Film Studies Courses
Study online & in London

Come and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks (and throughout the academic year), we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.

Please note that this is a repeat of the course delivered on Thursdays last year with the tutor Dr Paul Sutton. For those who took that class please see HF324 which runs on a Tuesday afternoon.

Come and join us at the French Film Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks, we will watch and discuss French film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.

On this course we will watch the films of pioneering women directors and discuss how their work stands to enrich the established conventions of cinema as well as our approaches to the world beyond the screen.

The selection of films reflects both canonical classics from film history and innovative new voices from around the globe. For those who have taken the course before, the selection of films will be different every time it runs - meaning that students can re-enrol and continue to expand their cinematic horizons.

The cinema of postwar Europe was a crucible of filmic invention which had a far-reaching influence. In Italy, France, Britain, Germany and Spain, cinematic ‘New Waves’ revolutionised the ways films were made and discussed. This course explores the key films and directors of the New Wave phenomenon, as well as examining the legacy of these historical moments within each national cinema and beyond.

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.

Matinee idol; pioneer of Italian neo-realism; popular international director; Vittorio De Sica was a man of many parts. From The Bicycle Thieves to his work with Sophia Loren, De Sica brought Italian people and society to the world.stage.

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.

Film has always provided a fascinating and illuminating window to the past. Historical films like Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List and Gladiator have done more than most to shape our collective imagination about what the past looks and feels like, whilst documentaries continue to capture stories from our past and present for the interest of future generations. But does film provide a useful way of accessing history, or is it always a lesser cousin to the traditional academic analysis of the past? Can a fictional period drama tell us more about “the truth” of an event or period than a dry textbook?

Are you curious about world cinema? Do you want to learn more about a dynamic but often neglected region of cinema culture - the Arab world? This course will introduce you to some of the classic films of the of the Egyptian cinema and its stars like Omar Sharif, including The Land (1970) and Cairo Station (1958), alongside recent films such as Chaos, Disorder (2012) and Lebanese film Capernaum (2018). Each session will include a film screening, short lecture and group discussion.

With the success of films like Oldboy and Parasite, South Korean cinema has become internationally known and acclaimed. But behind this success, a rich and diverse history encompassing decades of filmmaking is far less well-known. This course offers an introduction to the vibrant and dynamic cinema of Korea, tracing its evolution from the post-war years to its recent global prominence. It will chart different traditions and eras, from the so-called Golden Age of the mid-20th century, through the politically charged cinema of the 1980s and 1990s, to the emergence of the Korean New Wave and the internationally celebrated auteurs such as Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook and Lee Chang-dong. We will learn about how Korean cinema has continually reflected the country’s complex history, shifting ideologies, and rapid modernisation. We will explore how Korean filmmakers have responded to colonialism, authoritarianism, democratisation, globalisation and capitalism, and how cinema has served as a space for cultural expression, resistance, and innovation.

America has gone dark again. Whoever went to the movies in 1946 was caught in the middle of Hollywood’s profound post-war production of ‘morbid drama’ (Life magazine). Before that, during the dark days of the Depression a new form of hard-boiled fiction was popular and available because printed on cheap pulp paper. This pulp fiction was about people on the other side of the tracks. James M.Cain’s working class characters in Mildred Pierce, or The Postman Always Rings Twice were considered too-hot-to-handle in Hollywood until Billy Wilder’s wild success with Double Indemnity (1944) and Otto Preminger’s with Laura (1944) in the same year brought a new look of German expressionism into Hollywood movies, turning the American Dream into nightmare. The Western’s moral primitivism and the Gangster’s Horatio Alger values were considered more American than Film Noir’s emphasis on corruption and despair. And now America has gone dark again.

Are cinemas churches, and are films gospels? Does the act of sitting in the dark, watching light flicker on a screen, mirror the experience of religious ritual, or is it offensive to even ask such a question? From the literal depictions of prophets and deities to the secular parables offered in the works of some of global cinema’s great directors, film has always been obsessed with the divine, the sacred, and the profane.

“Holy Hole-In-A-Doughnut!” Executive producer, William Dozier “I had the simple idea of overdoing it, of making it so square and so serious that adults would find it amusing. I knew kids would go for the derring-do, the adventure.” In January 1966 Batman Krunched! Klonked! and Ker-splooshed! on to the screen in glorious colour and crooked camera angles, creating a ground breaking series that has continued to enthral audiences young and old for over 60 years. “To the Batmobile!”

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.