MCST 266 - Cinema Studies

Cross-Listed as GERM 366

Taught in English; there is an optional German component for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do the reading and writing assignments and some of their oral presentations in German.

In this course we focus on the exchanges and influences among French, German, and American cinematographers within the genre of road movies. We begin with a couple of 1940s-1950 American films that cut across the genres of road movie and film-noir and had an impact on the French nouvelle-vague director Jean-Luc Godard, whose films, in turn, inspired American road movies during their acme in the 1960s-1970s (Dennis Hopper, Bob Rafelson). We shall then turn to the German director Wim Wenders to focus on the relation of his 1970s-1980s road movies to both the German literary canon and American cinematography, notably Jim Jarmusch. The course will conclude with the German director of Turkish descent, Fatih Akin, who complicates the above exchanges by intertwining them with the significant German-Turkish cultural exchange. Students will gain insight into film as an aesthetic, ideological, and political medium, and into specifics of the culture of the countries involved. No pre-knowledge required; appropriate for all students. Alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)