Professor Sophia McClennen / Dept. of Comparative Literature , Penn State University, Mailbox: 311 Burrowes, Office:  435N Burrowes Office Phone: 865-0032 E-mail: sam50@psu.edu, Office Hours:  T 1:30-2:30 and by appointment.

 

CMLIT 597A:

Global Counter-Cinema

Fall 2006; T 2:30-5:30, 306

Plan of Study

Course Home Page

 

A Note about Readings:

I reserve the option of making changes to our daily readings (additions, deletions or adaptations of the current set). 

A Note About Film Screenings:

Except where otherwise indicated films are to be seen BEFORE the seminar session dedicated to discussing the film. These films are widely available and are also in the library. If you have questions about how to access these films make sure to ask well before class.

Weekly Plan

9/5: First Class - Intro to course.

9/12: How to Read a Film and Visit by Barbara Trent (US)

  • Special Evening Film Screening with the Director 7pm Tuesday 9/12: The Panama Deception

  • Readings: Monaco How to Read a Film SKIM Chapters I and II Read Carefully Chapter III

9/19: Film Theory II/Montage

  • IN CLASS Film Screening: : Eisenstein (Russia): Battleship Potemkin

  • Readings

    • Monaco Chapter 5

    • Stam pp: 1-58

9/26: Italian Neorealism and Political filmmaking:

  • Film Screening: Vittorio De Sica (Italy): The Bicycle Thief

  • Readings

    • Stam pp: 58-123

    • Monaco Chapter IV

10/3: Visit by Shu Kuge:  "The Space and Rhythm of Continuity"

  • Film Screenings: Yasujiro Ozu (Japan): Tokyo Story AND an pre-1966 film by Akira Kurosawa such as Stray Dog, Yojinbo, Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Throne of Blood or Red Beard.

10/10: Third Cinema in Africa 

  • Film Screening: Ousmane Sembene (Senegal): Xala

  • Readings: Armes Part One and Two, Section Three part on Africa, Chapter on Sembene, Stam 130-158

10/17: NO Class Meeting

Mid-term Papers Due on Wednesday 10/18 by 5pm in my mailbox.

10/24: Visit by Philip Mosley: "Lifting a Veil on Afghanistan"

  • Film Screening: Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Iran): Kandahar

  • Readings:

    • Philip Mosley, "Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Kandahar: Lifting a Veil on Afghanistan," in Wheeler Winston Dixon, ed., Film and Television after 9/11. Southern Illinois University Press, 2004, pp. 178-200.

    • Hamid Naficy, "Iranian Cinema," in Oxford History of World Cinema (1996), pp. 672-78.

    • Naficy's , "Veiled Voice and Vision in Iranian Cinema: The Evolution of Rakhshan Banietemad's Films," in Murray Pomerance (ed.), Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls: Gender in Film at the End of the Twentieth Century (SUNY Press, 2001), pp. 36-52

10/31: Alex Huang visits seminar: "Impersonating Asia"

  • Film Screening: Yimou Zhang: Raise the Red Lantern

  • Readings: (Available on ANGEL.)

    • Rey Chow, "The Force of Surfaces: Defiance in Zhang Yimou's Films."

    • Michael Berry, "Zhang Yimou: Flying Colors [an interview]." 

  • Visit this Website

11/7: New Latin American Cinema

  • Film Screening: Tomas Gutierrez Alea (Cuba): Memories of Underdevelopment, (optional) Death of a Bureaucrat

  • Readings: Martin: 15-29; 33-58; 71-131

11/14: Cinema Novo in Brazil

  • Film Screening: Glauber Rocha (Brazil): Black God, White Devil

  • Readings:

    • Armes - Chapter on Rocha, Section on Latin America

    • Rocha in Martin 59-61.

    • Stam 267-298

11/21: No Class/Final Research paper meetings

11/28: Pius Adesanmi visits seminar:

  • Film Screening: Raoul Peck (Haiti/Congo): Lumumba

  • Readings TBA

12/5: Global Cinema in the Era of Neoliberalism -

  • Film Screening: Jorge Fons (Mexico): Midaq Alley

  • Readings:

    • Toby Miller, Global Hollywood 2 (Selections)

    • Stam 298-314

    • Naguib Mahfouz, Midaq Alley

12/12: Final Paper presentation

Luis Bunuel

Sergei Eisenstein

Vittorio De Sica

Tomas Gutierrez Alea

Barbara Trent

Barbara Trent

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Glauber Rocha

Yimou Zhang

Jorge Fons