Welcome to CRITICAL FILM ANALYSIS!

Welcome to CFA fall 2017! It is a course that invites you to watch movies like a film scholar. And yes, as a course on film, a wide range of films (some of them are very fun to watch) will be screened throughout the semester. That said, it is also a college-level course, with credits being granted and homework graded. Thus, reading and writing are as important as watching. Here, we would like to introduce a few suggested readings that we find extremely helpful for those who are taking a film course for the first time. 

They are:

1. Elsaesser, Thomas & Buckland, Warren. “Film Theory, Methods, Analysis”, Studying Contemporary American Films: a Guide to Movie Analysis, Bloomsbury Academic, 2002, 1-25 [CLICK HERE]
2. Stam, Robert. Film Theory: an Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, 2000
3. Villarejo, Amy. Film Studies: the Basics, Routledge, 2nd edition, 2006. the link to Amy's book: https://nuss.nagoya-u.ac.jp/index.php/s/ZWV6wgicBcnYfBj

In this class, all the reading materials will be available on this website as PDF files, if not distributed in class as hardcopies. In our first meeting on Oct.6th, you will be given a password for online distributed readings. Please note that all the online readings will only be valid for a month. The link will automatically go expire a month after its uploading date. In that case, you will have to contact your TA to get the readings. 

Finally, don't forget to click here to view or download the course syllabus. 

Un Chien Andalou, Dir. Luis Buñuel, 1929  (In-class screening on Oct.6th)