HISTORY OF FILM I
Origins-1940
ENG 3150
Fall 2007

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Professor: Dr. Kirsten Thompson, 3 credits/CRN 16624/ Tuesday 4-8 State Hall
Office Hours Tuesday 2-3 pm or other times by appointment, Rm 9313 5057 Woodward, 9th Floor, English Department E-mail: ag7666@wayne.edu, (313) 577-3358 (office)
Instructor Web Page: http://www.english.wayne.edu/fac_pages/thompsonk/index2.html
 
This new undergraduate survey is an introduction to the history of world cinema, from its origins at the end of the nineteenth century through to 1940, and is part of a new three part course sequence being offered 2007-9  as part of the new English department film major.  (ENG 3160 History of Film II: 1940-1960: and  ENG 3170 History of Film III:1960-present will be offered in subsequent semesters, and all English film concentration students will eventually be required to take Part One and either Part Two or Part Three).   History I is a survey of theoretical, political, technological, and cultural dimensions of film history which  will include some or all of the following topics: primitive and early silent cinema; the development of the narrative film; American silent comedy;  German Expressionism;  Soviet Revolution and montage; the coming of sound and the development of the Hollywood studio system; the emergence of particular American film genres  (gangster, musical); the Pre-Code film; European avant-garde and the coming of World War II and the propaganda film.

Each week will consist of a screening of one feature film, a program of clips, documentaries, trailers and cartoons, and a Lecture/discussion. You will be expected to participate in class discussions, complete all class assignments on time and see all scheduled films. Please bring your textbooks and syllabus to every class and complete the weekly reading assignments IN ADVANCE of each class. You are expected to read each chapter from your textbooks carefully, take notes and be prepared to be examined on all relevant terms from the glossary in the Wexman textbook as well as the terms handout. The Moscowitz textbook is designed to aid you in preparing for your written assignments, especially for those without prior film classes.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
1)A History of Film, 6th edition. Virginia Wright Wexman (New York: Pearson, 2006)
 all readings cited from this text unless otherwise noted (note this text will also be assigned for ENG 3160 History of Film Part II 1940-1960  next semester)
2) Critical Approaches to Writing About Film, John Moscowitz (Prentice Hall: NY, 2000)
(all texts are available at Wayne State Campus Bookstore (not Marwills) and may be cheaper online through second books at Amazon.com etc

COURSEWORK: assignment # 1, 25%, quiz 15%,  mid-term exam 30%, final paper  30%
Assignment  # 1: Discuss Tom Gunning’s essay on the Cinema of Attractions, and answer a series of questions. 4 page paper.(Handout to be distributed with more details)
Quiz: on first 5 weeks of class—to include all readings , lectures and screenings. Will consist of short answer questions on specific films, and key historical points in lectures and readings.
Midterm:: all readings, screenings and lectures up to and including week 7. All bold terms in glossary of Wexman textbook pertaining to assigned reading. Will consist of both short and long answer questions. (handout to follow)
Final Paper: 10 page paper  answering a specific question on any of the film topics/films studied in class. (Handout Questions to be distributed later)

DVD’s of early collections are on reserve at the UGL library under boxed collection entitled Landmarks of Early Film (vols 1 & 2);  DW Griffith’s  Biograph Shorts, DW Griffith: Years  of Discovery;  The Movies Begin: A Treasury of Early Cinema (5 vols);   Edison: The Invention of the Movies (4 vols);  and Origins of  Film (3 vols). The collections in which the following short early films can be found are in brackets after their name in the first few weeks of the syllabus. If you miss any classes, you will be expected to watch these films on your own time.

Attendance Policy: It is up to you to ensure you attend regularly and all coursework  and exams will assume you will have seen all the films in class and participated in the lectures & discussion. Please do not send me emails requesting the notes for lectures that you have missed. Please remember to address me courteously if you send me emails and don’t expect a response faster than 24 hours. BE PROMPT!  Please switch off all cell phones before entering the classroom.  No cellphone conversations permitted in the classroom before the class begins.  IF YOUR CELLPHONE RINGS IN CLASS  I WILL CONFISCATE IT FOR ONE WEEK!  Please do not walk out in the middle of films, and please do not start packing up to leave until the auditorium lights go up.  IN EVERY CLASS WE WATCH THE ENTIRE CONCLUDING CREDITS UNTIL THE END OF THE FILM. PLEASE WATCH THESE  AND REMAIN STILL UNTIL THE  LIGHTS ARE ON.


WEEK I / INTRODUCTION/ Sept. 4
Class Overview & Beginnings of Precinema & Primitive Film.  Development of the Shot, Camera Movement, Editing, and story
Screenings:    
US
Edweard Muybridge Compilation (1877-1885) US (Landmarks of Early Film (vol 1)
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (J. Stuart Blackton, 1906) Vitagraph, US (Origins of  Film vol 2-Animation)
Thomas Edison Program
Sandow The Strong Man (1894); Serpentine Dance (1895); The Kiss (1896);
Skyscrapers of NYC  from North River (Thomas Edison, 1903);  (all on Landmarks of Early Film (vol 1 &  Edison, vol 1)
Edwin S. Porter Program
Great Train Robbery (1903)  on both Landmarks of Early Film (vol 1 ) and The Movies Begin, vol 1)
Life of An American Fireman (1903) (Edison, vol 1)

France
Georges Méliès Program
Trip to the Moon (1902);
Lumière Brother Actualités (1895-97, France): Leaving/Exiting the Factory; Arrival of A Train at Ciotat Station, 1895; Baby’s Lunch, The Waterer Watered (L’Arroseur Arrosé, 1895) (all on Movies Begin  vol 2)
Pathé Frères Studio: Peeping Tom /Par le Trou de serrue (1901); (vol 3, Movies Begin) The Golden Beetle (Ferdinand Zecca, 1907) France (vol 1 Movies Begin and Landmarks of Early Film, vol 1)

UK
Rescued by Rover (Cecil Hepworth & Lewis Fitzhamon, 1905, UK)  (vol 3, Movies Begin)

Italy
Nero, or The Fall of Rome (Arturo Ambrosio, 1909) Italy (Landmarks of Early Film (vol 1) and Movies Begin, vol 5)
Readings: Chap 1 Wexman

WEEK II/Development of Early Narrative/Sept. 11
Early Animation: Cameraman’s Revenge (Ladislas Starevich, 1912 USSR)  Gertie the Dinosaur (Winsor McCay, 1909); How A Mosquito Operates (Winsor McCay, 1912)  US

DW Griffith Narrative Development:  
The Lonely Villa (1909); A Corner in Wheat (1909) (DW Griffith: Biograph Shorts & also DW Griffith: Years  of Discovery)
Lonedale Operator (1911) (Treasures of the American Archives);  
Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) (Biograph shorts); excerpts Birth of A Nation (1915, Griffith)
Feature: Within Our Gates (1920, Oscar Micheaux) US (vol 1 of The Origins of Film)
Readings: chap 2  WEX (except pp 33-40); Tom Gunning, “The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator, and the Avant-Garde” E RES    
NB ASSIGNMENT # 1 WILL BE DUE IN CLASS NEXT WEEK ON THE GUNNING READING

WEEK III/Golden Age of Silent Comedy/Sept. 18            
Animation:  Felix the Cat Goes to Hollywood (Otto Messmer, 1923)
Comedy shorts: That Fatal Sneeze  (Hepworth, UK) [vol 3, The Movies Begin], The Pawnshop (Charles Chaplin, 1916); Cops (Buster Keaton & Edward F. Cline, 1922 vol 1 Buster Keaton, VHS); Bangville Police (Mack Sennett/Keystone, 1913) US(landmarks vol 1); Onésime Horloger (Jean Durand, 1912) France, (vol 5 Movies Begin)
Feature: Sherlock Jr (1924, Buster Keaton) 44 mins (vol 3 Buster Keaton, VHS)
Readings:  MOS chap 1; WEX pp 33-40 of Chap 2

WEEK IV/ German  Expressionism I /Sept 25
Animation: The Mad Doctor (1933) Dave Hand/Disney; Skeleton Dance (1929) Ub Iwerks/Disney
Clips: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919) Germany, The Golem (Paul Wegener 1920), Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927),
Feature Screenings: Nosferatu; Eine Symphonie Des Grauens (F.W. Murnau, 1921)  Germany    
Documentary: Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, Pt III: The Unchained Camera (Germany)
Readings:  chap 3 WEX

WEEK V/ German  Expressionism II//Oct. 2
Screenings: The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer, 1928) France/Denmark
Clips: The Last Laugh/Der Letzte Mann (FW Murnau, 1924) Germany, Variety (E A Dupont, 1925)
Readings: chap 2 MOS

WEEK VI / Soviet Montage/ Oct. 9
Animation: Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney, 1928); Plane Crazy (Walt Disney, 1928); Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925) USSR (clips),
Feature: Mother (VI Pudovkin, 1926);
October or Ten Days that Shook the World (Sergei Eisenstein, 1928)USSR
Readings: chap 4 WEX; chap 3 MOS
Quiz Lectures & readings  wks 1-5



WEEK VII/Coming of Sound and Color. The Pre-Code film/ Oct 16
Animation: Snow White (Fleischer Bros, 1933) ; In a Cartoon Studio (Van Beuren, 1931); Documentaries: The Pre Code Film (VHS)
Clip from : Visions of Light and Cinema Europe (the coming of sound/end of silent era). Clips of  Toll of the Sea, Becky Sharpe, Flowers and Trees (Disney, 1932)
Feature: Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933)
Readings: WEX chap 5 and pp 117-123 of chap 7; chap 4 MOS

WEEK VIII/US Genre I/Busby Berkeley and the New Deal Musical / Oct. 23
Clips 42nd Street (1933); Screening: Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933, 96 m)
Midterm

WEEK IX /US Genre II The Gangster film/ Oct 30
Clips:  Martin Scorsese documentary on Gangsters; Public Enemy (William Wellman, 1931); Regeneration (Raoul Walsh, 1915)
Feature: Scarface or the Shame of the Nation (Howard Hawks, 1932)
Readings:  remainder of chap 7 WEX pp 123-147

WEEK X / The Star and the Auteur/ Nov 6
Clip Sequence: Visions of Light documentary and the Studio Lighting System
Screening: The Scarlet Empress (Josef Von Sternberg, 1934)
No reading

WEEK XI /European Avant Garde / Nov. 13
Ballet Mecanique, Fernand Léger
Return to Reason (Man Ray, 1923)
Diagonal Symphony (Victor Eggling, 1924)
Un Chien Andalou, (Dali/Bunuel, 1929)
The Smiling Madame Beudet Germaine Dulac (Germaine Dulac’s Smiling Madame Beudet, VHS Lib)
Anemic Cinema (Rrose Selavy/ Marcel Duchanp, 1923/4)
The Crazy Ray (René Clair, 1924)
Reading: Chap 6 WEX
    
WEEK XII /French Poetic Realism 1934-1940/ Nov.  20
Clips Zero de Conduite (1933, Vigo, LIB VHS); Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood: PT IV: The Music of Light (France)
Feature: L’Atalante (Jena Vigo, 1934) France
Thanksgiving break Nov-22 -Nov 24 No classes

WEEK XIII/ Screwball Comedy and the Studio/ Nov 27
Feature: His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

Week XIV/ American Modernism/ Dec 4
Feature: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) US

Week XV/Final Class/ Dec 11
Coming of World War II//
(excerpts)Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935) Germany
Feature: Divide and Conquer, (Frank Capra, 1942) Why We Fight Series, US
Final Paper Due in class today


CLASS POLICIES/THE FINE PRINT
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CLASS GRADING SCALE: All class tests will have these letter grade equivalents to the following points out of 100
A= 96-100
A-  90-95
B+ 85-89
B 80-84
B- 75-79
C+ 70-74
C 65-69
C- 60-64
D+ 55-59
D 51-54
F  (E) 50 and below
Note on Grading: All assignments MUST be submitted for successful completion of the course.
Failure to submit one or more assignments will result in a final grade of C or worse.
The English Department attendance policy is as follows
Students enrolled in any English course must attend at least one of the first two class sessions of the term in order to maintain a place in the class.  If a student does not show up for the first 2 classes he/she is not permitted to register for this class.
Other Policies:
1.  There are no makeup screenings of films, so if you must miss a screening, try to rent the videotape or DVD version (with correct ASPECT RATIO—i.e. widescreen letterboxed). Ademany has most of the class titles.  Attendance at film screenings is a requirement of the course.
2. In previous courses, I have received some complaints about talking and noise during film screenings, so please use common sense and be courteous to others during screenings.  Please don’t talk during the films (or during class discussion, for that matter).  I don’t object to food and drink in the screening room, as long as you eat quietly.  PLEASE take all trash out with you when you leave the room.  Also, please keep in mind that the end of a film is just as important as the beginning.  
3.  All written assignments for the course are due in class.  Please do not leave papers for me at the English Department, unless you have first secured my permission.  (This is to prevent papers from getting lost, and please do not slide papers under my office door!) NO papers by email or fax.
4.  Please photocopy your papers prior to submitting them, or keep a backup copy on computer.  If your paper gets lost, I will ask you for the backup copy. Computers or printers  crashing  are not acceptable excuses
5. GRADING SCHEDULE: I will try to return assignments as soon as possible, but it will usually take me at one week to grade a given paper or test.  
6.  Handing in an assignment late will result in loss of points, unless a valid excuse is provided.  For every two days the assignment is late, the score drops by half a letter grade.  Except for dire emergencies, I will not accept papers that are more than 2 weeks late.
7 .  Makeups for missed tests or quizzes require a valid excuse, and under most circumstances I will ask for written documentation about the reason for absence (doctor’s receipt, auto repair bill, etc.).  If for some reason you miss a test, PLEASE notify me as soon as possible—generally within 1 or 2 days.
8.  If you cannot make it to a scheduled office meeting with me, please call to cancel as soon as possible.
9. PLAGIARISM.  Plagiarism (unacknowledged use of another person’s work) and cheating are both serious offenses.  Like most American universities, Wayne State Univ. has a fairly severe policy about penalties for both.  Evidence of plagiarism (or fabrication of sources) or cheating will result in a zero for the assignment and an F for the class. It could also lead to further charges at the College level and expulsion from university.  Prior to submission of the final paper, students will be given the opportunity to discuss what constitutes plagiarism. PLAGIARISM INCLUDES ALL UNACKNOWLEDGED USE OF SOURCES, INCLUDING THE INTERNET.
An instructor, on discovering such an instance WILL give a failing grade on the assignment or for the course.  The instructor has the responsibility of notifying the student of the alleged violation and the action being taken.  Both the student and the instructor are entitled to academic due process in all such cases.  Acts of dishonesty may lead to suspension or exclusion.
10. Students must put away ALL papers, notebooks, clipboards, and books during tests.  You will be given paper for the test.  I will circulate around the classroom during exams.  CHEATING WILL RESULT IN AN F FOR THE TEST AND CLASS
11. Writing Standards.  Although I can provide some writing tips, this class is too large for extensive individual tutoring in basic writing techniques.  Students who  have difficulties with English grammar or spelling should contact the Writing Center for assistance: 313/577-2544; 337 State Hall.  Hours of operation vary from semester to semester.  You will be penalized if your writing standards are insufficient for university work
12. Personal Problems/  Physical or Mental Health
If you feel overwhelmed or stressed out, there is always help available at the WSU Counseling Services at 1001 Faculty Administration  Building --call (313)577-3398.  Alternatively there is the Detroit-Wayne Community Mental Health Emergency Telephone Service (313)224-7000 (24 hour service).  Don't drop your classes--talk to someone first!  If you are feeling overwhelmed, depressed or seriously stressed, TELL your professors in your classes so they can help you if you are having difficulties.  If you have a physical or mental impairment that may interfere with your ability to complete successfully the requirements for this course, please contact EAS in Room 583 of the SCB to discuss appropriate accommodations on a confidential basis. Telephone:  (313)577-1851.