FILM THEORY AND ANALYSIS

This course provides an introductory overview to film theory and methods of film analysis. We explore the interaction between a film’s subject and style to reach an informed analysis of cinematic aesthetics. We explore how cinema functions as a medium, art form and practice, institution, and how cinema signifies (e.g. communicates, produces meanings, and constructs itself as a language). There are a range of critical methods for the study of media texts: realism, formalism, auteur theory, theories of spectatorship and reception, feminism, queer theory, Marxist film theory, cultural studies, postcolonialism, among many others. Through analysis and examination of major areas of film theory and criticism, this course helps students become informed, critically engaged readers/viewers of global media texts and practices. Preg: FILM1025