English 3170

History of Film III: 1960-present

Fall 2011, Monday/Wednesday, 9:35am-11:35am, 326 State

Steven Shaviro
shaviro@shaviro.com
313-577-5475
5057 Woodward, room 9309
office hours: M & We 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm and by appointment

Address of this page: http://www.shaviro.com/Classes/3170F11.html

Course Description

This class is the third part of a three-class sequence on the history of film; but it may be taken independently of parts one and two. The course gives an overview of the worldwide history of film since 1960. One film screening a week will be supplemented by clips from other important films. There will be a combination of lecture and class discussion.
As it is not really possible to cover more than fifty years of film history in depth in the course of a single semester, the approach will be selective. We will concentrate on several important moments in film history, and focus mostly on the 1960s and 1970s, a crucial period of transition from classical to modernist cinema. These moments include: the French New Wave of the 1960s; the Italian art cinema of the 1960s and 1970s; the New Hollywood of the 1970s; the New German Cinema of the 1970s; the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s; parallel developments in Russian and Eastern European cinema of the 1960s; the American independent cinema of the 1980s and 1990s; and recent cinemas of East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, from 1990 to the present).
Since class time is limited, students will be asked to watch a number of additional films on their own. These are listed in the syllabus as "Supplemental Viewing." Six short papers will be due in the course of the semester; each of these should be a report on one of the films from the Supplemental Viewing lists. For whichever film you choose, you should write a précis, a brief historical placement, and a critical discussion, describing the film in its own terms, and relating it to the films that we have screened and discussed in class.

Class Assignments and Requirements

One textbook is required for this class: Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, A Short History of Film (available at Marwil Books).
Class requirements include participation in class discussion (10% of grade), and the six short papers (15% of grade each, for a total of 90% of grade). There is no final.
The papers should each be 3 or 4 pages long, double-spaced.

Schedule of Classes

August 31, September 7, September 12: The French New Wave.
Francois Truffaut, Antoine et Colette (France, 1962).
Jean-Luc Godard, Pierrot le Fou (France, 1965).
Other directors: Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, Eric Rohmer.
Reading: Short History, pp. 239-255.
Supplemental Viewing: Francois Truffaut, The Four Hundred Blows (1959); Francois Truffaut, Jules and Jim (1962); Jean-Luc Godard, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967); Alain Resnais, Last Year at Marienbad (1961); Agnes Varda, Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962); Eric Rohmer, Claire's Knee (1970).

September 14: NO CLASS

September 19, 21, 26, 28: Italian film in the 1960s and 1970s.
Michaelangelo Antonioni, Red Desert (Italy, 1964).
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Teorema (Italy, 1968).
Federico Fellini, Toby Dammit (Italy, 1968).
Other directors: Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci.
Reading: Short History, 212-217, 258-269.
Supplemental Viewing: Federico Fellini, 8 1/2 (1963); Pier Paolo Pasolini, Arabian Nights (1974); Luchinco Visconti, The Leopard (1963); Michaelangelo Antonioni, L'eclisse (1962); Bernardo Bertolucci, The Conformist (1970); Bernardo Bertolucci, Last Tango in Paris (1972); Sergio Leone, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).

October 3, 5, 10, 12: The New Hollywood (1970s).
Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver (1976)
Robert Altman, McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Other directors: Stanley Kubrick, John Cassavetes, Francis Ford Coppola, Alan Pakula, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg.
Reading: Short History, pp. 274-287, 351-372.
Supplemental Viewing: Stanley Kubrick, 2001 (1968); John Cassavetes, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976); Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation (1974); Steven Spielberg, Duel (1971); George Lucas, THX 1138 (1971); Alan Pakula, The Parallax View (1974); Robert Altman, Nashville (1975); Brian De Palma, Carrie (1976); Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby (1968); Sam Peckinpah, The Wild Bunch (1969).
October 5: First Paper Due (on French or Italian film)

October 17, 19, 24, 26: The New German Cinema (1970s).
Rainier W. Fassbinder, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974).
Werner Herzog, Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972).
Other directors: Wim Wenders, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff
Reading: Short History, pp. 271-274, 302-310.
Supplemental Viewing: R. W. Fassbinder, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972); R. W. Fassbinder, The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979); R. W. Fassbinder, Veronika Voss (1982); Werner Herzog, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974); Wim Wenders, The American Friend (1977); Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire (1987); Margarethe von Trotta, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975); Volker Schlöndorff, The Tin Drum (1979).
October 19: Second Paper Due (on New Hollywood)

October 31, November 2: The Japanese New Wave (1960s/1970s).
Nagisa Oshima, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968)
Seijun Suzuki, Branded To Kill (1967)
Other directors: Shohei Imamura.
Supplemental Viewing: Nagisa Oshima, Violence at Noon (1966); Nagisa Oshima, In the Realm of the Senses (1976); Shohei Imamaura, The Pornographers (1966); Shohei Imamura, Vengeance is Mine (1979); Seijun Suzuki, Tokyo Drifter (1966).
November 2: Third Paper Due (on New German Cinema)

November 7, 9, 14, 16: The USSR and Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s.
Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Rublev (1966)
Vera Chytilova, Daisies (Czechoslovakia, 1967).
Other directors: Milos Forman, Andrzej Wajda, Miklos Jancso, Dusan Makavejev.
Reading: Short History, pp 290-301.
Supplemental Viewing: Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris (1972); Milos Forman, Loves of a Blonde (1965); Miklos Jancso, The Red and the White (1968); Dusan Makavejev, WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1972); Andrzej Wajda, Man of Marble (1977).

November 21, 28, 30: Chinese-Language Cinema since 1990
Tsai Ming-liang, The Hole (1998)
Wong Kar-Wai, In the Mood for Love (2000).
Reading: Short History, pp. 322-323, 336-350.
Supplemental Viewing: Edward Yang, Yi Yi (2001); Hou Hsiau-hsien, Flowers of Shanghai (2000); Tsai Ming-liang, Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2005); Wong Kar-Wai, Chungking Express (1994); John Woo, The Killer (1989); Zhang Yimou, Raise the Red Lantern (1991); Chen Kaige, Farewell My Concubine (1993); Jia Zhang Ke, Platform (2000); Johnnie To, Vengeance (2010).
November 28: Fourth Paper Due (on Japanese, Soviet, or Eastern European cinema).

December 5, 7, 12: Other World Cinema Since 1990.
Claire Denis, Beau Travail (1999).
Abbas Kiarostami, A Taste of Cherry (1999).
Supplemental Viewing: Krzsztof Kieslowski, The Double Life of Veronique (1991); Emir Kusturica Underground (1995); Pedro Almodovar, Talk To Her (2002); Lars Von Trier, Breaking the Waves (1996); Michael Haneke, Caché (2005); Cristi Puiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005); David Lynch, Mulholland Drive; Takeshi Kitano, Sonatine (1998); Chan-wook Park, Old Boy; Kim Ki-duk, 3-Iron (2004): Gaspar Noé, Enter the Void.
December 7: Fifth Paper Due (on Chinese-language cinema since 1990)

Friday, December 16: Sixth Paper Due (on other-than-Chinese-language cinema since 1990).


Please note the new University rules regarding withdrawals:
Students must send withdrawal requests through Pipeline by the end of the 10th week (November 12, 2011, Fall term); after November 12th, students WILL NOT be allowed to withdraw.