Cultureplex ciné-club: Jean-Luc Godard
This course has now started
- Course Code: HF346
- Dates: 07/11/23 - 12/12/23
- Time: 14:00 - 17:00
- Taught: Tue, Daytime
- Duration: 6 sessions (over 6 weeks)
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: Paul Sutton
Course Code: HF346
Duration: 6 sessions (over 6 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Center for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
André Bazin’s ciné-club was set up by him not simply as an opportunity for the screening and discussion of films, but as a tool for education. Bazin was as much a passionate advocate for the transformatory effects of community learning as he was for the significance of cinema and the ciné-club represented an opportunity for him to promote both. In following Bazin, the Cultureplex Ciné-Club: Jean-Luc Godard shares these same goals. This is a film studies course that foregrounds the importance and the value of the collective film viewing experience, but which also is concerned to ensure that the films screened are curated, introduced and discussed with the rigour associated with the study of film at City Lit.
The Jean-Luc Godard films that will be screened will come from the list below and might include:
A bout de souffle/Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard 1960 France, 90 mins)
Le Petit Soldat/The Little Soldier (1963 France 88 mins)
Le Mepris/Contempt (1963 France 103 mins)
Alphaville (1965 France 99 mins)
Pierrot le fou (1965 France 110 mins)
Tout va bien (1972 France 95 mins)
Ici et ailleurs/Here and Elsewhere (1976 France 53 mins)
Sauve qui peut (la vie)/Slow Motion (1980 France 87 mins)
Je vous salue, Marie (1985 France 72 mins)
Histoire(s) du cinema (1989-1999 France 307 mins [8 episodes])
Eloge de l’amour (2001 France 97 mins)
Notre musique (2004 France 80 mins)
Adieu au langage/Goodbye to Language (2014 France 70 mins)
Please note that films screened are subject to availability and may change.
What will we cover?
• A detailed examination of a number of the films of Jean-Luc Godard
• The history of postwar film as expressed through individual, indicative films
• The historical development of film form
• The development of cinematic self-expression through the articulation of a distinct visual style
• Film spectatorship, understood in both personal, historical and theoretical terms.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
• Demonstrate familiarity with the films of Jean-Luc Godard
• Subject a film to detailed critical analysis
• Demonstrate familiarity with the key technical terms necessary for critical film analysis
• Have a broad awareness of important moments in film history as expressed through individual indicative films
• Be familiar with a range of theoretical perspectives in film studies
• Feel confident in discussing films in a group setting.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The course is suitable for all levels and you do not require any particular skills - just an enthusiasm for film and discussing film. The course will provide an introduction to aspects of the film subject area, in part through the collective viewing of films, but it will also be useful for those wishing to build on existing film knowledge.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
An introduction by the tutor, the screening of entire films, and large group discussions after the films have been shown. It might also be a good idea to see what you can find out about a given film in advance of the class but this is not essential.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You will require a pen and paper (or laptop/device) but the tutor will provide all other materials such as handouts.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
You may wish to take other Cultureplex Ciné-Club courses alongside or after this one in Terms 2 and 3, but look also for other Film Studies courses under History Culture and Writing/Film Studies at www.citylit.ac.uk.
Dr. Paul Sutton is an independent film scholar who has taught Film Studies in UK higher education for over 25 years. His research covers psychoanalytic and film theory as well as Italian and French cinema and critical theory. He has published articles in journals such as Screen, French Studies and the Journal for Cultural Research. He is currently writing a psychoanalytic book on film spectatorship, Afterwardsness in Film, and has recently published work on television as a form of palliative care, and an assessment of the films of the Italian experimental filmmaker Ugo Nespolo.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.