Film Studies

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Visiting Students

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Childhood and Children in Cinema

This option can be taken as a primary course (8 tutorials) or secondary course (4 tutorials).

This course explores filmic constructions of childhood, the practice and ethics of using child actors, and the way children and childhood are used to engage with war and conflict on screen. We consider, too, how depictions of childhood might be framed nationally, as well as exploring different film-making traditions.

Films studied include:

  • Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945)
  • René Clément’s Forbidden Games (1952)
  • Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
  • Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon (2009)
  • Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987)
  • Cate Shortland’s Lore (2013)
  • Christian Petzold’s The State I am in (2000).
Introduction to German-Language Cinema

This option can be taken as a primary course (8 tutorials) or secondary course (4 tutorials).

This course explores a range of German films from the 1920s to the present. Films to be studied include:

  • Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
  • Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and/or M (1931)
  • Wolfgang Staudte’s The Murderers are Among Us (1946)
  • Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta’s The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975)
  • Volker Schlöndorff’s The Tin Drum (1979)
  • Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987)
  • Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (1998)
  • Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin (2003)
  • Fatih Akin’s Head-On (2004)
  • Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon (2009)
  • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others (2006)
  • Christian Petzold’s Phoenix (2014).
German Expressionist Cinema

This option can be taken as a secondary course (4 tutorials).

This course explores four examples of German Expressionism in cinema. In tutorials, we will examine cinematic techniques and aesthetic tropes, and themes of fear, chaos, and disruption that dominate the era. We will also discuss the historical and artistic context of these works. Students will watch and analyse four films in detail:

  • Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
  • F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)
  • Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927)
  • Fritz Lang’s, M (1931).
The Berlin School of Filmmakers (1997-2012)

This option can be taken as a primary course (8 tutorials) or secondary course (4 tutorials) in Hilary and/or Trinity Terms.

The Berlin School is the name given to a group of film makers who studied at the Deutsche Film- und Ferhsehakademie Berlin with the filmmaker Harun Farocki (1944-2014) and who came to prominence at the start of the new millennium. Students will watch and analyse a number of films, including:

  • Thomas Arslan (dir.), Brothers and Sisters (1997)
  • Angela Schanelec (dir.), Marseille (2003)
  •  Christian Petzold (dir.), The State I Am In (2000)
  • Christian Petzold (dir.), Barbara (2012)
  • Christian Petzold (dir.), Phoenix (2014)
  • The Dreileben Trilogy (Christian Petzold, Beats Being Dead (2011), Dominik Graf, Don’t Follow Me Around (2011), Christoph Hochhäusler, One Minute of Darkness (2011))
  • Christian Petzold, Jerichow (2008).
Courses TBC
INTRODUCTION TO FRENCH CINEMA
POSTMODERN CINEMA
JEAN-LUC GODARD
THEORY AND FILM
RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER (IN TRANSLATION)

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