FIL-10017 - Module Specification
School of Humanities
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

This module explores the ways in which films both reflect and respond to issues of the times in which they are made. As a result, the module will consider films not in isolation, but as texts both specific to their place and time, and also as parts of a longer historical journey in the evolution of the medium. In order to make sense of these films as interventions in wider cultural, social and political contexts, we will explore a range of relevant theoretical approaches to the study of film both in, and as, history. Students will engage throughout with key technical terms for analysing film, and will become adept in approaching film criticism from a historical perspective.

- Introduce to students the key ideas and debates that have contributed to the development of film theory and analysis in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
- Foster an understanding of a range of historical and theoretical approaches to the academic study of film
- Familiarise students with essential terminology and concepts used in film analysis
- Identify and analyse through diverse examples key areas of film aesthetics
- Enable students to practise close film analysis through seminar discussion and written exercises
- Explain the historical and cultural factors that have shaped different theories of film
- Enable students to recognise and understand a variety of different approaches to film and to be able to compare the potential and limitations of each

Intended Learning Outcomes

Consider the implications of film for exploring issues of identity through seminar discussion and written assessments: 1,2
Identify the significance of wider international contexts to the production and reception of film: 1,2
Engage in detailed film analysis using appropriate terminology accurately: 1,2
Discuss the role of different aspects of film aesthetics in the production of narrative meaning in cinema: 1,2
Carry out independent critical analysis of the value and/or limitations of different approaches to film analysis and film criticism: 1,2
Consider the significance of film as a representation of social and political issues across different historical contexts: 1,2

Study hours

12 1-hour lectures
12 1-hour seminars
20 hours watching films (screenings)
Class preparation: 30 hours
Short paper preparation: 26 hours
Essay preparation: 50 hours

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment