Syllabus
INTRODUCTION WEEK
Week 1: What IS Genre?
Reading: Rick Altman, “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre”
Screening: Věra Chytilová Daisies (excerpts), Fritz Lang Metropolis (excerpts), Andrej Wajda Kanal (excerpts)
SECTION 1 - SILENT CINEMA
Week 2: Between Theatre and Film: Early Silent Comedies
Reading: Jan Mukářovský, “An Attempt at a Structural Analysis of an Actor’s Figure”
Screening: Svatopluk Innemann Milenky starého kriminálníka, Charlie Chaplin
Week 3: The Silent Melodrama
Reading: “Ideology, Genre, Auteur”
Screening: Jaroslav Siakeľ Jánošík (excerpts), Martin Frič, The Organist of St. Vitus
Week 4: The Horror Genre
Reading: Sigfried Kracauer, “From Caligari to Hitler” (excerpts)
Screening: Henrik Galeen, The Student of Prague, Robert Weine The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari/Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
Week 5:Early Hybridities: The Chamber Drama
Reading: Sabine Hake, “Who Gets the Last Laugh”
Screening: F.W. Murnau The Last Laugh/Der letzte Mann, Dimitri Buchowetzki Mad Love
Week 6: Experimental Silent Film, City Symphonies and Montage
Reading: Dziga Vertov, “We: Variant of a Manifesto”
Screening: Karel Plicka, The Earth Sings/Zem spieva, Walter Ruttmann, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
Week 7: Newsreels and Reportage - Non-fiction Filmmaking
Reading: Lubomir Linhardt, “Newsreels Show Us the World”
Screening: Various Newsreels
MIDTERM DUE ON SUNDAY
SECTION 2 - POST-SOUND CINEMA
Week 8: Socialist Westerns
Reading: Petra Watzke, “East Germany’s Imaginary Indians: Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich’s Harka Cycle (1951-63) and Its DEFA Adaptation Die Söhne der Großen Bärin (1966)”
Screening: Josef Mach Sons of the Great Bear, Vladimir Motyl, The White Sun of the Desert
Week 9: Crimes, Krimis and Criminals
Reading: Barry Keith Grant “Experience and Meaning in Genre Films”
Screening: Fritz Lang, M, Ivo Novák The Treasure of a Byzantine Merchant
Week 9 : War Thrillers
Reading: Robert Eberwein “The War Film”, (excerpts)
Screening: Jiří Menzel, Closely Watched Trains, Andrzej Wajda Ashes and Diamonds
Week 10: The Gag Comedy
Reading: Ben Schwartz “The Gag King”
Screening: Martin Frič- Hej Rup!, Oldřich Lipský, Lemonade Joe
Week 11: Science Fiction, Double Feature
Reading: Peter Swirski, “Stanislaw Lem and the Art of Science”
Screening: Jindřich Polák, Ikarie XB-1, Andrej Tarkovskiy, Solaris
Week 12: Psychological Thrillers and Noir
Reading: Margaret Tarratt, “Monsters from the Id”
Screening: Juraj Herz, The Cremator
Week 13: The Teenage Film
Reading: Timothy Shary “Teen Films: The Cinematic Image of Youth”
Screening: Marlon Khutsiev, I Am 20, Štefan Uher, The Sun in a Net
FINAL DUE DURING EXAM PERIOD
Annotation
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is designed to explore one of the most fundamental bedrocks for understanding cinema and media theory (that is, genre) and how it relates to the cinematic history of Central Europe and its socialist past. Students will gain an understanding of genre studies as they relate to formulating models of media history and media categorization, as well as exploring how the concept of genre itself is a culturally bound.
While this syllabus gives a fairly accurate portrayal of the material we will cover, additional material may be assigned (and assigned material may be dropped or altered) at any time as the semester progresses, in order to better suit the needs and interests of the class.
Note: This course’s readings, lectures, and screenings will be in English for the benefit of Erasmus and non-Czech students, but all written coursework can be completed in Czech, Slovak, German, or Russian for students with fluency in those languages. All films will be shown with English subtitles/intertitles. Where applicable, translated or alternate readings in Czech or Slovak may be provided for students of the Katedra filmových studií.