Introductory & General Film Studies Courses

A major figure in German expressionist cinema, Lang's work in this context embraces both large scale fantasy adventure and smaller, contemporary crime thrillers. Through two celebrated films, we will explore a key example of each approach: Metropolis(1927), a dystopian, futuristic fantasy, and M (1931), his first sound film, a serial killer and detective narrative set against the rise of Nazism.

This taster of forthcoming film courses at City Lit in 2026 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.
Learn how to evaluate and discuss films while enjoying a working example of a City Lit film studies class.
We will view clips from a wide variety of films, exploring themes and technique in British, European and modern American cinema. There will be a chance to review term two film courses at City Lit (May - July 2026).

Can a film do good - or harm – in the world? Do filmmakers have a moral duty to their subjects, their audience, or their art? Do film audiences have responsibilities, rights or duties, and what would those be? In this course, we will explore the moral dimensions of the moving image — from the ethics of cinematic representation and spectatorship to the responsibilities of filmmakers and audiences alike.

“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.” This online course will explore and immerse in the world of the 20th century’s funniest and influential comedy troupe - Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo – The Marx Brothers. Expect silent clowning, musical interludes and an abundance of fast and furious Marxian wisecracks.

Establishing itself in the immediate post-war period, initially in Europe and later in world cinemas, art cinema is characterised by distinctive film styles and narrative structures that set it apart from popular forms of cinematic practice and representation. This course will consider its origins and development, its key films and filmmakers, and critical accounts of the concept art of cinema.

This course will discuss the development of women’s cinematic modes of representation and expression, and the place of women in the film industry within the current social, political and cultural climate. It will begin by considering the question of gender representation and will develop towards an examination of the contemporary notion of the ‘female gaze’. The course will refer to key pioneers as well as to contemporary female filmmakers while paying attention to cultural creative diversity.

London is one of the world’s great cinematic cities. It is a city that has been captured on film since the advent of moving pictures. It is also a city whose own story has been profoundly shaped by film. This course will tell the history of London’s depiction onscreen, and how that depiction has impacted on the city itself over the course of twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The title above should read: Powell and Pressburger and Scorsese and Schoonmaker. In the early 1970s the young upstart American indie director Martin Scorsese arrived in England to receive an award. When asked who should present it, he immediately replied “Michael Powell”, but the shocking reply was “Who?” How quickly they had forgotten! Martin then discovered Michael living in penury in a small cottage and rescued him from obscurity, installing him at Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope Studio where his editor Thelma Schoonmaker met him and fell in love with him and… Reader, I Married Him!” I cannot now see the Powell/Pressburger films except through the medium of Scorsese’s glorious evangelism. Their movies and his have virtually become intertextual events. You will see all their films in one glorious day!

This course explores a key work of science fiction cinema of the 1950s: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), scene by scene. It will consider the film's production, critical reception, reputation, and its relationship to other science fiction 'invasion' films of the 1950s, while also considering its legacy through a series of remakes which re-imagine the central themes of the original film.

Realism dominates our screens – from soaps (East Enders) to prestige television (The Wire) to the movies.  But what is realism, exactly? Is it a genre, a stylistic choice, or an intrinsic way of looking at the world, humanistic and moral? And if realism is the dominant form in cinema, who are its masters? 

Already a director of note, the critical reception of The Lodger and Blackmail saw Hitchcock recognised as a major filmmaker, one whose style was best demonstrated in the suspense film, the cinematic form with which he would subsequently always be associated. Explore two key early works from the 'master of suspense', their striking use of montage and, in one, a bold to approach to sound.