Module Information
Course Delivery
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Essay of 4,500 words | 60% |
| Semester Assessment | Essay of 3,000 words | 40% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Resits of assignments where necessary. The assignments will follow a similar structure but focus on a different topic. | 100% |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
- demonstrate a systematic knowledge of the development of over 100 years of British cinema.
- show a critical engagement with the issues that have animated British film culture and debates about the developments in British cinema.
- show a detailed awareness of the different historical movements and aesthetic practices that have made up British cinema.
- show a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between British cinema and wider British culture and history.
Aims
This module provides an important historical dimension to the department's Film Studies provision at MA level. Through a focus on the case study of British cinema history, the module aims to introduce students to the ways in which films can be, and have been, related to the social, political, aesthetic, technological and cultural contexts in which they were made.
Brief description
The module will introduce students to a range of detailed studies of moments in British film history, looking at key film movements and popular genres and their relation to important aesthetic trends and developments, to changing representations of Britishness and to changing social and cultural contexts. Throughout the module, a range of wider issues will be addressed, including the changing relationship between the British film industry and Hollywood, the changing representations of British masculinity and femininity, and the extent to which British films exploit or fabricate a sense of national identity.
Content
Case studies will include: Hitchcock's British films, the British documentary film movement, British avant-garde cinema, a star study of Michael Caine, Powell and Pressburger, Ealing comedy, and Hammer Horror.
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Communication | Students will be expected to contribute to in-class discussions and relate their own research progress orally |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | In the course of the module, there will be points where students will be asked to think reflexively about their reading and viewing, as well as how their research is progressing. |
| Information Technology | Students will have to word-process essays, and can make use of the internet for research purposes. |
| Problem solving | Through student thought about the appropriateness of film theories in the use of film analysis. Some of the learning will focus on issues or key questions. |
| Research skills | This element is developed through student' own investigations into written and audiovisual material that they can bring to bear upon the course and their essays. They will also have a session that looks into practical research in the National Library of Wales. |
| Team work | Although there is no official groupwork on the course, it is hope that students will work together in seminars for small tasks and small-group discussions. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 7