107-090 Film Criticism and the Canon

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 37.5 points of Second/Third Year Cinema Studies, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject introduces students to the history and theory of film criticism through a study of key films and major critiques surrounding them. Students will explore the reasons why certain films are lauded as canonical and others are not. Areas for consideration will include: film aesthetics, audience reception, promotion, the historical period, popular taste and the question of originality. The issue of what constitutes high art or classical cinema as distinct from the popular or b-grade cinema will be central. Films will be selected from those generally considered as part of the canon such as D W Griffiths's Intolerance, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and Akira Kurosawa's Rashomom as well as those regarded as outside the canon - or simply 'bad', such as the films Plan 5 from Outer Space and Glen or Glenda, of Hollywood director Edward D Wood Jr. The reasons why 'bad' films acquire cult status will also be considered. Emphasis will be on the role of criticism in constructing a so-called 'canon' and what we mean by the 'canon' in the age of postmodernism which parodies or plays with all classical or modernist concepts.

Assessment

A classpaper and a long essay totalling 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available.

• R Lapsley & M Westlake, Film Theory: An Introduction. Manchester University Press.