Module Identifier TF30920  
Module Title A CENTURY OF CINEMA 2: ALTERNATIVE CINEMA AND REFLEXIVITY  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Ernest Mathijs  
Semester Semester 1  
Pre-Requisite TF10210 , TF20320  
Course delivery Lecture   20 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   5 Hours  
  Other   COMPULSORY WEEKLY VIEWING SESSIONS OF 2-3 HOURS EACH  
Assessment Semester Assessment   4000 word essay   40%  
  Semester Assessment   3 part portfolio on one alternative film   60%  

Learning outcomes

Typically, upon completion of this module student will be able to:

identify and analyse style in alternative films,
work with the concept of “reading against the grain” in studying alternative film
analyse specific instances of reflexivity in alternative films
relate these instances to other elements of the films
make use of reception and audience practices in studying alternative film

Content

Lecture content:

Introductory lecture: the importance of style and “reading against the grain” in studying alternative film
The historical Avant-Garde cinema and Artaud’s “theatre of cruelty”
Issues in Postwar and contemporary Avant-Garde cinema
“Rive gauche cinema” and the reception of art-film
Reflexivity as a key concept in (reading) alternative film
Reflexivity and genre cinema: the horror film
Reflexivity and paracinema: beyond conventions of taste
Making films alternative through alternative readings: The Fly
Researching audiences of alternative film: ‘perverse spectators’
Controversy and ‘perverse spectators’: the reception of Crash

Seminar Content:

How to research style in alternative and avant-garde films
Describing art-house audiences from the 60s to now
Researching reflexivity through “references” in film and reception
Marketing alternative and/or reflexive films: S.
Cronenberg and “reading against the grain”: references, topicality and controversy.

Aims

This module introduces students to the practices and reception of what is known as “alternative cinema”. A first part of the module is devoted to a historical overview of alternative cinema in its diversive appearances. Special attention will be paid to questions of style and the avant-garde (using Artaud’s concept of theatre of crualty). We will also concentrate on how quasi-mainstream cinema (rive gauche cinema, art-house cinema) evokes alternative readings through so called “reading against the grain”. “Un chien andalou”, “Koyaanisqatsi”, and “rive gauche cinema” (Alain Resnais, Alain Robbe-Grillet) will be used as case studies. A second part of the module is devoted to the concept of reflexivity (films commenting on their own premisses), that runs throughout alternative cinema, and to the practices of alternative readings of reflexive cinema. Specifically, the module will focus on critical practices in alternative reading, and on reading practices that different audiences (fans, unintended viewers) employ. “S.”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, “Daughters of Darkness”, and the films of David Cronenberg (“Stereo”, Shivers”, “Videodrome”, “The Fly”, and “Crash”) will be used as case studies.

Reading Lists

Books
PLEASE SEE MODULE HANDBOOK FOR READINGS AND VIEWINGS.