This course is an introduction to the art of motion pictures. The course will examine a representative selection of films covering the history of cinema, introducing students to basic concepts in film aesthetics. By examining narrative construction, theoretical concepts, and visual aesthetics, students will develop the skills necessary to identify and interpret various aspects of film, including form, meaning, and ideology.
This course will introduce the most important developments in the history of experimental cinema. A discussion of international avant-garde films will be included, with a focus on the evolution of the avant-garde's alternative techniques, themes, modes of production, and audiences.
The development of film theory and criticism from the silent period to the present. Major writings in silent film theory, montage theory, realism, auteurism, semiotics, psychoanalytic and spectatorship theories will be investigated.
An introduction to the history of film in Singapore, this course will exemplify the cultural impact of political change in South-East Asia following the Second World War, including the transition from Malay to Chinese-language filmmaking after Singapore achieved political independence in 1965.
This course will provide a historical survey of French-launguage science-fiction cinema, examining form, content and cultural context in an effort to identify its unique characteristics. In addition, a multi-disciplinary conference on French Science Fiction will take place at the University on Nov. 203. More information is available on the course website: www.sf-fr.ca
This course will examine music’s contribution to the movie soundtrack from narratological, psychological and aesthetic perspectives. Exploring these theories of film music will provide students with analytical tools allowing them to describe and discuss the forms and functions of a traditionally “ineffable” aspect of film.
This course will examine the enduring legacy of colonialism in filmic representations of South-East Asia, both from Euro-American and Asian producers.
Using the Southeast Asian City-State of Singapore as a case study, this course will examine historical, theoretical and aesthetic dimensions of orientalism in film and television, i.e. Western representations of the East.
This course will examine the ongoing aesthetic, economic and political existence of various "small cinemas", such as the cinemas of small nation-states, Edison's Nickelodeon, the cinemas of ethnic and religious minorities, experimental film, the cinemas of closed communities and the cinemas of international struggle and resistance, etc.