FMST 201 - Introduction to Film Studies: Form and History on the Big Screen

This course introduces students to film aesthetics through the analysis of film form and style with the aim of acquiring fluency in and understanding of film’s unique language as it evolved technologically, historically, and generically. Students shall explore the specificity of the language of cinema and its development in the twentieth century, paying special attention to how the big screen responded to and represented major events and historical shifts. In addition to dissecting and identifying formal choices and techniques, students will undertake close readings of films and place them in the larger context of directorial oeuvre, critical schools, period, or movement in European and American cinema, and beyond.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Instructional Method: Lecture-conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).