ENG222 The Language of Film
Course Aims Can film be regarded as a language? If so, how can we identify and analyze its key components? This course will introduce students to the critical analysis of the language of film, and of screen culture more broadly. By surveying films from a range of historical epochs, genres, and national cinemas, students will learn to identify the fundamental elements of cinematic language—editing, narrative, cinematography, mise-en-scène, color, music, and sound. Students will learn to draw connections between the formal elements of cinematic and literary expression, to situate films within their historical and cultural context, and to identify generic conventions. In so doing, the course will provide students with an in-depth overview of the interrelated development of cinematic and literary aesthetics from the early twentieth century to the present. Screenings will include early cinema, Russian montage, Hollywood, science fiction, horror, new wave, the documentary, experimental film, video art, animation, and digital cinema.