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.
- 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00
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