course will analyze and contextualize a number of key films, including “Midnight Cowboy”, “The French Connection”, “Harold and Maude”, “Taxi Driver”, “The Parallax View” and “The Conversation”, along with an overview of women’s cinema (“Wanda”, “Girlfriends”) and black American cinema (“The Learning Tree”, “Sounder”). Accompanying readings will introduce key film studies terms and deepen the understanding of historical and cultural contexts of the period.

Type of course

elective courses
general courses

Mode

Classroom

Course coordinators

Sebastian Smoliński

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 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 Hollywood cinema;

- is able to relate 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

Biskind, Peter. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls : How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock-'n'-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. New York :Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Casper, Drew. The Hollywood Film, 1963-1976: Years of Revolution and Reaction. Malden, MA and London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Elsaesser, Thomas, Alexander Horwath and Noel King, eds. The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004

Grant, Barry Keith, ed. Film Genre Reader IV. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012.

Guerrero, Ed. Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.

Hunter, Aaron and Martha Shearer, eds. Women and New Hollywood: Gender, Creative Labor, and 1970s American Cinema, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2023.

King, Geoff, New Hollywood Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Kirshner, Jonathan. Hollywood's Last Golden Age: Politics, Society, and the Seventies Film in America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012.

Krämer, Peter and Yannis Tzioumakis, eds. The Hollywood Renaissance: Revisiting American Cinema’s Most Celebrated Era. New York and London: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Krämer, Peter. The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars. London and New York: Wallflower, 2005.

Lewis, Jon. Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry. NYU Press, 2002.

Sarris, Andrew. The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929-1968. E. P. Dutton, 1968.

Tarantino, Quentin. Cinema Speculation. New York: HarperCollins, 2022.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 4219-SD0086-OG in USOSweb