Film Studies

The instructions are in the files that I have attached, and the instructions are clear and straight forward. Please pay close attention and follow the instructions to finish the paper, and I have posted the readings and the films that we have watched. 

WEEK ONE             What is the Status of Women and Gender Bias in Film?  

Tuesday, August 29

Introduction to course

No Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm to compensate for screening on 9/7

Thursday, August 31

Read Introduction and Chapter 1 of Political Animals: the New Feminist Cinema

Read: The Report on Women in Film (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. 

Read also Gender Bias Across Borders (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Choose two articles and prepare concrete issues you would like to discuss in class. 

WEEK TWO            Ways of Seeing: Is the Gaze Male?

Tuesday September 5

Ways of Seeing, excerpt, by John Berger (on Canvas)

 “Visual Pleasure & Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey (FFT 58-69)

NOTE: This is a difficult essay, but try to read it carefully, at least twice; it will form the basis of our discussions for the entire semester.

In-Class Clips of Dream Worlds II: Sex & Power in MTV (Sut Jhally, 1995) & Vertigo

Tuesday Screening at 4:25 pm: Camille (George Cukor, 1936; 108 min.) 

Thursday, September 7

Introduction and Definitions of terms by Ann Kaplan (Canvas)

“Patriarchy and the Male Gaze in Cukor’s Camille” by Ann Kaplan (Canvas)

Option #1 for Film Speaker Response Paper: Irene Lutzsig, will screen The Motherhood Archives 9/7 7:00 pm in 32 Shideler.  Q & A will follow.

WEEK THREE          Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure

Tuesday, September 12

 “Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure” by Laura Mulvey (FFT 122-130)

 Chapter 2, Political Animals

      In-Class Clips of: Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946)    

Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm: Thriller (Sally Potter, 1979; 34 min.) and Wendy and Lucy (Kelley Reichert, 2008; 80 min)

Thursday, September 14

Watch on your own again: Thriller (in Media Gallery)

“Investigating the Heroine: Sally Potter’s Thriller” by Kaplan

 “Rethinking Feminist Film Theory: Counter-Narcissistic Performance in Sally Potter’s Thriller” by Elena del Ri

WEEK FOUR             The Female Gaze, Postmodernism, and Moulin Rouge! 

Tuesday, September 19

Introduction to the Female Spectator in FFT (FFT 109 – 114)

“Film & Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator” by Doane (FFT 131-145)

Afternoon Screening: Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001; 121 min.)

Thursday, September 21

“Consumptive Chic: The Postfeminist Recycling of Camille in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!” by Katie Johnson

“Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility” by Rosalind Gill

In-Class clips from: Moulin Rouge 1952

Guidelines for Midterm Paper distributed

WEEK FIVE              Gender in Modern Horror Films: the Final Girl

Tuesday, September 26

Introduction to “Fantasy, Horror and the Body” (FFT 227 – 233)

 “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film,” Carol Clover (FFT 234 -250)

“Horror and Monstrous-Feminine” Barbara Creed (FFT 251- 266)

In-Class Clips from:  Texas Chainsaw Massacre I (Tobe Hooper 1974) Texas Chainsaw Massacre II and Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)

Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm: Carrie (dir. Kimberly Pierce, 2013, 133 min.)

Option # 2 for Film Speaker Response Paper: Attend lecture on September 27 @ 5:00 pm in 40 Irvin.  Dr. Jen Malkowski; Dying in Full Detail: Mortality and Digital Documentary, published by Duke University Press this year. 

Thursday, September 28

Chapter 9, Becoming Animals, “Haunted Houses”

Option #3 for Film Speaker Response Paper: Attend lecture on September 28, 5:00 pm in McGuffey 332:   Kevin B. Lee, “Videographic Essay,”

WEEK SIX                 When Women Take the Wheel: Thelma & Louise

Tuesday, October 3            

 “Thelma & Louise and the Tradition of the Male Road Movie” by M. Dargis

“Thelma & Louise: ‘Easy Riders’ in a Male Genre” by Carmen Eraso

In-Class Clips: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid; Lethal Weapon Die Hard, & Easy Rider

Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm: Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1992; 130 min.)

Thursday, October 5

“Chick Flicks as Feminist Texts: The Male Gaze in T & L” by Cooper

 “Til Death Do Us Part: Impossible Spaces in T & L,” by Lynda Hart

WEEK SEVEN:         Let Them Wear Fashion: Marie Antoinette

Tuesday, October 10

 “Marie Antoinette: Fashion, Third-Wave Feminism, and Chick Culture (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” by Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young

View: Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola (2006; 123 minutes); note that our afternoon screening is cancelled to allow you to work on your papers.  Please view Marie Antoinette (found in our Media Gallery) before Tuesday’s class.