English 5070

Topics in Film:
The French New Wave

Fall 2008, Tuesday/Thursday, 12:50pm-3:50pm, 326 State
Steven Shaviro (313-577-5475; 5057 Woodward, room 9309; office hours Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm and by appointment)

URL OF THIS PAGE: http://www.shaviro.com/Classes/5070F08.html

Course Description

The French New Wave of the 1950s and 1960s marks one of the most creative moments in the history of film. A group of young French film critics turned filmmakers (most notably Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Agnes Varda, Eric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol) decided to throw out the rule books and make films their own way. The result was a series of brash, energetic, and exuberantly inventive movies that deliberately ignored formal conventions in order to get closer to real life, yet at the same time were steeped in film history. The New Wave artists changed both the way films are made, and the ways we think about film; their legacy is still strong today, half a century later. In this class, we will look at the major films of the French New Wave, in order to get a sense of a unique cultural moment. We will also look at other important French films and filmmakers of this time who were not strictly speaking part of the New Wave.At the end of the semester, we will look at some films from the 1960s in other countries (Czechoslovakia and the US) that were influenced by the French New Wave.

Class Requirements

Each class will consist of a film screening, followed by lecture and discussion. There is no textbook; the occasional assigned readings will all be available online, linked from the class syllabus page. (More readings will be added in the course of the semester, so be sure to check the syllabus page frequently).

Class requirements include regular attendance and participation in class discussion (20% of grade), maintaining an online film diary (in the form of a blog) with critical responses to the films we see in the course of the semester (40% of grade), and two short papers (3-4 pages each, 20% of grade each).

Film Diary
The film diary should consist of brief discussions (three or four paragraphs, or about one page single-spaced) of each of the films we see in the course of the semester. You are allowed to skip up to five films; in other words, you must write about at least 21 of the 26 feature films we watch in the course of the semester. Discussions of the films should be posted within a week from the date that each film is shown in class.
These brief discussions should be published online, in the form of a blog (weblog). The mechanics of blog publishing will be discussed in class. If you do not already maintain a blog, you can create one easily, and for free, through Blogger (http://www.blogger.com).

Schedule of Classes

• Friday, October 3, 7:00 pm
• Saturday, October 4, 7:00 pm
• Sunday, October 5, 4:00 pm

FILM DIARIES (BLOGS)

• Nick Blauvelt
• Clarence Charest
• Robin Darling
• Gina DeAngelo
• Dante DeBenedictis
• Scott DeGregoris
• Scott Dunkerley
• Michael Green
• Vivian Hatrick
• Tamara Holland
• Heather Hussin
• Daijon Jefferson
• Anthony Kanakri
• Antonin Korenek
• Matthew Maciejko
• Andrew Matle
• SuAnn Mitchell
• Kyle Monroe
• Eric Noga
• Ed Perez
• Peter Pompa
• Frank Prokop
• Derek Risse
• Veronica Rogalla
• Sherry Santos
• Paul Schummer
• Andre Seewood
• Brent Stapleton
• Robyn Swindlehurst
• Maurice Traylor
• Mark Warren
• Antal Zambo