JAN 27: SESSION 1: Intro to the Course and Why 1945? 

Discussion: New World Order, US occupation and censorship, atomic fear. 

Films: 

One Wonderful Sunday (Akira Kurosawa, 1947) (excerpts) 

Godzilla (Ishirō Honda, 1954) (excerpts)  

Hiroshima (Hideo Sekigawa, 1953) 

Reading (in class):

Children of Hiroshima (Arata Osada, 1951) (excerpts) 

 

FEB 3: SESSION 2: Cinema of Rubble and Ruin 

Discussion: Italian Neorealism, postwar cinema, documentary style. 

Films: 

Paisà (Roberto Rossellini, 1946) (excerpts) 

Shoeshine (Vittorio de Sica, 1946) (excerpts) 

The Earth Trembles (Luchino Visconti, 1948) (excerpts) 

Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini, 1948) 

Readings: 

Primary sources: 

• Zavattini: “Theses on Neo-Realism” 

• Roberto Rossellini: “Germany Year Zero” 

• George Sadoul: “A Great Italian Filmmaker: Roberto Rossellini” 

Secondary sources:  

• Peter Brunette: Roberto Rossellini (excerpts) 

• Torunn Haaland: Italian Neorealist Cinema (excerpts) 

Optional: 

• Jaimey Fisher: “On the Ruins of Masculinity: The Figure of the Child in Italian Neorealism and the German Rubble-Film.” In Kristi M. Wilson, Laura E Ruberto (eds.): Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema 

 

FEB 10: SESSION 3: Cinema, Conflict, Censorship 

Discussion: “The Hollywood Ten,” Blacklist, and McCarthyism. 

Films: 

The Hollywood Ten (John Berry, 1950) 

Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1971) (excerpts) 

Trumbo (Peter Askin, 2008) (excerpts) 

The Salt of Earth (Herbert J. Biberman, 1954) 

Readings: 

Primary sources: 

• Herbert J. Biberman: The Salt of the Earth: The Story of a Film (excerpts) 

• Howard Hughes’ Letter to Congressman Donald L. Jackson 

Secondary sources: 

• Ellen R. Baker: On Strike and on Film: Mexican American Families and Blacklisted Filmmakers in Cold War America (excerpts) 

• Reynold Humphries: Hollywood’s Blacklist (excerpts) 

In class: 

• Ring Larner Jr.: I’d Hate Myself in the Morning: A Memoir (excerpts) 

• Alvah Bessie: Inquisition in Eden (excerpts) 

 

FEB 24: SESSION 4: Global Neorealism

Discussion: Modernity, colonialism, neorealist style and themes. 

Films: 

Springtime in a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948) (excerpts) 

The Given Word (Anselmo Duarte, 1962) (excerpts) 

Rendez-vous of the Docks (Paul Carpita, 1955) 

Readings: 

Secondary sources: 

• Sabine Haenni: “To Show the People in Paris How We Live Here- Working-Class Representation, Paul Carpita, and Film History” 

• Rosemarie Scullion: “On the Waterfront Class Action and Anti-Colonial Engagements in Paul Carpita’s Le Rendez-vous de quais” 

• Daniel Winkler: “A Mediterranean Gap in the National Canon? Paul Carpita’s Anti-Colonial Cinema Between Militant Amateurism and New Wave”

Optional: 

• Ara H. Merjian and Rhiannon Noel Welch: “It’s a Neorealist World.” Art in America 

• Mia Yinxing Liu: “Springtime in a Chinese ruin: Fei Mu’s Spring in a Small Town (1948)” 

  

MARCH 3: SESSION 5: Hollywood’s Others 

Discussion: New York Independent Cinema, B-movies, censorship. 

Films:  

Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959) (excerpts) 

Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963) (excerpts) 

The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964) 

Readings and resources:  

Primary sources: 

• Samuel Fuller: A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking (excerpts) 

• Gerald Peary (ed.): Samuel Fuller Interviews (excerpts) 

Secondary sources: 

• Samuel Fuller, the Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera (Adam Simon, 1996) 

• Roberto Polito: “The Naked Kiss: Fractured Fairy Tales” 

• Michael Dare: “The Naked Kiss” 

• Lisa Dombrowski: The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I’ll Kill You! (excerpts) 

Optional: 

• Lisa Gotto: “Shadows (John Cassavetes, USA 1959)” 

 

MARCH 10: SESSION 6: Nouvelle Vague 

Discussion:  Newness, playfulness, experimentation, commitment.

Films:  

Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle, 1958) (excerpts) 

Le petit soldat (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964) (excerpts)  

Black Panthers (Agnès Varda) 

Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962) 

Readings:  

Secondary sources: 

• David A. Cook: History of Narrative Film: “Nouvelle Vague” 

• Kelley Conway: “Cultivating the New Wave Spectator: Cleo from 5 to 7.” In Agnès Varda 

• Hairong (Eva) Wan: “The Feminist Awakening in the French New Wave: Cleo from 5 to 7 

Optional: 

• Richard Neupert: “Jean-Luc Godard: Le Petit Soldat.”In A History of the French New Wave Cinema 

• Geneviève Sellier: “Masculinity and Politics in the Nouvelle Vague” 

• Hilary Neroni: “Feminism and Cleo from 5 to 7” 

In class: 

• Alexander Astruc: “The Birth of a New Avant-garde: La Camera-Stylo” 

 

MARCH 17: SESSION 7: New Cinemas 1 

Choose from: New Hollywood, L.A. Rebellion, New York Independent Cinema, New Australian Cinema, Free Cinema and New Cinema (U.K.), Japan (Nūberu Bāgu), Neue Kino (Germany), Brazil (Cinema Novo), U.S.S.R., Spain, Italy, Poland, Cuba, Argentina, Iran, India, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Taiwan. 

 

MARCH 24: SESSION 8: New Cinemas 2 

Choose from: New Hollywood, L.A. Rebellion, New York Independent Cinema, New Australian Cinema, Free Cinema and New Cinema (U.K.), Japan (Nūberu Bāgu), Neue Kino (Germany), Brazil (Cinema Novo), U.S.S.R., Spain, Italy, Poland, Cuba, Argentina, Iran, India, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Taiwan. 

 

MARCH 31: SESSION 9: Cinema for Decolonization 

Discussion: Postcolonial cinema, African cinema 

Films: 

Borom Sarret (Ousmane Sembene, 1963) (excerpts) 

The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) (excerpts) 

Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene, 1966) (excerpts) 

Oh Sun (Med Hondo, 1967) 

Readings: 

Primary sources: 

• Med Hondo: “What is Cinema for Us” 

• Med Hondo: Soleil Ô, Interview by Jean Delmas (1970) 

• Interview with Med Hondo, by Michel Ciment and Paul-Louis Thirard 

Writings Med Hondo 

Secondary sources: 

• Patrick Williams: Soleil O (Med Hondo, 1969): ‘They cannot represent themselves…’ In Lizelle Bisschoff and David Murphy (ed.): Africa’s Lost Classics: New Histories of African Cinema 

• Madeleine Cottenete-Hage: “Decolonizing Images: Soleil O and the Cinema of Med Hondo” 

• David Murphy and Patrick Williams: “Med Hondo.” In Postcolonial African cinema: Ten Directors. 

Optional: 

• Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike: “Med Hondo and Ousmane Sembene: The Schism between Theory and Practice.” In Black African Cinema 

 

APRIL 14: SESSION 10: New York Avant Garde (11:40 am to 1:40 pm)

Class visit to Anthology Film Archives 

32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

https://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/about/about 

Films:

Early Abtractions (compiled 1965) by Harry Smith, 16mm-to-35mm, sound
Bridges Go Round (1958) by Shirley Clarke, 16mm, sound
All my Life (1966) by Bruce Baillie, 16mm, sound
Videotape Study No. 3 (1967-69) by Nam June Paik and Jud Yalkut, 16mm, sound

Reading:

Kristen Alfaro: “ACCESS AND THE EXPERIMENTAL FILM: New Technologies and Anthology Film Archives’ Institutionalization of the Avant-Garde”

 

APRIL 28: SESSION 11: The Flashy 80s? 

Discussion: What are the 80s about? 

Films: 

The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985) (excerpts) 

Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987) (excerpts) 

Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, 1987) 

Readings and resources: 

Secondary sources: 

• Yannis Tzioumakis: “Introduction.” In Yannis Tzioumakis and Siân Lincoln (eds.): The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture 

• Cynthia Baron and Mark Bernard: “Dirty Dancing as Reagan-era Cinema and ‘Reaganite Entertainment.’” In Yannis Tzioumakis and Siân Lincoln (eds.): The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture 

• Stephen Lee Naish: Deconstructing Dirty Dancing (excerpts) 

• BBC Podcast: Dirty Dancing: The real-life ‘Baby’ Hollywood pushed aside 

• Netflix Documentary 

 

MAY 5: SESSION 12: The End of History 

Discussion: Post-Soviet cinema, transnational cinema, Dogma 95 

Films: 

The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998) (excerpts) 

Goodbye Lenin (Wolfgang Becker, 2003) (excerpts) 

Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)  

Readings: 

Primary sources: 

• “Glowing in the Dark.” Interview with Tony Rains 

• Dogma 95 Manifesto: “The Vow of Chastity” 

Secondary sources: 

• Nick James: “Blue: Bare Necessities” 

• Adam Kirsch: “Unbearable Freedoms – three Decades of the ‘Three Colors’ Trilogy” 

• David Ehrlich: “‘Three Colors’ Revisited: Why a 30-Year-Old Trilogy Is This Summer’s Most Relevant Cinematic Universe” 

• David Polansky: “Three Colors and the Fracturing of Europe” 

 

MAY 12: SESSION 13: Millennial Cinema 

Discussion: Women filmmakers, identity politics

Films:

The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008) 

Readings:

Primary sources:  

• Interview at NYFF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WlgNTKDg5c 

• Interview with Chris Wisniewski 

• Interview with Amy Taubin 

Secondary sources: 

• Maria M. Delgado: “La mujer sin cabeza/The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008) Silence, Historical Memory and Metaphor” 

• Deborah Martin: “La mujer sin cabeza: Haunting and Community” 

 

MAY 19: SESSION 14: From Margins to Center 

Discussion: Class in the 21st Century, Korean cinema. 

Films: 

Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, 2019) 

Readings and resources: 

Primary sources:  

• Bong Joon Ho: Parasite: A Graphic Novel in Storyboards

• Interview with Li-Wei Chu 

• Interview with Nick Chen 

Secondary sources: 

• Minjung Noh: “Parasite as Parable: Bong Joon-Ho’s Cinematic Capitalism” 

• Charles K. Armstrong: “Parasite and the Global Arrival of Korean Cinema. Notes from the Underground” 

• Kelly Y. Jeong: “Gender and Class in Parasite“