Faculty of Arts

Cinema Studies

Cinema Studies deals with the interpretation, history, and theory of cinema, television, and new visual media such as computer games and multimedia. The program aims to provide students with various skills with which to understand one of the most dominant forms in twentieth century culture. Like Art History, it places particular emphasis on viewing and analysis, so that film, video and television screenings are an integral part of the programme.

Career opportunities for Cinema Studies graduates are to be found in education and research, and in the arts and the film industry as administrators, media professionals, editors, reviewers, film critics and film archivists.

Cinema Studies is taught within the Department of Fine Arts (Art History and Cinema Studies) which offers a wide range of Cinema Studies subjects. These include the areas of film history, Hollywood cinema, art cinemas, Australian cinema, genre studies (horror, comedy, film noir, the love story, etc.), television, cross-media forms and interactive technologies, and film theory, including theories of spectatorship, gender, and sexuality. The Department also offers a program in Art History.

There are no specific prerequisites for Cinema Studies first-year. Applicants must meet the admission requirements for entry to the Faculty of Arts. Second semester first-year subjects may have a first semester subject as prerequisite (see the subject descriptions). The prerequisite for Cinema Studies subjects offered at second/third-year level is normally 111-105 Introduction to Cinema A: Classical Hollywood Cinema. The prerequisite for a subject offered at third-year only level or at third and fourth-year levels is normally 33 points at second/third-year in Fine Arts subjects.

A major in Cinema Studies consists of at least five subjects completed at second/third year level in the Department of Fine Arts (Art History and Cinema Studies) at least three of which must be Cinema Studies subjects, totalling 83.3 points.

The prerequisite for entry to fourth-year honours in Cinema Studies is the completion of a major in Cinema Studies with an average grade of H2A or higher. Entry to fourth-year honours requires the approval of the Head of Department and Faculty. Students must have completed all the requirements for the pass degree before enrolling in fourth-year honours.

• Cinema Studies Pure Honours
• Cinema Studies and Art History Combined Honours
• Cinema Studies Combined Honours

Students taking Cinema Studies Pure Honours enrol in four single-semester Cinema Studies honours subjects in the Fine Arts Department, and 111-499 Cinema Studies Honours Thesis. A Fine Arts Department Art History subject may be substituted for one of these subject to approval from the course coordinator. 106-448 Consumerism, Spectatorship and Gender: Theorising Visual Fascination may be substituted for one of these subjects with the approval of the Head of the Fine Arts Department.

Students taking Cinema Studies and Art History Combined Honours enrol in four single-semester honours subjects in the Fine Arts Department, two of which are Cinema Studies subjects and two of which are Art History subjects, and 111-499 Cinema Studies Honours Thesis.

Students taking Cinema Studies Combined Honours enrol in two single-semester Cinema Studies honours subjects in the Fine Arts Department (33.3 points), and 111-499 Cinema Studies Honours Thesis, or a thesis or its equivalent in another department according to the requirements of that department (33.3 points), and subjects in the other department according to the requirements of that department (33.3 points).

All Fourth-year Cinema Studies Honours students are required to enrol in 111-421 Contemporary Film Theory in semester one.

A degree in Cinema Studies can lead to Postgraduate Diplomas in Art History and Cinema Studies, Art Curatorship & Museum Management, Tourism & the Visual Arts. An Honours Degree in Cinema Studies can lead to Postgraduate Diplomas in Art Curatorship & Museum Management or Tourism & the Visual Arts, and to MA or PhD degrees.

For further information please contact:

The Department of Fine Arts (Art History and Cinema Studies)

The University of Melbourne

telephone (03) 9344 5565

Subject Descriptions

First Year

111-105 Introduction To Cinema A: Classical Hollywood and Art Cinema
111-106 Introduction To Cinema B: Film and History Silent Beginnings to Cinematic Spectacle
111-108 Visual Cultures
Second and Third Year
111-246 International Art Cinema
111-247 Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
111-248 Television and Australian Import Culture
111-251 Theorising the Body in Australia
111-252 National Cinemas and Cultural Difference
111-253 Feminist Film Theory
111-254 Commodity Culture: Myth, Meaning and Advertising
111-255 Genre Study
111-256 The Entertainment Experience: Cross-Media Forms and Interactive Technologies
111-257 Film Noir: Style and History
111-258 Surrealism and the Cinema
111-322 Special Study Research Essay
111-344 Making Gender: Art, Film and Spectatorship in the West 1850-1995
111-361 The Love Story: Film and Narrative Theory
111-362 Australian Cinema
Fourth Year
111-499 Cinema Studies Honours Thesis
111-403 Fine Arts 4A
111-404 Fine Arts 4B
111-421 Contemporary Film Theory
111-422 Science Fiction and Horror
111-461 The Love Story: Film and Narrative Theory
111-462 Australian Cinema
111-463 Dream Screen: Film and Psychoanalysis
111-465 Comedy, Cult and the Carnivalesque
111-469 Art and Film Criticism: History, Theory and Practice

Status:                   OFFICIAL 1997
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Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au