Once derided as senseless entertainment (“It’s only a movie!”), Hollywood movies have gradually assumed an important place among the arts and American culture. In this course, we will not only trace the evolution of American film-making from Thomas Edison’s ‘kinetoscope’ to the age of ‘New Hollywood’ and modern U.S. cinema (e.g., independent films), but also investigate the revolutionary impact they have had on American culture and society. Our journey through the cultural history of American movies will focus on early short films, silent movies, and genre films, comedy, film noir, western, and musical. We will discuss the aesthetics of specific films (e.g., strategies of narration and cinematic construction) and situate them within a larger industrial, economic, social, political, historical, and cultural context.
Required Texts:
• Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America (Vintage).
• Additional texts will be put online (Stud.IP).
