Film Studies

Course summary

Film is one of the main cultural innovations of the 20th century and a major art form of the last hundred years. Those who study it characteristically bring with them a high degree of enthusiasm and excitement for what is a powerful and culturally significant medium, inspiring a range of responses from the emotional to the reflective. Film Studies consequently makes an important contribution to society: studying it offers the opportunity to investigate how film works both as a platform of representation and as an aesthetic medium. It is a good support for, or extension of, English Literature, but an absolute must for film buffs. At the root of all film studies is a recognition that films are made: they are constructed using a range of elements – cinematography, mise-en-scène, sound, editing and performance (the key elements of film form) – which are organised structurally in terms of narrative and often genre (the structural elements of film form). How filmmakers use these elements, frequently in complex and highly artistic ways, is a large part of what constitutes the formal study of film. Equally important is how spectators respond to the work filmmakers create and how audiences interpret the films with reference to spectator response, relevant contexts, critical approaches and debates. Over the duration of the course we will study Hollywood Cinema, both classical and contemporary. We will also look at British Film, Global Film, Documentary and Experimental Film. We will study a wide range of amazing films; including popular culturally iconic films, but also films that you may never had heard of. All of them are amazing in their own way.