FT3FBM-Film Beyond the Medium

Module Provider: Film, Theatre and TV
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2019/0

Module Convenor: Prof Lucia Nagib

Email: l.nagib@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

From its early days cinema has been defined as hybrid, reasons ranging from its power to emulate pre-existing art forms to its mixed supports. More than ever, in the digital age, we must ask what ‘cinema’ and ‘film’ actually are, given the variety of production, distribution, exhibition and reception modes and platforms available to the spectator. This module will open up for the students a fascinating way to understand cinema through its interactions with other art and medial forms. By resorting to approaches such as remediation and intermediality, this module will bring to the fore Bazin’s defence of what he termed ‘impure cinema’, as well as his dramatic call for a new, emancipated criticism, capable of understanding cinema beyond the constraints of the medium’s specificity. However, in order to obtain precision of this method, it is imperative to be able to define the specifics of the medium and the importance of what Stam has called ‘film as film’, before undertaking the analysis of ‘the migratory, crossover elements shared between film and other media’. Thus this module, whilst recognising the existence of the film medium, will focus on the threats and challenges, as well as the added richness, presented by intermediality and remediation. Drawing on films from all over the world (Japan, Iran, Portugal, Brazil, Germany, Italy etc.), the module will unveil specific artistic expressions of these locations (music, theatre, painting, dance, opera etc.), in the light of cutting-edge theorists such as Petho, Rajewski and Manovich.

Aims:

• To expose students to the main theories and methods related to intermediality;


• To study how these theories and methods can be applied to a variety of film productions;


• To develop students’ understanding of the specificities of the film medium;


• To analyse ‘covert’ and ‘overt’ intermediality in films and their aesthetic results;


• To understand the effects of different supports and distribution platforms on the resulting film and its spectator;


• To understand and appreciate the contribution of local and national art forms to film, as well as their contribution to identity formation;


• To develop students’ ability to locate, analyse and inter-relate intermedial procedures in films from different parts of the world;


• To develop students’ critical and analytical skills;


• To develop students’ skills in understanding and applying complex theories and concepts.

Assessable learning outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to:

• Demonstrate solid knowledge of different theories of intermedility and remediaton as applied to film;


• Demonstrate solid understanding of the various meanings of ‘film’ and ‘cinema’;


• Understand and apply concepts relating to ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ cinema as well as to medium specificity;


• Analyse intermediality and remediation in films across various formats and platforms;


• Demonstrate familiarity with a number of intermedial procedures in various schools and movements in world cinema.

Additional outcomes:

The module will serve as a useful complement to all other modules taught in the undergraduate course, in particular the module FT3WC World Cinema: Presenting and Representing Reality. It will provide students with critical, analytical and interpretative skills and tools to deal with a variety of films and cultural traditions, in light of their intermedial features. It will provide them with an overarching vision of cinema’s engagement with other arts and media. And it will expose them to original and cutting-edge theories in the film and audiovisual media research field.

Outline content:

The module will endeavour to demonstrate to students how intermedial procedures have prevailed in most world cinema traditions, how these procedures unveil aspects of regional and national identity, and how they relate with each other across history and geography. The sessions should reflect this endeavour, for example, through the following themes and case studies:

1. Film and theatre in Japan. Case study: the geidomono genre (films on the lives of theatre actors): Kenji Mizoguchi’s Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (1939) and Yasujiro Ozu’s Floating Weeds (1954),


2. Opera and Neo-realism – the case of Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943).


3. Tropicalism and anthropophagy in Brazilian Cinema – from the colonialist and modernist literatures to film. Case studies: How Tasty Was my Little Frenchman (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1970); Macunaíma (Joaquim Pedro de Andreade, 1969).


4. Intermedial History-Telling: the case of Mysteries of Lisbon (Raúl Ruiz, 2010).


5. Non-cinema and the reality of film. Case study: Jafar Panahi’s ‘banned’ trilogy: This Is Not a Film (2011), Closed Curtain (2013) and Taxi (2015).


6. National history and the life-long film. The production and reproduction of music in the Heimat series (Edgar Reitz).

Some of the topics above could be divided in two or more sessions.

Global context:

This module displays an outspoken international and transnational outlook, focusing as it does on issues cutting across cinema from around the globe.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Within the two-hour class, a range of teaching styles will be used and may vary from week to week. Where appropriate, lectures will be used to establish contexts and introduce issues for discussion and debate. The dominant teaching form will be the seminar, which will concentrate primarily on offering historical and theoretical context for the films in question, including analysis of selected film clips and presentation of powerpoint slides. Seminars will require preparation in the form of weekly viewings and specified critical reading. Short, non-assessed presentations by groups of students will be made in response to pre-set questions. Attendance to external screenings and/or excursions to film festivals and the like are bound to take place, in which case these are announced before the start of the course and cost implications clearly laid out for the students to plan their budget in advance.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Seminars		18
External visits		10
Guided independent study:		172
Total hours by term		200
Total hours for module	200

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written assignment including essay	100

Summative assessment- Examinations:

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Students submit two assignments, one in the Spring term and one in the Summer term, amounting to a total of 6,000 words or equivalent.

Formative assessment methods:

Penalties for late submission:
The Module Convener will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day[1] (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;

where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/qualitysupport/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

40%

Reassessment arrangements:

Re-submission of failed coursework.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

 

Cost	Amount
Required text books
Specialist equipment or materials
Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear
Printing and binding
Computers and devices with a particular specification
Travel, accommodation and subsistence	£50.00

 

Last updated: 8 April 2019