AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA

COMARTS 461

In the wake of World War Two, European directors began making films that employed location shooting, ambiguity, psychological realism, and unfamiliar stylistic flourishes. Such films drew on literary modernism, experimenting with time shifting, extreme duration, subjectivity, and reflexivity. "Art cinema," as it came to be called, is now the dominant storytelling mode of the contemporary film festival circuit and constitutes a robust alternative to mainstream genre cinema. Explores art cinema from a variety of national and transnational contexts, analyzing its narratives, styles, and cultural contexts. Investigates the work of directors from the first generation of art cinema, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, and Agnès Varda, and more recent work by Aki Kaurismäki, Abbas Kiarostami, Wong Kar-wai, and Claire Denis.

COMARTS 958

Seminar probes theoretical questions concerning nature of historical knowledge, examines scholarly models and introduces methodologies and resources for research on the history of cinema.

COMARTS 902

Studies in advanced research in film history, theory and criticism.

COMARTS 463

Examines the history and aesthetics of avant-garde/experimental film from its beginnings in the late 1910s to the present. Studies key aesthetic programs and their relations to adjacent movements in art and critical theory.

COMARTS 552

An examination of contemporary Hollywood films focusing on the interrelations of cinematic narrative, style, technology, and institutions. Survey the work of major directors and consider the box office impact of key genres and film cycles.