Hollywood And The Post Industrial City

Module description

This module explores how economic reorganisation of the city since the late 1960s has impacted on the production, distribution and mise-en-scene of Hollywood cinema.  While there is significant literature in economic geography on post-Fordist changes in the film industry, this module aims to link the interconnected restructuring of the US city and film industry with  visual, aesthetic and narrative developments in urban cinema.  Throughout, we will focus on how new trends in on-location shooting, technical innovations (with regard to sound, lighting, digital animation, lighter equipment and so on) and changes in the distribution of film (TV, video and online) have resulted in novel modes of representing the city.  Particular emphasis will be placed on close readings of individual films or genres that explore the changing occupational class structure of post-Fordist cities (yuppie, ghetto and gentrification films as well as corporate and legal thrillers for example) or the identity politics associated with new urban social movements (feminist cinema, New Queer Cinema, representations of race). 

Lecture themes will include:

• Introduction: New Hollywood
•  New Hollywood in New York
•  Postmodernism, neo-noir, and sexual difference
•  Gentrification by genre: the romantic comedy
•  New Black Cinema
•  Hollywood’s Dream Factory
•  The geopolitical imagination
•  Identity politics and melodrama
•  Multi-city narratives
•  The Hollywood documentary

Assessment details

Coursework (100%)

 

Educational aims & objectives

1. This course explores how the economic reorganisation of the city since the late 1960s has affected the production, distribution, and aesthetics of Hollywood cinema.

2. The module will familiarise students with key work on the post-industrial city, post-Fordism and postmodernism and use insights from these literatures both to analyse Hollywood as an industry and the representation of cities in particular films and genres.

3. Particular emphasis is placed on how new trends in on-location shooting, technical innovations (with regards to sound, lighting, digital animation, lighter equipment and so on) and changes in the distribution of film (TV, video and online) have resulted in novel modes of representing the city.

4. A key aim throughout the module is to conduct close readings of individual films or genres that explore the changing occupational class structure of post-industrial cities (yuppie, ghetto and gentrification films as well as corporate and legal thrillers for example) or the identity politics associated with new urban social movements (feminist cinema, New Queer Cinema, representations of race).

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Use visual and narrative methods to critically analyse Hollywood films
• To understand recent urban and social change through cinema
• To use insights from geographical scholarship to examine the interconnected changes in the economic organisation of Hollywood and the post-industrial city since the late 1960s
• To reflect critically on the politics of representation with regards to both broader ideological shifts and the depiction of minority groups in Hollywood cinema

Teaching pattern

20hrs lectures

Module description disclaimer

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Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.