FLM 280 FILM THEORY

A survey of classical and contemporary film theory, mapping central preoccupations and debates in the field. The course explores the ways in which film form has philosophical, social, and political dimensions. Reading closely and critically, and placing theoretical work in historical and social context, students will discuss how various theories are connected with, productively in tension with, or even incompatible with each other. Students will also discuss what traditions these theories presume or challenge. Students will engage film texts as objects of aesthetic analysis and provocations to thought, highlighting the intimate relationship between theory and practice. Topics include theories of formalism and realism; cinema’s relationship to time; how ideologies are both upheld and challenged through film; theories of spectatorship; and the differences as well as continuities between analog and digital cinema.