History of Cinema

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 5. Gender equality

Objectives

This course is both theoretical and practical and offers an approach to the history of cinema that emphasizes chronological evolution, aesthetic evolution, and the basic vocabulary of cinematic language.

Learning outcomes

• Understand and contextualize the most relevant film productions in history.
• Analyzes fiction and non-fiction film productions.
• Acquire and demonstrate advanced knowledge of the theoretical and practical aspects and working methodology in the field of history.
• Collect and interpret data and information on which to base conclusions, including reflections on social, scientific, or ethical issues in the field of history.
• Prepare reports and written documents with correct spelling and grammar.
• Use gender-respectful language in both oral and written productions.

Competencies

General skills

• Organize and plan tasks related to professional performance through proper time management and timing of these tasks.

Specific skills

• Demonstrate knowledge and skills to undertake practical or theoretical tasks in a scientific manner.
• Transfer knowledge of history, languages, communication theories and models, and also of art history and image theories.
• Understand the factors that shape historical circumstances and the main paradigms of sociology in order to apply them to the analysis, interpretation and representation of contemporary society and audiovisual narratives.

Basic skills

• Students have demonstrated knowledge and understanding in a field of study that builds on general secondary education with the support of advanced textbooks and knowledge of the latest advances in this field of study.
• Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) in order to make judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific and ethical issues.

Core skills

• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Beginnings of cinema
   • Pioneers
   • American industry until 1930. Classic Hollywood. Star system
   • European cinematography until 1930
2. Golden Age of Hollywood: From Talkies to World War II
   • Talking cinema
   • Large studios
   • Genres
3. National cinematographies: from sound films to the Second World War
   • The cases of Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and the USSR
   • Eastern cinematographies
4. Cinema during World War II. Propaganda cinema
   • Countries involved in World War II
5. Postwar cinema
   • Italian Neorealism
   • Hollywood (native and exiled authors)
   • Other cinematographies: Japan, India, Sweden, Spain, Great Britain and France
6. The Nouvelle Vague and its influences
   • France: The New Wave
   • Great Britain: Free Cinema
   • Japan: Nuberu Bagu
   • Italy
   • Latin America
   • Eastern Europe
7. Hollywood and the Age of Television: Renewal for a New Audience
   • Hollywood and renewal
8. Cinema from 1970 onwards
   • Germany: Neues Kino
   • The rest of the cinematographies (except the North American one)
   • North American industry
9. Towards 21st-century cinema. The digital revolution
   • Iran
   • Australia and New Zealand
   • North American industry
   • The digital revolution
   • Dogma and European cinema
   • New Asian Cinema
   • Consolidation of African cinema
   • Resurgence of Latin American cinema
10. Reflections on current cinema
    • European continent
    • Asian continent
    • Latin America
    • North America
    • Other cinematographies

Evaluation

The evaluation includes:

• Attendance and observation of class participation are worth 10% of the final grade.
• The partial contents are assessed through bibliographical searches, text commentaries, film analysis and critiques. These individual exercises are worth 50% of the final grade.
• At the end of the semester, a group research project on a topic previously agreed upon with the professor is submitted in writing and in class (monitoring of the work completed is considered). This specific assessment test is worth 40% of the final grade. If the test is not passed, it can be recovered in the additional assessment.

Methodology

It is a single-modality subject: face-to-face.

In the class sessions the theoretical contents of each topic are discussed.

In the hours of directed work Students must watch film clips and carry out critical debates and exercises.

The student must also dedicate a few weekly hours of personal work of the subject: consolidate theoretical knowledge, perform individual exercises, etc.

Bibliography

Key references

• AGEE, J. (2001). Escritos sobre cine. Paidós.
• COUSINS, M. (2005). Historia del cine. Blume.
• ELENA, A. (1999). Los cines periféricos. Paidós.
• ROSALES, J. (2017). El lápiz y la cámara. La huerta grande.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.