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International Cinema: 1960 to Present

Lecture: Cantor, Room 102

Professor: Rochelle Sara Miller

Teaching Assistant: Anila Gill

Course Overview:

Film scholar James Tweedie observes that in our “tendency to catalog films within familiar
geographical, industrial, or linguistic boundaries,” we overlook “their most innovative and
revelatory dimensions: their repetition and simultaneity in various locations and their resistance
to the habitual attribution of local place-name.”

This course will oscillate between the national and the transnational to provide an overview of
networks, trends, connections, and interactions within global cinema from 1960 onwards. The
course will introduce key concepts and methods for approaching the study of world cinema. We
will trace prominent national and transnational post-war movements that challenged
Hollywood’s aesthetics and values. Many of the films we will watch in this course share similar
thematic and aesthetic concerns. Concerns that cross borders include: postwar trauma and
historical revisionism, the relationship between politics and aesthetics, intergenerational conflict
and youth culture, post-colonialism and growing national consciousness, gender oppression and
degrees of liberation, and the ambivalence or embrace of global capitalism. We will also
consider the growing prestige of art cinema and film festival circuits.

By the end of this course you will have the knowledge and vocabulary required to analyze and
write about international films within their broader cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts,
while remaining ever-mindful of the complexities and problematic nature of what it means to
discuss “global cinema.

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Class Resources:

The course syllabus, required and suggested reading materials, a filmography, and the course
discussion board are on NYU classes. You are welcome to use the Study Center in the Cinema
Studies Department on the 6th Floor.

Course Text:

All of the readings are on NYU classes.

Recommended, but not required: David Cook’s A History of Narrative Film.

Requirements:

Attendance: You are required to attend every lecture and recitation on time and stay for their
duration (this includes screenings). Attendance will be taken at the start and end of each class.
Students who miss more than three classes cannot receive a satisfactory grade.

Participation: Come prepared to discuss the films and readings. Good class participation
involves contributing to our ongoing discussion in an informed manner and respecting your
fellow students’ contributions. Anyone behaving in a disrespectful manner towards myself, the
T.A., or other students will be told to leave the class.

Notetaking: You are expected to take notes during lectures and bring notes with you to each
class meeting.

Assignments:

Due 02/07/2018
Assignment 1:

Imagine you are teaching an undergraduate film course at NYU on a post-1960,

The only topics off-limits are American movies and French New Wave!!!

Whatever topic you select, make sure it is one that you wish to find out more about, and that is
recognized as an area of research for which you will be able to find scholarly articles. Ideally you
should do some preliminary research and aim to watch a few of the films from your chosen area
before you declare it.

In 200 words minimum declare in writing your chosen area of research. Explain why you have
chosen this topic and why you consider it a worthy area of cinema to teach. What will your film

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students learn? How will it serve them in future classes? Beyond stating that your topic is
important, justify the reason why it is important. If it is an influential cinema expand upon what
makes it influential? What themes does your topic deal with? What aesthetic/formal innovations
does it employ? How might it address the socio-political, economic, and historical change of its
nation, or nation states? Maybe your topic is understudied or marginalized and you wish to
highlight it as worthy of greater attention. If you choose to focus on a director, you should
consider his/her contemporaries and put their films in conversation with one another. (5%)

Due 03/07/2018
Assignment 2: Compose an annotated bibliography citing at least five scholarly sources on the
topic you have chosen to teach. (If you are confused about what constitutes a peer-reviewed,
scholarly source, ask your T.A.). Additionally list at least two significant movies that belong to
your area of research. In your annotated bibliography, you should summarize the source and
explain how reading it will help the students in your class gain a better understanding of the
subject. (15%)

Due 04/09/2018
Assignment 3: Write a syllabus for your 12-week course! You select the films you will screen,
you select the readings from a variety of sources, and you decide on the assignments (and how
they will be graded). We will provide you with a template on how to write a syllabus. As a class
we will create an online resource that shares our syllabi so that anyone interested in taking a
particular course will be able to find out more about it. A prize will be awarded to the syllabus
that receives the most student interest via votes. (30%)

Due 05/09/2018
Assignment 4: Write an 8-10 page film analysis of a single movie from your course selection
explaining why it exemplifies your chosen area of research. Include screenshots – outside of the
8-10 page limit. Cite at least two scholarly sources. (20%)

Two Quizzes (03/21, 05/09): Based on the class materials, screenings, and readings. (10%)

Extra Credit: For extra credit you may choose to visit an arthouse movie theatre in New York
City (Metrograph, Film Forum, IFC, Lincoln Center, MoMA) to watch a foreign language
movie. You will blog about your experience. In 500-750 words in as much detail as possible
describe the architecture of the theatre, the patrons, how the movie was projected, how the movie
was received...etc. (5%)

Grading:

Attendance 10%
Participation 10%
Paper 1: 5%
Paper 2: 15%
Paper 3: 30%
Paper 4: 20%
Quizzes 10 %

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Required Outside Screenings

On the class schedule I have included secondary viewings. Please watch these films
independently as I will refer to them in lectures and you will discuss them in recitations. Most of
the films are made available to you through the library’s online film subscription channel:
Kanopy. Familiarize yourselves with how to access this channel: it is an awesome resource! You
will need to plan accordingly to watch the films not available on Kanopy. They can be found in
the library, in the Study Center, and on various subscription streaming platforms.

Academic Honesty:

Plagiarism is the theft of other people’s ideas and work. Always remember to cite the texts you
draw from and place any writing that isn’t your own inside quotation marks. Anyone who
plagiarizes will receive an F for the course. Violation of the Tisch School of the Art’s Academic
Integrity Policy may also result in further disciplinary action by the school.

I expect all of your writing to be based on your own original interpretations. If you are uncertain
whether to cite a source always err on the side of caution and cite it!

Electronic Devices:

Texting and laptop use are not permitted during lectures and screenings. Your TA will be on
watch. Laptops may only be used during recitations if your TA grants you permission.

Office Hours:

I am always happy to meet with students. If you can’t meet me in my regular office hours, please
feel free to email me and we can set up an appointment.

Wellness

Your health and safety are a priority at NYU. If you experience any health or mental health
issues during this course, we encourage you to utilize the support services of the 24/7 NYU
Wellness Exchange 212-443-9999. Also, all students who may require an academic
accommodation due to a qualified disability, physical or mental, please register with the Moses
Center 212-998-4980. Please let your instructor know if you need help connecting to these
resources.

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Schedule
(subject to some change)

New Waves/New Cinemas

Week One (1/22): French New Wave

Screening:
Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)

Independent Viewing:
Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

Readings:
Conway, Kelley. “Cultivating the New Wave Spectator: Cléo from 5 to 7,” Agnès Varda.
Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2015.

Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. “France: From Nouvelle Vague to May’68” Making Waves: New
Cinemas of the 1960s. New York: Continuum, 2008.

Suggested Reading:
Tweedie, James. “Introduction” The Age of New Waves: Art Cinema and the Staging of
Globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013: (1-45)

Week Two (1/29): West African Cinema > Case Study: Senegal

Screening:
Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal, 1973)

Independent Viewing:
Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène, France/Senegal, 1966)

Readings:
Diawara, Manthia. “Chapter 5: The Situation of National and International Film Production in
Francophone Africa.” African Cinema: Politics and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1992 (51-87).

Thackaway, Melissa. “Chapter 3: Screen Griots, Orature on Film,” Africa Shoots Back.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.

Suggested Reading:
Rachel Langford, “Black and White in Black and White: Identity and Cinematography in
Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl (1966),” Studies in French Cinema, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2001), 13-21.

Week Three (2/5): The Second Italian Film Renaissance

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Screening:
The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)

Independent Viewing:
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973)

Readings:
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. “Chapter 12: Italy,” Making Waves: New Cinemas of the 1960s. New
York: Continuum, 2008 (152-162).
Loshitzky, Yosefa. “"Memory of My Own Memory": Processes of Private and Collective
Remembering in Bertolucci's "The Spider's Stratagem" and "The Conformist".” History and
Memory 3, no. 2 (1991): 87-114.

Week Four (2/12): The New German Cinema

Screening:
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)

Independent Viewing:
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
OR
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta, 1975)

Readings:
Elsaesser, Thomas. “New German Cinema’s Germany.” New German Cinema: A History. New
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989: (207-238).

Mayne, Judith. “Fassbinder and Spectatorship.” New German Critique 12 (1977): 61-74.

Socialist and Post-Socialist Cinemas

Week Five (2/26): Russia & “The Thaw”

Screening:
Brief Encounters (Kira Muratova, 1967)

Independent Viewing:
I am Twenty Years Old (Marlen Khutsiev, 1965)
OR
Ivan’s Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)

Readings:
Johnson, Vida. “Russia After the Thaw.” The Oxford History of World Cinema. Geoffrey
Nowell-Smith, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997: (640-650).

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&
TBA

Week Six (3/5): Romanian New Wave

Screening:
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2008)

Independent Viewing:
The Death of Mr. Lazaraescu (Cristi Puiu, 2005)
OR
12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006)

Readings:
Pusca, Anca. Restaging the 1989 Revolution: The Romanian New Wave, Cambridge Review of
International Affairs. Volume 24, Number 4, December 2011.

Batori, Anna. “Power and Acts of Resistance in Cristian Muguiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.”
Studies in Eastern European Cinema. Vol 7 , no. 2, July 2016.

Godeanu-Kenworthy, Oana. “From Minimalist Representation to Excessive Interpretation:

Happy Spring Break!

Week Seven (3/19) New Iranian Cinema

Screening:
The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)

Independent Viewing:
The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf, 1999)

Readings:
Chaudhuri, Shonini and Howard Finn. “The Open Image: Poetic Realism and the New Iranian
Cinema.” Screen 44:1 (2003): 38-57.
Lippard, Chris. "Disappearing into the Distance and Getting Closer All the Time: Vision,
Position, and Thought in Kiarostami's the Wind Will Carry Us." Journal of Film and Video, no.
4, 2009, p. 31
Nick James, “Remembering Abbas Kiarostami,” Sight & Sound, Vol. 26, No. 9 (September
2016), 48-52.

Week Eight (3/26) British Social Realism Today

Screening:

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A Way of Life (Amma Asante, 2004)

Independent Viewing
(Not on Kanopy)
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)
OR
Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

Reading:
Dave, Paul. “Tragedy, Ethics, and History in Contemporary British Social Realist Film,” edited
by Tucker, David. British Social Realism in the Arts Since 1940, Palgrave Macmillan. 2011.

Global Capitalism and Film Festival Circuits

Week Nine (4/2): India and Bollywood

Screening:
Amar Akbar Anthony (Manmahon Desai, 1977)

Independent Viewing:
(Not on Kanopy)
A River Called Titas (Ritwik Ghatak, 1973)

Readings:
Thomas, Rosie. "Melodrama and the Negotiation of Morality in Mainstream Hindi Film"
Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian World. edited by Carol A. Breckenridge,
University of Minnesota Press, 1995.

Week Ten (4/9): Japan and Anime

Screening:
Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1997)

Independent Viewing:
(Not on Kanopy)
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazake, 1997)

Readings:
Furniss, Maureen. “Chapter 22: The Culture of Japanese Animation,” A New History of
Animation. New York: Thames and Hudson. 2016.

Norris, Craig. "Perfect Blue and the Negative Representation of Fans." Journal of Japanese &
Korean Cinema, vol. 4, no. 1, Sept. 2012, pp. 69-86.

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Week Eleven (4/16): Taiwanese New Wave

Screening:
A Summer at Grandpa’s (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1984)

Independent Viewing:
Rebels of the Neon God (Tsai Ming-liang, 1992)

Readings:

Tweedie. James, “The Urban Archipelago: Taiwan’s New Wave and East Asian Economic
Boom,” The Age of New Waves: Art Cinema and the Staging of Globalization. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2013.

Week Twelve (4/23): Chinese Cinema. The Fifth Generation and Beyond

Screening:
Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1991)

Independent Viewing:
(Not on Kanopy)
Farewell my Concubine (Chen Kaige, 1993)
OR
Shower (Zhang Yang, 1999)

Readings:
Cui, Shuqin. “Raise the Red Lantern: Cinematic Orient and Female Conflict.” Film Analysis: A
Norton Reader. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005 (830-849).

Zhang, Yingjin. “Cinema and national/regional cultures, 1979-89.” Chinese National Cinema.
New York: Routledge, 2004 (225-258).
Tweedie. James, “The Fifth Generation and the Youth of China,” The Age of New Waves: Art
Cinema and the Staging of Globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013
Week Thirteen (4/30): Dogme 95 and New Danish Cinema

Screening:
After the Wedding (Susanne Bier, 2007)

Independent Viewing:
The Idiots (Lars Von Trier, 1998)
OR
The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998)

Readings:

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Shriver-Rice, Meryl. “Chapter One: New Danish Cinema: An Overview,” Inclusion in New
Danish Cinema: Sexuality and Transnational Belonging. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2015.

Sauntved, Louise Kidde. "The Catastrophic Tales and Booming Career of Susanne Bier." Film
Comment, vol. 47, no. 2, March/April 2011, pp. 24-27.

Week Fourteen (5/7): Argentina > Case Study: Lucrecia Martel & The World Festival
Circuit

Screening:
Zama (Lucrecia Martel, 2017)
OR
The Holy Girl (Lucrecia Martel, 2004)

Independent Viewing:
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)

Readings:
Andrew, Dudley. “An Atlas of World Cinema.” Framework 45:2 (2004): 9-23.

Martin, Deborah. “Introduction,” The Films of Lucrecia Martel. Manchester University Press,
2016.

Have an Awesome Summer!

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