ARTH 6540 - [Film History for Art Historians]

Spring. Not offered: 2022-2023. Next offered: 2024-2025. 4 credits. Letter grades only (no audit).

Permission of instructor required. Co-meets with ARTH 4540.

A. Moisey.

This seminar will offer a survey of film theory and history tailored for art historians, especially but not exclusively for modernists. The influence of cinema on twentieth-century aesthetics cannot be overstated, yet art historians routinely work without enough knowledge about the history of cinema or the grammar and rhetoric of its techniques. The history of montage, continuity editing, cinematography, and narrative form will be covered as we encounter major works from world cinema in dialogue with significant movements in modern art. German Expressionism, Surrealism, Italian Neorealism, Documentary Film, Film Noir, Hollywood Auteurism, East Asian Auteurism, and Bollywood Cinema will be among the major movements covered, as will the late entry into the fine art world of moving image media.