Module description
European cinema is a longstanding and diverse set of films, filmmaking practices, institutions and organisations that spans the avant-garde, art cinema, and popular film. Frequently defined in opposition to Hollywood, it ranges from the invention of cinema by the Lumière brothers through German Expressionism, Italian NeoRealism, and the French New Wave, to the New Extremism in cinema of the 2000s and the European cinema streaming platforms and film festivals of today. This module offers an opportunity for advanced study of European cinema at the intersection of society, economics, politics, and culture, historically and/or in the present. It does this via a series of case studies of individual films, filmmakers and film movements or analyses of one or more specific themes and issues of importance in European cinema (eg. tradition and modernity, nationalism, democracy and totalitarianism, war, race or migration, national cinema, the coproduction, and so on). These case studies and analyses may also branch into other screen-based media such as television, video, and digital video. Set films and media objects are placed into conversation with historical and theoretical writings and with the often-tumultuous historical events that have shaped Europe and its constituent countries and their cultural imagination. Depending on the convener, the precise weighting of the above elements may vary from year to year.
Assessment details
4000-word essay (100%)