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.
- Exploring Film Studies: A Beginner's GuideCourse start date: Sat 4 Feb 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyDevelop your critical understanding of cinema through a range of concepts and critical approaches in the study of film, including narrative, genre, spectatorship, authorship and directors, popular cinema, art cinema, national cinema, early and silent film, along with technological developments including the transition to sound, while we view and discuss a range of key films as examples.
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 - How to Read a Film: A Beginners' Guide to Cinema
Course start date: Mon 15 May 2023 (and 1 other date)Location on this date: Keeley Street (other locations are available)
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.Full fee £109.00 Senior fee £109.00 Concession £71.00 - Don't Look Now and The Wicker Man at 50Course start date: Sun 12 Mar 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyExplore two landmark British horror films, originally released together as a double bill, one a gothic psychological work, the other a key example of British 'folk horror' cinema. Looking at a range of key scenes from each of the films, we will assess their critical reception and status in British horror cinema, while considering their enduring popularity with both critics and audiences alike.
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 - How to Read a Film: A Brief Beginners' Guide to CinemaCourse start date: Sat 18 Mar 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Ellen CheshireIn this online ‘study day’ split over two Saturday mornings you will be introduced to new ways of looking at film, focusing on a close reading of film form as a way of exploring the production of meaning in films.
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 - Film Studies TasterCourse start date: Sat 25 Mar 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyThis taster of forthcoming film courses at City Lit in 2023 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 £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £19.00 - Women behind the camera: in Hollywood and beyondCourse start date: Sat 13 May 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Ellen CheshireDid you know that the first fiction film was directed by a woman? That there were more women working behind the camera in the first 30 years of cinema, than in the last 30? That only one woman has won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival? In this Study Day we will explore the careers of women directors from the past, those working today, and those whose careers are in their early stages.
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 - German Expressionism: From Horror to Film NoirCourse start date: Sat 3 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerGerman Expressionism influenced Hollywood horror after itself being influenced by early Swedish Nordic noir. Along with F.W. Murnau and Robert Wiene, Fritz Lang was one of the key figures of German Expressionist cinema. Their influence crossed borders and is alive today in cinema tropes, camera techniques and narrative themes still used by filmmakers, game designers and artists. Their films changed moviemaking forever as directors and set designers created a nightmare environment of unnatural perspectives and distorted images in early films such as Nosferatu (1922 F.W. Murnau), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919 Robert Weine), and Metropolis (1927 Fritz Lang) which led to Dracula (1931 Tod Browning), Spellbound (1945 Alfred Hitchcock) and Blade Runner (1982 Ridley Scott). American pulp fiction shaded this into film noir in The Killers (1946 Robert Siodmak) and Double Indemnity (1944 Billy Wilder), films created by directors who had fled the land of German Expression. It had come full circle.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00
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