- Shrinks on screen: psychologists on TV and FilmCourse start date: Sat 23 Mar 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Mary WildIn this course, we will look at examples of ‘shrinks on screen’—portrayals of mental health professionals (psychiatrists, social workers, psychoanalysts, etc.) in cinema and TV. We will critically examine ‘head doctors’ tropes, and identify iconic psychotherapy sessions in movies and television that convincingly represent the challenges and effectiveness of the so-called ‘talking cure’.
Mary Wild is a film lecturer and podcaster with an academic background in psychoanalytic theory. Her research interests include cinematic representation of the unconscious, surrealism, mental illness, feminine subjectivity, the horror genre, and auteur studies. In addition to teaching at City Lit, she is a regular speaker at Freud Museum London.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Film studies tasterCourse start date: Sat 23 Mar 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyThis taster of forthcoming film courses at City Lit in 2024 offers you the chance to think about which ones to take while also providing an opportunity to explore some of the key areas in film studies more generally.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £10.00 - The alternative greatest films ever: The Sight & Sound and student pollCourse start date: Mon 22 Apr 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerThis is a stand-alone companion course to the Autumn ’23 course on the Sight and Sound Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. The first reactions to the Sight and Sound Poll 2022 were divisive, as completely expected, when certain 21st-century films made the list and other venerated classics were dropped (see topics below for the list). As interesting as the top 100 was to discuss, we wanted to look a bit deeper to see how the reception of certain films shifted over the last decade, with a rundown of the films that were added and those removed. Be assured, they are as enjoyable as the Top 100—perhaps even more so. In addition to viewing the films that were added or dropped, students will conduct their own poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. Enjoy either or both of these complementary courses.Full fee £179.00 - The occult on screenCourse start date: Tue 23 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Gillian McIverSurprisingly, not every film that features the occult is a horror film. Certainly, many of them are; we will consider classics such as Haxan from 1922, Rosemary’s Baby, The Craft, Angel Heart, The Witch and Hereditary. Other films, such as Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising and A Dark Song, attempt to treat the occult seriously as secret or hidden knowledge. We'll examine the cultural backdrop of occult films and questions of representation, gender relations, and spirituality.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - Exploring European cinemaCourse start date: Wed 24 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyThis class introduces you to a range of themes and issues in European cinema, including art cinema, national cinema, movements, 'moments' and new waves, authorship, popular cinema and genre, along with key developments in European film history from the silent era to the present day, key films, directors and the canon of European cinema, and a range of critical accounts of European cinema.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Cultureplex ciné-club 2Course start date: Thu 25 Apr 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonCome and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club 2, where once a week, for 12 weeks (and throughout the academic
year), we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.
Please note that this course will screen a new and different set of films to HF211 Cultureplex Cine-Club, which will run with the same films screened last year. If you took the Cultureplex Cine-Club course last year (2023-4), please ensure that you take the Cultureplex Cine-Club 2 courses this year.Full fee £199.00 - Cultureplex ciné-clubCourse start date: Thu 25 Apr 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonCome and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 12 weeks, we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Italian cinema: from Neorealism to the genre filmCourse start date: Fri 26 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Cristina MassaccesiThis cinema course focuses on Italian cinema in the years between 1945 and 1980. It will provide you with an overview of the main historical, cultural and social aspects of Italian filmmaking in Italy by looking at the work of some of its most influential author/directors.Full fee £99.00 - Universal horror: classic horror cinema from Universal StudiosCourse start date: Sat 27 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyUniversal had its greatest successes of the classical era with a series of horror films with which it will forever be associated. It's classic horror figures define the golden age of horror cinema, while the memorable performances of stars such as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi established them as horror legends. Explore and enjoy these classic horror films and their lasting legacy for the genre.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - An introduction to filmCourse start date: Fri 3 May 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyDevelop your critical understanding of cinema through a range of concepts and critical approaches in film studies, including narrative, genre, spectatorship, authorship and directors, popular cinema, art cinema, national cinema and early film, along with technological developments including the transition to sound, while we view and discuss a range of key films from cinema's history as examples.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - O Lucky Lindsay Anderson!Course start date: Tue 7 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerLindsay Anderson is widely recognised as one of the few authentic geniuses of British cinema, a visionary film director unafraid to challenge convention, who left an indelible mark on British cinema (e.g. on Ken Loach and Mike Leigh). He was a true maverick in every sense of the word. His uncompromising artistic vision challenged storytelling to provoke thought and change. He tackled social issues and explored the human condition through his unique directorial style. His key feature films are This Sporting Life (1963), If…(1968), O Lucky Man! (1973) and his final film in 1993, Is That All There Is?Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - City Lit at the BFI: Italian Neo-Realism - The cinema of everyday lifeCourse start date: Wed 8 May 2024
Location on this date: BFI Southbank
Tutors: Paul SuttonThe filmmakers associated with Italian Neorealism are celebrated for their commitment to representing post-World War 2 Italy as realistically as possible and their influence has been significant. In this 6-week course, Dr Paul Sutton will examine the richness of this ‘movement’ and consider the reasons for its enduring legacy, while countering some of the myths that have grown up around it on the way.
Please note that this course takes place in The Studio at the BFI Southbank.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - How to read a film: a beginners' guide to cinemaCourse start date: Mon 13 May 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonThis course will develop your critical appreciation of the cinema by teaching you how to read and understand film texts. We will look at the elements that underpin film form – narrative, mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound – alongside its historical development. We will consider film style by exploring classical, post-classical and art cinema and we will examine influential critical modes of analysis, such as genre, authorship and spectatorship. - Hammer Horror: classic horror cinema from Hammer StudiosCourse start date: Sat 18 May 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyHammer's vivid, full-bloodied horror films were met with popular acclaim and critical disapproval but are now recognised as constituting a major area in British popular cinema. Explore the films, their popular and critical reception, Hammer's distinctive approach to style, and the way in which the films offer an alternative to other, more restrained and respectable modes of British cinema.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Reading images: exploring film studiesCourse start date: Wed 29 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Cristina MassaccesiThis comprehensive introductory course provides an overview of the main historical, technical and theoretical aspects of filmmaking and film analysis. In its exploration of aspects of film theory as it relates to film aesthetics and film history, the course develops certain ideas with rigour and depth.Full fee £99.00
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