Browse Hierarchy FLM7210: Film Studies 1

The first part of the Film Studies course provides an in-depth foundation in the discipline and its nuances. It examines the many ways in which a century of cinema has shaped our experience of space, time and reality. We analyse the spatio-temporal world of the film as a language organized through shot composition, mise-en-scene, art direction, production design, editing, sound, on screen and off screen space, deployed to dfferent effect across film forms and national contexts. Of all the modern arts, it is perhaps film that has been the most concerned with the many qualities of time. Central to the temporality of film are critical issues of whether film constructs or reveals the world, conveys or distorts 'real time', emancipates alternative identities, acts as interpretive interface between life and death, and whether idneed it suggsts or condemns the possibility of a shared collective time. We then consider various perspectives on film's relationship with the world through ethics, actuality, nonfiction filmmaking and iconic images.