Int`l Pgms, Cinema Studies (ICINE-UT)

The course introduces key themes and issues in the understanding of contemporary British Cinema. The course falls into four main areas: A. Introduction to Film Studies B. Cinema and National IdentityC. Key Authors: Ken Loach and Mike Leigh D. Narrative and Genre: Comedy, The Crime Thriller, Hybridity Topics studied include: cinema and society; cinematic representation; questions of film form; and narrative and genre. There is a special focus on the ways in which British cinema mediates questions of national identity, examining England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, as well as authorship case studies on celebrated British directors Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.

The course is designed as an overview of Argentine Cinema during the last fifty years. The aftermath of World War II, the downfall of Peronist government, and the decline of the studio system produced a series of political, social, and cultural transformations that have been reflected in the films made since then. In the following years, some facts acquired great importance: the emergence of an independent cinema (on the margins of the industrial system), the connection to other continental cinemas, the relationship with artistic avant-gardes around the world, the experimentation, the social testimony and the political militancy. Cinema is a privileged path to study not only the aesthetic transformations but also the social and political changes at the end of XXth Century. The syllabus will concentrate on these mutations produced during the second half of the century. Through the study of some representative films by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, Leonardo Favio, Fernando Solanas, Adolfo Aristarain, Lucrecia Martel, and Juan José Campanella, among others, we will analyze the aesthetic innovations of the so-called Generación del '60; the rise of political cinema at the beginning of the '70s; the complex relationship between films and society during the military dictatorship; and the explosion of the New Argentine cinema in the '90s. Special attention will be given to certain topics: cinema and avant-garde movements, high culture and mass culture, films as political weapon, and, finally, cinema as a privileged aesthetic witness of historical processes.

The course will enrich the students’ understanding of Israeli Cinema as a microcosm of the young, vibrant, and continually changing Israeli state and society. We will analyze the cinematic expression of the themes behind the inception and evolution of the small yet multifaceted country, and note the differences between the cinema of the first and second wave of Israeli filmmakers.

Students conceive, produce, direct, and edit a short film exploring their study away location with smartphone technology. A survey of cellphone cinema history leads to the study of visual storytelling principles and techniques, which students apply through practical exercises. Choosing among available short film genres (experimental, documentary, portrait, essay, fiction), students are trained through every stage of the movie making process: pitching the idea, scripting and storyboarding, shooting, and editing. Each student finishes the course with a facility in smartphone video technology as well as a coherent film record of his or her particular vision of their study away location.

The Italian Cinema is a good way to study the whole Italian history, society, ideology and behaviours. The students will have the opportunity to know such authors as Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, Pasolini, Bertolucci, who are well known in the US. The course will also focus on the difference between auteur films and genre films (comedy, roman-mythological, western, melodrama); it will stress the gender point of view, the problem of a national identity, the role of the film industry. Strong attention will be paid to the relationship between Italian film and literature, art history, television and other disciplines.