Module Information
Module Identifier
EN33830
Module Title
READING FILM: BRITISH CINEMA AFTER 1940
Academic Year
2009/2010
Co-ordinator
Semester
Intended for use in future years
Course Delivery
Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
---|---|
Seminars / Tutorials | 20 Hours. 10 x 2 hour seminar workshops |
Practical | 30 Hours. 10 x 3 hour viewing sessions |
Assessment
Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
---|---|---|
Semester Assessment | 2 x 3000 word essays Continuous Assessment: | 100% |
Supplementary Assessment | Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected. |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module students should typically be able to:
1. demonstrate detailed knowledge of a representative range of British films from the period;
2. demonstrate an informed awareness of their historical contexts of production;
3. analyse these filmic texts in a way that is informed by established critical and thoretical debates.
Brief description
The focus is upon films made during or immediately after the Second World War, a period when British film making is considered to have been at the height of its powers. You will be encouraged to consider how the set films problematise ideological formations concerning nationhood, the family, class, gender identity, sexuality and generational conflict. The syllabus begins with films made during the war itself and continues with work reflecting the war's longer-term impact on British culture, particular regarding class and gender. The distinctive, neo-romantic films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ('The Archers'), raise questions about the politics of film aesthetics. 'Noir' thrillers like The Third Man or Brighton Rock invite questions about film style and constructions of masculinity. Through a concern with women's melodrama, we shall also consider representations of gender, and in particular psychoanalytic and feminist film theory. Powell's controversial Peeping Tom invites associations between psychoanalytic theory and cinematic voyeurism. The module closes with debates about social realism and marginal identities prompted by the New Wave's representation of Northern working-class life.
Content
_Duration and Teaching
To be taught over one semester in 10 two hour sessions combining lectures and seminars: in addition a regular weekly venue/time will be designated for students to view set films on video.
_Seminars
_1. Introduction
_2. 'How We Fight'
To be taught over one semester in 10 two hour sessions combining lectures and seminars: in addition a regular weekly venue/time will be designated for students to view set films on video.
- NOTE: as this will be on WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS, please bear this in mind if you have other commitments.
_Seminars
_1. Introduction
_2. 'How We Fight'
- In Which We Serve (1942) (Noel Coward)
- either Went the Day Well (1942) (Cavalcanti) or A Canterbury Tale (1944) (Powell and Pressburger)
- either A Matter of Life and Death (1946) or The Red Shoes (1948) (Powell and Pressburger).
- either The Third Man (1949) (Carol Reed) or Brighton Rock (1947) (Boulting Brothers)
- Rebecca (1940) (Hitchcock)
- Brief Encounter (1945) (David Lean)
- Peeping Tom (1960) (Michael Powell)
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) (Karel Reisz)
- A Taste of Honey (1962) (Tony Richardson) and/or Victim (1962) (Dearden)
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6