Film studies
Enjoy a fresh look at big screen classics, ground-breaking titles and cult favourites featuring a cast of iconic names, former stars and the men and women who called the shots.
Check out our blog post on our new Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 12 weeks (and throughout the academic year in terms 2 and 3), we will watch and discuss film.
Study in-person, or online from the comfort of home, with classes that allow you to participate in discussions with fellow adult students and share your passion for Film as part of a learning community. We offer daytime, evening and weekend courses, both short and long. Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators. Tutors share their knowledge and passion for Film through presentations, screenings, interactive discussion, analysis, and other activities.
Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit literary community. Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.
- 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?
This course is running as part of City Lit's regular collaborations with the British Film Institute (BFI), who are screening a programme of films by Lindsay Anderson during May 2024. Please note that this course is taking place in the Cultureplex at City Lit, Keeley Street.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - 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 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00 - Introduction to film spectatorshipCourse start date: Sat 8 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonThis course will provide a brief introduction to the history of film spectatorship, tracing its origins in the silent era up to the present day. The course will explore a number of films in detail, includingThe Truman Show (Peter Weir 1998 US), Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore 1998 Italy), The Matrix (Wachowskis 1999 US) and others.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - The New Wave, realism and genre: British Cinema in the 1960sCourse start date: Sun 16 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyDuring the 1960s British cinema re-established itself as a leading producer of films, including realist, contemporary dramas such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), and action and adventure fantasies with the popular James Bond films. This course explores these developments through a number of lines of approach and the way in which they contributed to a revitalised 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 - British Hitchcock double bill: The 39 Steps and The Lady VanishesCourse start date: Sat 21 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyHitchcock was first recognised as a gifted filmmaker in the 1920s but the films he made between 1934 and 1938, the six 'chase thrillers', established his reputation and associated him with a particular type of film, one marked by a varying mix of suspense, comedy and romance. This course explores the two most celebrated of these, looking at their production, structure and critical reception.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Fifties film noir: Kiss me DeadlyCourse start date: Sat 26 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerFilm Noir was the term coined by French critics to describe a distinctive style in American cinema during the decade after the war. In the transitional 1950s, genres that had been Hollywood staples began to change, evolve, or fade away. Film Noir evolved because it was too vital, too useful, and just too enjoyable to fade away. Just as John Huston’s Maltese Falcon (1941) kick-started film noir in the forties, his Asphalt Jungle (1950) introduced a darker fifties’ noir. Or did noir begin and end with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) and Touch of Evil (1958)? ((See related courses on Fifties Melodrama and Musicals and 50 Films From the ‘50s: Hollywood’s Last Stand).Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - The ghost story on the television and the big screenCourse start date: Sat 23 Nov 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyExplore and enjoy the ghost story through big screen classics such as The Uninvited (1944), The Innocents (1961) and The Haunting (1963), and small screen dramas such as The Stone Tape (1972) and the BBC's Ghost Story for Christmas tradition - for example, The Signalman (1976). We will also consider the genre's key themes and storytelling styles along with its relationship with horror generally.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Christmas at the cinemaCourse start date: Sat 14 Dec 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerCarefully-curated Christmas cornucopia overflows with seasonal films, from new entry The Holdovers (2023 Alexander Payne) to Home Alone (1990 Chris Columbus/John Hughes). This is a celebration of the genre of the Christmas film packed with clips and hidden gems: Scrooge (1951 Brian Desmond Hurst) remixed as a film noir, Lindsay Anderson’s Every Day Except Christmas (1957), his film about the old Covent Garden market later seen in My Fair Lady (1964) or Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972) just before it closed down. Full of delights, discussions and a grown man dressed as an Elf (2003).Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00
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