FILM THEORY

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

L00910

Academic Year of enrolment:

2022

Year of supply:

2022/2023

Type of Course:

Elective Course

Degree:

Course of 2nd Cycle Degree in MODERN LANGUAGES FOR MANAGEMENT AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Disciplinary Sector:

Cinema, Photography and Television

Location:

PESCARA

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

TRIVELLI Anita

Cycle:

First semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

135

Prerequisites:

Prerequisites

None

Objectives

Learning outcomes

The course concurs to realize the educational goals of the Degree Program by introducing the students to relevant aesthetical and methodological issues, that will be investigated through the study of emblematic film practices denoting a high theoretical density. Students progress will be evaluated according to their active participation in the classroom and group discussions as well as their familiarity with the analytic vocabulary of cinema studies.
The course aims to provide students with an adequate knowledge on: 1) some exemplary practices of a self-conscious cinema; 2) the narrative stategies of the selected movies; 3) their mise en scène; 4) the self-reflexive quality of the selected movies; 5) the relationship between cinema and other expressive languages (literature, painting, theatre, music, dance). The skills acquired in this class can be used to partecipate in the activities of the prestigious International Film Festivals of Venice and Pesaro, showcases of the most advanced current audiovisual production, as well as the site of precious opportunities to meet international scholars, experts, directors, actors, and other cinema professionals.
Attending students and who have successfully passed the course examination are eligible to be accreditated for the above mentioned film festivals. The accreditation badge is valid for all screenings and related activities.

Contents

Mise en scène, metalanguage, intertextuality. These issues and their relationships will investigated by analyzing a series of films which are exemplary for the theorethical debate on cinema and audiovisual media.

Extended Syllabus

Extended syllabus

Mise en scène, metalanguage, intertextuality are founding issues of the theorethical debate on cinema and audiovisual media. This course is designed to investigate them through the analysis of exemplary works of the cinema history, thanks to the formal qualities of these films that make visible and question their meaning production. On the other hand, exploring and exposing the formal qualities of a filmwork means scrutinizing its style, its costruction modes and procedures, as well as its discoursive strategies. In this context, the notion of a modern style can be useful to identify the common features of the course selected filmography. In fact, this style runs through the entire Seventh Art history, and has nothing to do neither with the technological matrix of cinema (i.e. cinema as a modern art in its own, out of its technological nature), nor with the social mirroring (i.e. cinema as a content reflection of an age and its society). The study of this notion, together with its theoretical foundations and distinguishing traits, will be the reference conceptual axis for the analysis of the course selected films, pointing out the conjuncture of self-reflexivity and material-reproduction. We will also see that this conjuncture problematizes the complex relationship between cinema and “reality”, and shows in an original and innovative way the «impurity» of cinema, meaning the productive comparison between cinema and other artistic languages.
Lectures will investigate the course selected audiovisual materials (feature, documentary and essay films, videoworks) in the frame of their cultural-historical context of realization; a considerable attention will be payed to the comparison between cinema and other arts (literature, painting, dance, theatre, music), expounding the interrelationship between the the film medium self-reflexivity and the highlight of its reproduction quality, with this interrelationship at the base of the peculiar intersemiotic operations perfomed by the films shown in class. This course aims to develop an informed understanding of the cinematic practices under examination; the theoretical elaboration of international prominent authors and scholars will provide the methodological tools useful for analysis and discussions in class. During the course additional materials to allow for more in-depth studies may be referenced. Useful information will also be given to students of other Degree Programs.

Recommended Bibliography

Reference films & books

FILMS:
L. Olivier, Enrico V; R. Bresson, Il diario di un curato di campagna; R. Rossellini, Germania anno zero, Paisà; V. De Sica, Ladri di biciclette; film collettivi ideati da C. Zavattini (Siamo donne, L’amore in città, Il cinegiornale della pace); H.-G. Clouzot, Le Mystère Picasso; M. Deren: Meshes of the Afternoon, At Land, A Study in Choreography for Camera, Ritual in Transfigured Time, Meditation on Violence, The Very Eye of Night e Divine Horsemen. The Living Gods of Haiti; J.-M. Straub-D. Huillet, Cronaca di Anna Magdalena Bach; M. Antonioni, Blow up; W. Wenders, Tokyo-Ga

BOOKS:
Libri:
Giorgio Kraiski (edited by), I formalisti russi nel cinema, Garzanti, Milano 1987
Giorgio De Vincenti, Lo stile moderno. Alla radice del contemporaneo: cinema, video, rete, Bulzoni, Roma 2013
Anita Trivelli, Sulle tracce di Maya Deren. Il cinema come progetto e avventura, Lindau, Torino 2013

Teaching Methods

Teaching methods

1) lectures; 2) discussion of the course selected audiovisual materials (feature, documentary and essay films, videoworks) shown in class. Course readings and discussions of the screened movies will develop the students’ skills in audiovisual analysis and research, as well as their facility with the pertinent terminology of cinema studies, and the study of audiovisual texts. The screenings are in the original language with Italian subtitles.

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

Assessment methods

An oral examination in the form of an interview will assess whether the student has mastered the course content.
Grades run from 18 through 30/30.
Excellent (27-30/30) will be awarded to those students who achieve a comprehensive understanding of the course content and are able to articulate a specific and original vision of their own, that reflects both a solid proficiency in the analytic vocabulary of cinema studies, as well as in the movies under investigation and in the reference theoretical issues.
Good (22-26/30) will be awarded to those students showing some knowledge of the course content, but who are unable to fully articulate a synthesis of all the materials under investigation, as well as fully develop a sophisticated analysis, and use a correct but not always appropriate analytic vocabulary of cinema studies.
Satisfactory (18-21/30) will be awarded to those students showing a basic knowledge of the course content, and a supeficial understanding of all the materials under investigation, as well as an inaccurate analytic vocabulary of cinema studies.
Insufficient (under 18/30) will be awarded to those students demonstrating an insufficient grasp of the course content, an inaccurate analytic vocabulary of cinema studies, a lack of profiency regarding the movies examined and the reference theoretical issues.

Contacts/More Information

https://www.unich.it/ugov/degreecourse/158417#

Further information

Attending the class sessions is recommended; the examination method will be the same both for attending and not-attending students. The viewing of all movies listed in the filmography is required for the examination.
STUDENTS OF OTHER DEGREE PROGRAMS ARE ADVISED TO CONTACT THE PROFESSOR BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE, AND IN ANY CASE WELL IN ADVANCE OF THE EXAMINATION DATE.
NOT ATTENDING-STUDENTS AND STUDENTS WHO HAVE NOT REGULARLY ATTENDED THE LESSONS ARE ADVISED TO CONTACT THE PROFESSOR WELL IN ADVANCE OF THE EXAMINATION DATE. THEY SHALL INTEGRATE THE COURSE FILMS AND TEXTS OF THE SYLLABUS WITH THE FOLLOWING ADDITIONAL BOOKS: Thomas Elsaesser e Malte Hagener, Teoria del film. Un’introduzione, Torino, Einaudi 2009; Giulia Carluccio, Luca Malavasi, Federica Villa, Il cinema. Percorsi storici e questioni teoriche, Carocci Editore, Roma 2015, or Giorgio De Vincenti, Cinema e globalizzazione. Costruire la democrazia, Bulzoni, Roma 2019.
Attending students and who successfully passed the course examination are eligible for accreditation of Venice and Pesaro film festivals.
Furthermore, the professor will give information about artistic and cultural events occuring in our city/region/nation of particular relevance to the course objectives. This information will be readly disseminated via facebook as well (storia e critica del cinema UdA).
For any question students are invited to meet with the professor during her office hours.

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

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