Introductory & General Film Studies Courses

Explore British cinema of the 1930s, a decade that reflects the first instance of an industry in which film production of all kinds was able to flourish. From cheap 'quota quickies' to lavish prestige productions and genres including comedy and crime, a British national cinema began to emerge, its critical reputation bolstered by a series of striking documentaries and the Hitchcock thriller.

Hitchcock established his reputation early on in his British career, particularly with a series of thrillers that showcased his distinctive style. This course explores his British films and the factors that helped to shape his filmmaking and, subsequently, his reputation as a major film artist, while also considering his position in, and relationship to British cinema of the 1920s and 1930s.

Emerging in the 1980s, and promoted as a prestige cinema, the British heritage film is typified by high production values, period settings and, often, a canonical literary source. We will view films such as A Room with a View (1985) and The Remains of the Day (1993) and discuss their appeal for both domestic and international audiences, while exploring the critical debates around heritage cinema.

This is a chance to get a taste of what film studies courses are like at City Lit. You also can learn about forthcoming film courses in our programme, starting in January 2027.

What is the relationship between film and music? From jazz to rap, from music documentaries to musicals, from female conductors to counterculture, what does cinema tell us about music? We will discuss the importance of music in films, not only in terms of the power of the film score and how it has changed over time, but also in relation to the impact that it has on the storyline and on the audience, without of course forgetting the representation of musicians and instruments as an historical and aesthetic mirror of times.

From the contemporary and familiar to the otherness of future worlds the dystopian film explores political, social and technological anxieties and conflict through the lens of fantasy and science fiction cinema and their many sub-genres. We will look at the history and development of the dystopian film, its treatment of a range of themes and the extent to which it might reflect our own fears.

Explore cinema before sound, from its beginnings to the late 1920s and its relationship with the spectator. We will view and discuss early, short films, such as A Trip to the Moon (1902) and Rescued by Rover (1905), and later feature films, including The General (1926) and Sunrise (1927), while considering the impact of narrative and the development of cinema during the period more generally.

With films such as Metropolis (1927) and Sunrise (1927) many critics felt that silent cinema had attained a level of sophistication that could not be surpassed by the 'talkies', but the imaginative use of sound and dialogue, in, for example, Blackmail (1929) and M (1931), could not be denied. Explore this exciting, transitional moment in cinema through these and other key films of the period.

Explore the horror film through a range of key films, concepts and critical accounts of the genre. We will consider its history and development, from its beginnings to the present day, the ways in which different production contexts, such as American, European and East Asian horror cinemas, have given rise to variations in the genre, and the approach to theme and style in the films themselves.