Film Studies 241 - GLOBAL CINEMA AFTER WWII

This class examines national film movements after the Second World War. The post-war period was a time of increasing globalization, which brought about a more interconnected and international film culture. But it was also a time during which certain key national cinemas defined, or redefined, themselves. This course examines both trends, as well as focuses on the work and influence of significant directors and landmark films, emphasizing not only cinematic and cultural specificity, but also cross-cultural and transhistorical concerns. What makes a film Italian or Brazilian or British? How does national identity help shape any country's cinema, and how do films help shape national identity? How do films circulate through other cultures and what kinds of conversations do films from one nation or culture have with others? How and when is the idea of nation a counterproductive way to think about cinema? How do ideas of history and self inform cinema, and vice versa? How do we need to adjust our own spectatorship as we engage with films from other places and times? We examine films and film movements including: Italian Neo-realism, French New Wave, New German Cinema, Brazilian Cinema Novo, Chinese Fifth Generation, Hong Kong Action Cinema, and the films of Ousmane Sembene, Thomas Gutierrez Alea, Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, Julie Dash and Spike Lee. Satisfies the film history requirement for the Five College film and media studies major.