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EN212 (EX20) OK - Intro to Cinema

This course has an assignment that is due by 11:55 pm Central Standard Time on Wednesday night of the first week of class. Failure to complete this assignment will result in your removal from the course for non-participation.

Textbooks

Barsam & Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, 6e. Norton, 2019. E-Book and Online Materials. ISBN: 978-0393674682

When you purchase the eBook, you will have access to online materials that accompany this book such as interactive materials and videos. The link to the book materials is available in Resources and Materials. If you purchase a used paper copy, there are options to purchase the online materials with that link. The most cost effective and highly recommended is to purchase the eBook with the online materials.

Course Special Requirements

Students are encouraged to subscribe to movie streaming sites, such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, etc. as appropriate. Check the movie streaming sites to which you already subscribe to see if these titles are available. You will be responsible for securing copies of each of the titles, and because streaming sites change their offerings so frequently, it is difficult to guarantee that any one streaming site will always have a given title.

Films that you will need to view for the course:

For Week 1 Buster Keaton's The General (1926)

For Week 2 John Ford's Stagecoach (1939)

For Week 3 F.W. Murnau's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)

For Week 4 Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) (1997)

For Week 5 Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

For Week 6 Kelly/Donen's Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Michael Curtiz' Casablanca (1942)

For Week 7 Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1967)

Course Description

The class examines themes, impacts, and techniques in cinematic art. Through experiencing, reading about, and discussing a series of films, the class studies the history of film, the major film genres, and some of the important film directors. Fulfills “Fine Arts” requirements. Prerequisite: EN120 or EN110/EN111.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, each participant should be able to:

Identify and analyze the conventions of film form, including narrative and cinematic style conventions;
Explain and evaluate films in relationship to their forms, genres, ideologies, and socio-historic moments;
Describe the major developments in film history;
Describe and compare how individual films affirm and challenge particular values, attitudes, myths, and institutions of culture.