Film Studies 241 - GENRE/PERIOD: SCREEN COMEDY

Topics course. Lectures, with frequent discussion, on film comedies from a variety of places and times: American screwball comedies and British Ealing comedies; battles of the sexes; the silent or nonverbal comedy of Chaplin, Keaton, and Jacques Tati; parodies of other film genres; political satire; musical comedy; adaptations of comic novels; fast-talking comedy by the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Woody Allen, and Howard Hawks; and to sum things up, Ingmar Bergman?s "Smiles of a Summer Night", plus a film chosen by the class. Some attention to animated cartoons; regular readings in film criticism, film history, and the theory of comedy. No scheduled screenings; assigned films will be streamed via Moodle. Prerequisite: a college course in film or literature or permission of the instructor.