HFMK03331U FM, Module 4: Film and audio-visual aesthetics

Dubbed the “seventh art” when it first emerged, film has been central to the development of audiovisual aesthetics. Analysis of audiovisual aesthetics allows us to grasp film’s emergence as a distinctive art form, its interaction with larger cultural tendencies, its recurring modes of expression, and its capacity to engage audiences. This course addresses the feature film, both nationally and internationally, but also documentaries and to some extent TV series. The course aims to develop skills in film analysis through the examination of stylistic features, narrative forms, genres, art cinema, national film cultures, gender, and film’s relation to reality within both analog and digital media cultures. In addition, the course emphasizes the development of analytic and argumentative skills. Emphasis is placed on the ability to reconstruct arguments accurately, to identify their underlying assumptions, and to test the strength of the relevant proposals against counter arguments and counter evidence. The course is organized around selected works of cinematic fiction and nonfiction, with other works being referenced where relevant and students being encouraged to explore more widely. Indicative topics include: film as art; cinematic expression: the role of the human face; screen acting; screen writing; fiction/non-fiction; documentary genres; film music; cine-ethics; cinematic narration; cinema and the brain; film, mood, and emotion; film movements; “accented” cinema and exilic filmmaking; and women’s cinema and public values.