FILM & CRITICAL CULTURE II

Thursday 15:50 (room 219b* [provisionally])

*NB there will be no seminars in May

**This is a graduate seminar & is reserved for graduate students only.

ABOUT
This seminar examines 'critical' aspects of the cinematic medium and its 'culture.'

*For updates/miscellanea: https://www.facebook.com/FilmAndCriticalCulture/

REQUIRED READING/VIEWING
Mark Fisher CAPITALIST REALISM (2009) & THE WEIRD & THE EERIE (2016); Slavoj Žižek, THE PLAGUE OF FANTASIES (Verso, 2009); Viktor Shklovsky, "ART AS TECHNIQUE" (1917); Sigmund Freud, "THE UNCANNY" (1919); Bertolt Brecht, "ALIENATION EFFECTS IN CHINESE ACTING" (1936)

SCHEDULE / FILMOGRAPHY

ALL THAT'S SOLID MELTS INTO WEIRD (part II):

23.2 The Show, dir. Mitch Jenkins (2020)
2.3 Amsterdam, dir. David O. Russell (2022)
9.3 Triangle of Sadness, dir. Ruben Östlund (2022)
16.3 High-Rise, dir. Ben Wheatley (2010)
23.3 Crimes of the Future, dir. David Cronenberg (2022)
30.3 Atlantis, dir. Valentyn Vasyanovych (2020)
6.4 Nothing Personal, dir. Urszula Antoniak (2009)
13.4 A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)
20.4 A Field in England, dir. Ben Wheatley (2013)
27.4 Breakfast on Pluto, dir. Neil Jordan (2005)
4.5 Donbass, dir. Sergei Loznitsa (2018)

RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING:
Louis Armand, Videology I & II (Prague: Litteraria, 2015/2016).

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967)

Alain Badiou, Cinema (2013)

Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 1 & 2 (1983/5)

NB Students will be required to access the films independently prior to each seminar in order to engage in a group discussion.

*Assessment for single credit (Z) will be based upon (1) a 2,500 word ESSAY conforming to Department style due 8 June (see ESSAY GUIDELINES at http://ualk.ff.cuni.cz/current-students.html) (due 1 June / topics must be agreed in advance & may address any aspect of the seminar material within a critical/theoretical framework); attendance (max. absences accompanied by doctor's certificate = 2; unexplained absence = FAIL); (2) active participation in weekly in-class discussion; and (3) a typed 300 word review of each of the screened titles (reference should be made to one of the critical texts in each of the reviews), to be submitted no less than 24 hrs prior to the following class). Plagiarism in any form will result in an immediate fail. NB that only MA students are entitled to apply for the additional credit (Zk) in this seminar, for which the assessment is an additional 2,500 word essay, or a single essay of 5,000 words for combined credit (due dates must be discussed).

*Students who require credits to be issued early must ensure all assessment requirements are completed a minimum of 2 weeks prior to that date, upon prior agreement with the lecturer.

COVID: please be prepared to produce a vaccination certificate in order to attend this seminar.