Art and Media 2880 - Time and Memory in Cinema

Cinema travels through time as much as the human memory can, reliving moments in various times with "limitless possibilities," wrote Gyorgy Lukacs. In this seminar, we will explore how global films engage with and manipulate time and memory, both thematically and through their aesthetic devices and genres. We will examine how cinema, as a time-based medium, addresses nostalgia, trauma, dreams, and amnesia at both the individual and collective levels. Drawing on historically and autobiographically inspired feature films, science fiction, coming-of-age stories, and other genres, we will discuss cinema's ability to mythologize, memorialize, and critically reflect on the past, present, and future as spaces of socio-historical change. How can film represent our haunting by time and memory? We will address class, race, and gender roles, family dynamics, war, politics, and other themes. Possible films include: La Jetee, Cleo from 5 to 7, A Very Long Engagement, Atonement, The Lives of Others, Volver, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Moonlight, Cinema Paradiso, Interstellar, The Tree of Life, 2046, and others. Keywords: Film studies, Time, Memory studies, History, Autobiography