Schedule Fall 2026

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

Week 1. Week of 8/17. The Invention of Cinema

Wednesday 8/19

IN Class

  • Introduction to History of World Cinema
  • Syllabus details
  • Practical questions?

Wednesday night screening

Watch:

  • Lumière, Workers Leaving the Factory (1895) – here on YouTube
  • Lumière, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895) – here on YouTube
  • Alice Guy, The Cabbage Fairy (1900) – here on YouTube
  • The Great Train Robbery: And Other Early Short Films (selections from Muybridge, Edison, Lumière, Meliès, and Porter) – here on Kanopy

Friday 8/21

Preparation

  • Make sure you have a class notebook for notes on reading, films, lecture, discussion
  • Read Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction (2025 edition) (available on Inclusive Access)
    • Part One, “Early Cinema,” Introduction
    • Chap. 1, “The Invention and Early Years of Cinema”
  • There is a lot here. Don’t get bogged down in the details. But take some notes on important examples that strike you. I’ll ask you about these in class

In Class

  • Film Exercise
    • Make our own Lumière films!
    • Observational films that capture… something (think of Lumière’s subjects)
    • The camera doesn’t move
    • 30-45 seconds

Interesting links

  • Slices of Time: Eadweard Muybridge’s Cinematic Legacy – at San Francisco Museum of Art – online at YouTube
  • Mark Cousins, Story of Film, “Birth of Cinema” – from 11:06 – here on Kanopy

Week 2. Week of 8/24. Rise of the Movies – Teens to Twenties

Mon 8/24

Preparation

  • Read Film History, Ch. 2, “The International Expansion of the Cinema,” just the introduction, to get a picture of the years from 1905-1912 (1 p.)
  • Read Film History, Ch. 3, “National Cinemas, Hollywood Classicism, and World War I” (22 pp.)

IN Class

  • The Movies Come to Town
  • National Cinemas
  • Watch clips from:
    • Wooster 1912-1913 (dir. Charles Vance Burton) – on YouTube Part 1 and Part 2 – see the Public Square, Part 2 c. 2’30”
    • The Birth of a Nation (dir. D.W. Griffith) – clip from C-SPAN on YouTube (warning: extremely racist content!)
    • Mark Cousins, The Story of Film: The Birth of Cinema – on D.W. Griffith on Kanopy from about 53:00

Wed 8/26

Preparation

  • Read Film History, Part Two, “The Late Silent Era, 1919-1929” introduction (3 pp.)
  • Read Film History, Chap. 5, “Germany in the 1920s” (15 pp.)

In Class

  • Watch clips from:
    • La Roue/The Wheel
    • Battleship Potemkin

Wed night screening

  • Watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – here on Kanopy
    • Dir. Robert Wiene, 1922, Germany, 77 min.

Fri 8/28

Preparation

In Class

  • Techniques of the 1920s. Make a 30 second film.
    • Everyone has the same simple story: a student arrives at class and the door is locked. We’ll work in three groups, each using a different set of techniques
    • Will need folks in different roles – director, editor (familiar with Canva or CapCut or iMovie), actor (willing to play a role) – but all should be involved in all
    • Think briefly about where and what you will shoot and how you will shoot
    • My suggestion is to shoot for 15 minutes – edit for 15 minutes
    • And important: have fun!

Interesting links

  • Slices of Time: Eadweard Muybridge’s Cinematic Legacy – at San Francisco Museum of Art – online at YouTube
  • Kristin Thompson on La Roue/The Wheel – here on YouTube
  • Mark Cousins, Story of Film, “The Golden Age of World Cinema” – here on Kanopy – 5:33 “La Roue” 9:34 “In Germany…” 14:30 Metropolis 22:09 Andalusian Dog 25:27 Soviet experimental film – 36:37 – 47:02 Ozu and another challenge

Week 3. Week of 8/31. The Twenties Continued

Mon 8/31

Preparation

  • Read Ch. 6, “Soviet Cinema in the Late 1920s” (20 pp.)

In Class

  • The Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929, USSR) see open, tripod (1:00) – on Kanopy
  • Manhatta (Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, 1921, USA, 10 min) – on YouTube
  • Andalusian Dog (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, 1929, France, 29 min.) – on YouTube
  • Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Walter Ruttman, 1927, Germany) – on Kanopy

Wed 9/2

Preparation

  • Read Ch. 7, “The Late Silent Era in Hollywood, 1920-1928” (22 pp.)

In Class

  • Mark Cousins, The Story of Film: The Hollywood Dream – on Kanopy – studios – thief of Baghdad – Buster Keaton (from 9:55 to 19:40)
  • Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922) – building an igloo – gramophone

Wed night film

  • Watch The Gold Rush – here on Kanopy
    • Dir. Charlie Chaplin, 1925, US, 89 mins. (the original silent version)

Fri 9/4

Preparation

  • No other preparation aside from film – but give some thought to paper assignment

In Class

  • Film exercise – use techniques to transform reality
    • Make a 30-60 second film of a student (or two students) completing a simple action: crossing a street, opening a door, making coffee, riding an elevator. Transform that simple reality using the techniques that we’ve seen this week in 1920s cinema. Choose one of the following:
      • Chaplin humor – turn it into visual gag – through physical humor
      • Surrealism – make the ordinary… strange – through juxtaposition of the non-sensical
      • Documentary – carefully observe a person in a place doing something – by staging reality
      • City Films – capture the rhythms and movements of campus
    • Some guidelines: 6-10 shots? no dialogue, I suggest 5 minutes of brainstorming, 15 minutes shooting, 15 minutes of editing so we can watch before the end of class

Week 4. Week of 9/7. The Thirties

Mon 9/7

Preparation

  • Read: Introduction to Part Three, “The Development of Sound Cinema, 1926-1945” (3 pp.)
  • Read: Ch. 9, “The Introduction of Sound” (15 pp.)
  • Take a few notes on your reading – as you always should(!) – three key themes, three key names, three key examples

In Class

Wed 9/9

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 10, “The Hollywood Studio System, 1930–1945” (23 pp.)

In Class

  • Historical Context of the 1930s
  • Hollywood System
  • Technical Innovation
  • Film Genres
  • Citizen Kane

Links

Wed night screening

  • Watch It Happened One Night – here on Primo
    • Dir. Frank Capra, USA, 1934

Fri 9/11

Preparation

  • No other preparation aside from film and paper
  • Bring your paper draft to class and be prepared to share
  • If you don’t want to share your paper, pick another shot or sequence of a few shots that you can talk about
  • Note: ** Paper #1 Due ** tonight

In Class

  • No film exercise in class today
    • But if we were to do one – I’d ask you to write a dialogue between two characters and film it
    • What happens when cinema can capture rapid-fire speech?
  • Instead – let us share our paper ideas – and we can take feedback from each other

Week 5. Week of 9/14. The Thirties Around the World

Mon 9/14

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 11, “Other Studio Systems” – excerpts on popular cinema of the 1930s in Japan (4 pp.)
  • Read: Ch. 12, “Cinema and the State: The USSR, Germany, and Italy, 1930–1945” (18 pp.)

In Class

  • Clips from: Yosujiro Ozo, Riefenstahl, Cinecittá…
  • Bordwell and Thompson on Ozo – here on YouTube
    • Mark Cousins, “The Arrival of Film” in The Story of Film – here on Kanopy – Renoir (c. 36min), Riefenstahl (43:38), Hitchcock (47:30), ends with Ninotchka, Wizard of Oz, and Gone With the Wind
    • Scipione l’Africano (1937) – here on YouTube

Wed 9/16

Preparation

  • Ch. 13, “France: Poetic Realism, the Popular Front, and the Occupation, 1930–1945” (17 pp.)

In Class

Wed night screening

Fri 9/18

In Class

  • Say a few words about our film – see 14:00 (enjoy the meal), 31:20 (Jerusalem), 1:31:40 (petit navies), 1:51:50 (so long)
  • Film Exercise – create an experimental sequence
    • See for inspiration – Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943) – silent on YouTube – with music on YouTube
    • Create a sequence of a few shots (4 or 5? 30 seconds) that makes the familiar strange – a key falling down a set of steps, a knife out of place, a shadow on the wall, feet walking in slow motion. You can choose the subject
    • Try to create a sense of curiosity, or fear, or mystery. Make the familiar unfamiliar
    • Feel free – actually, it is encouraged – to violate the rules of continuity editing. You might: show the same action twice, interrupt an action, match shots unexpectedly, violate the 180-rule

Week 6. Week of 9/21. Postwar Cinema

Mon 9/21

Preparation

  • Read Introduction to Part Four, “The Postwar Era: 1945–1960s” (3 pp.)
  • Read Ch. 15, “American Cinema in the Postwar Era, 1945–1960” (23 pp.)
  • Clips from: Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954); On the Waterfront (Kazan, 1954); Rebel Without a Cause (Ray, 1955); Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958), High Noon (Zinnemann, 1952)

Clips from

  • From 1940, but a good intro to the post war decade. Chaplin’s speech from The Great Dictator (5 mins) – here on YouTube
  • Optimism/technicolor of the early 50s: The Story of Film Episode 5 ~ 44:29 – 48:49. Features clips from An American in Paris (1951), The Red Shoes (1948), and Singin’ in the Rain (1952) – here on Kanopy
  • Marilyn Monroe “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (4 ½ mins) – here on YouTube
  • Youth culture and more artistic freedom in Hollywood: The Story of Film Episode 6
    53:00 – 57:15. Features clips from Rebel Without A Cause (1955), Vertigo (1958), The Searchers (1956), and Touch of Evil (1958) – here on Kanopy
  • Another Rebel Without A Cause clip (“You’re tearing me apart!” scene, 2 mins) – here on YouTube

Wed 9/23

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 16, “Postwar European Cinema: Neorealism and Its Context, 1945–1959” (17 pp)

Clips From

Wed night screening

  • Umberto D. – here on Kanopy
    • Dir. Vittorio de Sica, Italy, 1952, 88 mins

Fri 9/25

Preparation

  • Prepare for Midterm. Bring in
    • Five themes… and Twelve examples – two from each week
      • Discuss film
  • Review for exam

Week 7. Week of 9/28. Midterm & More Postwar Cinema

Mon 9/28

  • No preparation – prepare for exam
  • ** Short Exam **

Wed 9/30

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 17, “Postwar European Cinema: France, Scandinavia, and Britain, 1945–1959” (17 pp.)

Clips

Wed night screening

  • Gilda – here at Internet Archive
  • Dir. Charles Vidor, US, 1946, 110 mins
  • Starring Rita Hayworth, Glen Ford, Charles Macready

Fri 10/2

IN CLASS

  • A few words on the star life of Rita Hayworth
  • And then let’s make a scene from our own film noir. What do we need? (See HowStuffWorks for some ideas)
    • Mise en scene: a dark alley or a cluttered office, rotary phone, cigarettes, trench coat, and a hat – well, I have a hat
    • Characters/Acting: the detective, the femme fatale, the corrupt authority, fast-paced dialogue, suggestive looks
    • Lighting: low-key, high contrast, minimal fill lighting, suggestive shadows
    • Camera angles: canted shots, low-angle shots (something is not right in this world)
    • Narration: voice over internal monologue from the bitter, cynical detective
    • Music?
    • Sound effects?
    • I’ll bring a furry actor, a hat, trench coat, and lighting

FALL BREAK 10/3 – 10/11

Week 8. Week of 10/12. Postwar and the Filmmaker Auteur

Mon 10/12

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 18, “Postwar Cinema Beyond the West, 1945–1959” (21 pp.)

Clips

  • Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955), India, in Mark Cousins, The Story of Film, “Sex and Melodrama”, see from 9:51 – Here On Kanopy  
  • Los Olividados (Buñuel, 1950), Mexico in Mark Cousins, The Story of Film, “Sex and Melodrama”, see from 37:30 – Here On Kanopy 
  • Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950), Japan, Skip to about halfway through the clip – Here On Youtube 
  • Awaara (Kapoor, 1951), India – Here On Youtube 
  • The Cranes Are Flying (Kalatozov, 1957), Soviet – Here On Youtube  

Additional Clips

Wed 10/14

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 19, “Art Cinema and the Idea of Authorship” (19 pp.)
    • There is a lot here. Read the introductory material on authorship. And be sure to read the sections on Buñuel, Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini, and Ray

Clips

Wednesday night screening

  • Watch Panther Panchali – Here on Kanopy
    • Dir. Satyajit Ray, India, 1955, 125 mins

Fri 10/16

Preparation

  • Watch film – no additional reading

In Class

  • Create a short sequence that captures the poetic discovery of the everyday in Panther Panchali – think of the famous train sequence

Clips for Reference

  • 100 Years of Bollywood – 1950s: The Rise of the Golden Age of Cinema – here on YouTube
  • 50 Film Shots That Will Make You Believe in the Magic of Classic Bollywood – here on YouTube
  • Aware (1951) – a Bollywood classic produced by, directed by, and starring Raj Kapoor – here on YouTube
  • Pather Panchali (1955) – here on Kanopy – see wheat field at 1:16:16 (and train scene that follows), the water scene at 1:34:42
  • Ravi Shankar improvises on theme from Pather Panchali – here on YouTube

Week 9. Week of 10/19. New Waves of the Sixties

Mon 10/19

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 20, “New Waves and Young Cinemas, 1958–1967” (34 pp.)
    • There is a lot here. I’d like you to focus on:
    • general observations about the “new waves” of the late ’50s and 1960s
    • French New Wave and Left-Bank Filmmakers, esp. Truffaut, Goddard, Resnais, Varda
    • Italian Spaghetti Western, esp. Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone
    • You can skip sections on Britain and Germany and most of the Soviet Union section (or read if you are interested)
    • Do take away some general characteristics of the Czech New Wave, Japanese New Wave, and Brazilian Cinema Nôvo

Clips

  • Mark Cousins, Story of Film, episode 7, “European New Wave” – here on Kanopy – watch from 26:05 for French new wave – example of Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1962) – then Last Year at Marienbad (1961) – then 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959) – then Breathless (Jean Luc Godard, 1960)
  • Breathless (Jean Luc Godard, France, 1960) – see from 3:25 to 5:00 – here on YouTube 
  • Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, France, 1959) – see part of opening scene from 3:50 to 6:20 – here on Kanopy 
  • A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, Italy, 1964) – here on YouTube
  • Daisies (Chytilova, Czechoslovakia, 1966), See from 5:30 to 7:15 – here on Kanopy 
  • Cruel Story of Youth (Nagisa Oshima, 1960), Japan – here on YouTube 
  • Black God, White Devil (Rocha, 1964), Brazil , See from 12:00 to 14:00 – here on Kanopy 

Wed 10/21

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 21, “Documentary and Experimental Cinema in the Postwar Era, 1945–mid-1960s” (29 pp.)
    • Another chapter with many examples. Please read the sections on “Toward the Personal Documentary” and “Direct Cinema.” You can simply skim the section on “Experimental and Avant-Garde Cinema”

Clips

Wednesday night screening

  • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg – here on Kanopy
  • Dir. Jacques Demy, France, 1964, 92 mins
  • With Catherine Deneuve as Geneviève and Nino Castelnuovo as Guy
  • Music by Michel Legrand

Fri 10/23

Preparation

  • Watch Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
  • Watch clip from Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (above)

In Class

  • A few words on the films of Jacques Demy
  • Film Exercise
    • Shoot and edit a short scene that draws upon the disruptive film techniques of Godard and other New Wave filmmakers
    • 30-45 second, no more than six shots
    • Use some of the following: jump cuts (abrupt jumps in time and space), handheld camera (shaky camera with sense of immediacy), breaking the fourth wall (character looks at camera and addresses audience), unconventional framing, discontinuous editing

Week 10. Week of 10/26. Sixties and Beyond

Mon 10/26

Preparation

  • Read Introduction to Part Five, “The Contemporary Cinema Since the 1960s” (2 pp.)
  • Read: Ch. 22, “Hollywood’s Fall and Rise, 1960–1980” (21 pp.)

Wed 10/28

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 23, “Politically Critical Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s” (36 pp.)

Wednesday night screening

  • Watch Jaws? or Burn, or Battle of Algiers, or…

Fri 10/30

Preparation

  • Note: ** Paper #2 due tonight **

Week 11. Week of 11/2

Mon 11/2

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 25, “New Cinemas and New Developments: Europe and the USSR since the 1970s” (34 pp.)
    • First part

Wed 11/4

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 25, “New Cinemas and New Developments: Europe and the USSR since the 1970s” (34 pp.)
  • Second part

Wednesday night screening

  • Watch German New Cinema? Herzog? Kieslowski? Denis?

Fri 11/6

Preparation

  • Read:

Week 12. Week of 11/9

Mon 11/9

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 26, “A Developing World: Continental and Subcontinental Cinemas since 1970” (29 pp.)
    • First part

Wed 11/11

Preparation

  • Read: Ch. 26, “A Developing World: Continental and Subcontinental Cinemas since 1970” (29 pp.)
  • Second part

Wed night screening

  • Brazilian film

Fri 11/13

Preparation

  • No preparation – prepare for exam
  • ** Short Exam **

Week 13. Week of 11/16

Mon 11/16

Preparation

    • Read: Ch. 27, “Cinema Rising: Pacific Asia and Oceania since 1970″ (32 pp.)

      Wed 11/18

      Preparation

      • Read Introduction to Part Six, “Cinema in the Age of New Media” (1 p.)
      • Read: Ch. 28, “American Cinema and the Entertainment Economy: The 1980s and After” (35 pp.)

      Wed night screening

      WATCH

      • Miyazaki?? or Parasite or…??

      Fri 11/20

      Preparation

      • Read: TBD

      Week 14. Week of 11/23

      Mon 11/23

      Preparation

      • Note ** Paper #3 Due Tonight **

      Wed 11/25—No Class! Happy Thanksgiving!

      Week 15. Week of 11/30

      Mon 11/30

      Preparation

      • Read: Ch. 29, “Toward a Global Film Culture” (17 pp.)
        • We’ll focus on a couple sections

      Wed 12/2

      Preparation

      • Read: Ch. 30, “Digital Technology and the Cinema” (23 pp.)
        • We’ll focus on a couple sections

      Wed night screening

      Watch

      • Last film… Something recent – short – fun?

      Fri 12/4

      Preparation

      • Read Final Exam Study Guide
      • Review and Celebration

      Exam Week

      FINAL EXAMINATION—Monday, December 7, 2026 from 8:00-10:30am

      • I’ll share a final exam study guide before our last meeting
      • Bring your laptop, power, and a snack
      • The final exam will take place in our usual classroom, starting at 8:00am