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