HART284 Moving Pictures: Visual Language of Narrative Cinema: Techniques and Traditions 3 cr.

Concentrating on the visual language of film, this course will consider the pictorial traditions upon which the new medium draws, and out of which, to some extent, it can be said to grow. We will compare the composition of the standard modules of cinema, the shot and the scene, with precedents drawn from Western art history, from Greek vase paintings to Renaissance fresco cycles and nineteenth-century English narrative pictures. We will simultaneously consider what is unique to the new medium. Weekly examinations of film clips in order to illustrate traditional and non-traditional visual techniques of cinematic narrative will be complemented by wide-ranging readings and regular viewing and reviewing of full-length films. Following a brief history of the medium before the Second World War, we will identify and examine many of the traditional ways in which cinematic artists compose their visual narratives. We will then undertake an in-depth study of some of the major works of cinema since 1945, including films by Rossellini, Bresson, Hitchcock, the French New Wave directors and those of Das Neue Kino in Germany, and the American Independents.

Prerequisites: HART100

Lecture/Seminar

All College Elective