FILM HISTORY AND CRITICISM

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

L0875

Academic Year of enrolment:

2022

Year of supply:

2023/2024

Type of Course:

Related/Supplementary

Degree:

Course of 2nd Cycle Degree in MODERN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES AND CULTURES

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:

114

Prerequisites:

Prerequisites

None

Objectives

Learning outcomes

The course concurs to realize the educational goals of the Degree Program by introducing the students to relevant issues and concepts of contemporary culture and arts, through the exploration of the complex and sophisticated film pratice of Jane Campion, world renowned New Zealand woman director, screenwriter and producer.
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) an exemplary practice of contemporary cinema; 2) Jane Campion’s film production; 3) the multiple primary sources of her creativity; 4) the relationship between Jane Campion’s film work and other expressive languages (literature, fine art, theatre, music, photography, television); 5) the experential and self-reflexive quality of her movies.
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

Nomadism, experiential and cross-media practices in contemporary cinema. These issues will be explored by analyzing the filmwork of the New Zealand director, screenwriter and producer Jane Campion, «not reconciled» woman auteur and with an antropological view.

Extended Syllabus

Extended syllabus

Nomadism, experential and cross-media practices are recurring issues in contemporary cinema. This course is designed to investigate them through the analysis of the filmwork of Jane Campion, the world-class New Zealand woman filmmaker, screenwriter and producer, who directed, among her others, the highly acclaimed, award-winning feature The Piano (Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival – so far the first and only Palme d’Or awarded to a woman filmmaker). Campion’s œuvre, consisting of short movies, features, and tv series, is imbued with her multifaceted formative background, spanning from anthropology through fine arts and cinema studies; her films are strongly inspired by novelists and poets (Janet Frame, Henry James, Susanna Moore, John Keats, to mention a few). This variety of sources is combined in Campion’s movies in a remarkable original way, and both her style and privileged themes (from her female protagonists’ identity serching to gender inequality) celebrate diversity as a precious and essential value. Thus, her antropological approach towards human behaviour, and her rigorous focusing on female subjectivity make her aesthetic view «not reconciled», non-compliant with dominant, mainstream cinema.
Moreover, Jane Campion’s film practice enables an innovative interrelationship between cinema and other espressive forms (literature, fine art, theatre, music, photography, television), under the light of its profound self-reflexive quality. Lectures will investigate her complete film production (short movies, features, and tv series), and other possibile audiovisual materials, in the frame of its cultural-historical context of realization; the analysis and discussion in class will benefit from international film criticism and theory.
This course aims to develop an informed understanding of Campion cinematic practice, through the study of stylistic-formal and thematic motifs of her movies, as well as through the scrutiny of critical and theoretical arguments by prominent authors and scholars. 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:
Tissues, Peel - An Exercise in Discipline, Passionless Moments, A Girl’s Own Story, The Water Diary, The Lady Bug, After Hours, Two Friends (Le due amiche), Sweetie, An Angel at My Table (Un angelo alla mia tavola), The Piano (Lezioni di piano), The Portrait of a Lady (Ritratto di signora), Holy Smoke (Holy Smoke - Fuoco sacro), Bright Star, In the Cut, Top of the Lake, The Power of the Dog

BOOKS:
Anita Trivelli, Il cinema di Jane Campion dai cortometraggi a Top of the Lake, Edizioni Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo, Roma 2017
André Bazin, Che cos'è il cinema? (edited by Adriano Aprà), Garzanti, Milano 1999

Teaching Methods

Teaching methods
1) lectures; 2) discussion of the selected audiovisual materials (feature and documentary films, videoworks and tv-series) 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 their interrelationship with other expressive languages.
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 an inability to analyse them.

Contacts/More Information

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 BOOK: Giulia Carluccio, Luca Malavasi, Federica Villa, Il cinema. Percorsi storici e questioni teoriche, Carocci Editore, Roma 2015.
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.
For any question students are invited to meet with the professor during her office hours.

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree

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