The Film Experience

This course concentrates on close analysis and criticism of a wide range of films, from the early silent period, classic Hollywood genres including musicals, thrillers and westerns, and European and Japanese art cinema. It explores the work of Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, Capra, Hawks, Hitchcock, Altman, Renoir, DeSica, and Kurosawa. Through comparative reading of films from different eras and countries, students develop the skills to turn their in-depth analyses into interpretations and explore theoretical issues related to spectatorship.

1. Introduction to MIT 21L.011 The Film Experience (2007).
2. Keaton (2007).
3. Chaplin, Part I (2007).
4. Chaplin, Part II (2007).
5. Film as Global & Cultural Form; Montage, Mise en Scène.
6. German Film, Murnau.
7. The Studio Era.
8. The Work of Movies; Capra & Hawks.
9. Alfred Hitchcock.
10. Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window.
11. The Musical.
12. The Musical (continued).
13. The Western.
14. The Western (continued).
15. American Film in the 1970s, Part I (2007).
16. American Film in the 1970s, Part II (2007).
17. Jean Renoir and Poetic Realism.
18. Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937).
19. Italian Neorealism, Part I (2007).
20. Italian Neorealism, Part II (2007).
21. Truffaut, the Nouvelle Vague, The 400 Blows.
22. Kurosawa and Rashomon.
23. Summary Perspectives - Film as Art and Artifact.
Meet the Educator.
Why Study Film?.
Approach to Lecturing.
The Film Experience: A Course in Transition.
The Video Lecture Conundrum.
Beyond Film: Television & Literature.
Thematic Spines of the Course.