HISTORY OF CINEMA AND FILM CRITICISM

The course will provide the basic elements concerning film languages and the forms of representation and narration, following the main joints of its historical and critical evolution (from the origins to contemporary period).

 

1) Knowledge and understanding

Students attending the course will be able to learn the differences among the evolutionary steps of film language.

 

2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

They will be able to recognize and interpret the most representative elements (films, directors, forms) of film history.   

 

3) Autonomy of judgment

They will develop the ability to read critical objects, by making inter-textual and inter-contextual comparisons. 

4) Communication skills

They will be able to use the specialized lexicon, proper of the studies in this area.

5) Learning skill 

They will be able to orient themselves among the bibliographic sources and to integrate concepts learned in class both with autonomous studying and with their own experiences as spectators. 

 

None

The course is divided into three modules. The first one (A) is dedicated to the historical synthesis and it provides an examination of the main cinematic paradigms, from linguistic and formal points of view, with a focus on the most significant elements belonging to each period (authors, actors/actress, movements).

 The second module and the third one (B and C) aim to study two theoretical notions in depth, that of “author” and that of “genre”. Particularly, module B is based on Michelangelo Antonioni, one of the most emblematic director of modern cinema, while module C proposes an interdisciplinary thematic journey about love, in order to make a critical analysis of the codes referred to the main cinematic genres (above all, comedy and melodrama).

 Students attending the course must choose five films for the exam (three for module A, one for module B and one for module C). 

Modulo A – Oulines of Film History (4 CFU)

 

Textbook:

G. Carluccio, L. Malavasi, F. Villa (a cura di), Il cinema. Percorsi storici e questioni teoriche. Nuova edizione illustrata, Carocci, Roma 2022, pp. 440.

 

Modulo B – The Author (1 CFU)

 

Textbook:

S. Busni, Michelangelo Antonioni. L’alienista scettico, Edizioni Fondazione Ente dello spettacolo, Roma 2019 (chapters I, II pp. 9-152, and a paragraph at will from chapter III [3.1, pp. 153-166; 3.2, pp. 167-187; 3.3, pp. 187-203]).)

 

Modulo C – Love and genres (1 CFU)

Textbook:

R. De Gaetano, Le immagini dell’amore, Marsilio, Venezia 2022, pp. 126 (part I, pp. 7-40,  and a chapter at will from Part II)

 

In order to pass the exam, the students must choose at least five films from the following list:

 

Modulo A [3 film at will]

Lumière! (cofanetto Cineteca di Bologna)

Voyage dans la lune (G. Méliès, 1902)

Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)

Il gabinetto del dottor Caligari (R. Wiene, 1920)

Nanook l’esquimese (R. Flaherty, 1922)

Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)

Greed (E. von Stroheim, 1925)

La corazzata Potëmkin (S. Ejzenstejn, 1925)

Un chien andalou (L. Buñuel, 1929)

Tempi moderni (C. Chaplin, 1936)

Susanna (H. Hawks, 1938)

Alba tragica (M. Carné, 1939)

Ninotchka (E. Lubitsch, 1939)

La regola del gioco (J. Renoir, 1939)

Ombre rosse (J. Ford, 1939)

Quarto potere (O. Welles, 1941)

Paisà (R. Rossellini, 1946)

Ladri di biciclette (V. De Sica, 1948)

Nodo alla gola (A. Hitchcock, 1948)

Riso Amaro (G. De Santis, 1949)

Il posto delle fragole (I. Bergman, 1957)

Diario di un curato di campagna (R. Bresson, 1961)

Un dollaro d'onore (H. Hawks, 1959)

I quattrocento colpi (F. Truffaut, 1959)

Hiroshima mon amour (A. Resnais, 1959)

L’avventura (M. Antonioni, 1960)

Fino all'ultimo respiro (J.L. Godard, 1960)

La dolce vita (F. Fellini, 1960)

Rocco e i suoi fratelli (L. Visconti, 1960)

Mamma Roma (P.P. Pasolini, 1962)

Il sorpasso (D. Risi, 1962)

Lolita (S. Kubrick, 1962)

Le mani sulla città (F. Rosi, 1963)

Il servo (J. Losey, 1963)

Io la conoscevo bene (A. Pietrangeli, 1965)

Il buono, il brutto e il cattivo (S. Leone, 1966)

Bella di giorno (L. Buñuel, 1967)

Il laureato (M. Nichols, 1967)

Il conformista (B. Bertolucci, 1970)

Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (E. Petri, 1970)

Nashville (R. Altman, 1975)

Lo squalo (S. Spielberg, 1975)

Taxi Driver (M. Scorsese, 1976)

Io ed Annie (W. Allen, 1977)

Strade perdute (D. Lynch, 1997)

 

Module B [1 film at will]

Il deserto rosso (M. Antonioni, 1964)

Blow Up (M. Antonioni, 1966)

Professione: reporter (M. Antonioni, 1974)

 

Module C [1 film at will]

Aurora (W. Murnau, 1927)

Una gita in campagna (J. Renoir, 1936)

L’orribile verità (L. McCarey, 1937)

I racconti della luna pallida d’agosto (K. Mizoguchi, 1953)

Monica e il desiderio (I. Bergman, 1953)

Jules e Jim (F. Truffaut, 1962)

Ultimo tango a Parigi (B. Bertolucci, 1972)

Racconto d’inverno (E. Rohmer, 1992)

Bright Star (J. Campion, 2009)

Cold War (P. Pawlikowski, 2018)