Foundations of Film Analysis:
Exploring Film as Art, Culture, and Technology

The “Foundations of Film Analysis” course offers students an introduction to the critical study of film as an art form, cultural artifact, and technological medium. Film students explore the basic elements of film form, including narrative, mise en scene, cinematography, editing, and sound. The course emphasizes critical thinking and effective communication, guiding students to analyze and write about films in a structured and insightful manner. By engaging with a range of films from across places and times,students develop an appreciation for film’s aesthetic, cultural, and ideological dimensions. This course is designed to cater to students with varying levels of familiarity with film, including those who face reading challenges, by incorporating diverse learning activities, visual aids, and interactive discussions.

Potential selections and genres include: silent cinema (Lang, Chaplin, Keaton), Soviet montage (Eisentein, Pudovkin, and Vertov), Golden Age of Hollywood (Hawks, Mankiewicz, and Wilder) Italian neorealism (Fellini, De Sica, and Rosselini), French New Wave (Demy, Godard, and Truffaut), Golden Age of Japanese Cinema (Kurosawa, Ozu, and Mizoguchi), and New Hollywood (Kubrick, Scorsese, and Coppola).