LCST2041

This course studies world cinema, initially understood as films of world-importance, not produced in and for Hollywood. Beginning with the pioneering work of French filmmakers, and highlighting German Expressionism of the early 1920s, as well as Russian montage cinema of the late 1920s, the focus shifts to Latin America (Mexico and Argentina) as well as China and Japan in the 1930s and 1940s. After WW II, the course will consider the different 'new waves' in Western Europe (Italian Neo-Realism, the French Nouvelle Vague, New German Cinema) and Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary). From the 1970s onwards, a politicized, anti- and post-colonial cinema emerges in parts of Latin America (Cuba, Argentina, Brazil) and Sub-Sahara Africa (Mali, Senegal, Ethiopia, Burkina Fasso), which also reflects the increasing importance of international film festivals for world cinema. The 1980s witness a strong presence of Asian films (from Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong), while the 1990s reflect the vitality of filmmaking in Mainland China, in Iran, as well as world-class directors in Spain and Mexico. With the arrival of digital media and the spread of globalized culture since the late 1990s, cinema everywhere has undergone such dramatic changes that the course will conclude with new definitions of what is meant by 'world cinema' today. Readings in film history and international film culture will be complemented by critical analysis of individual films. [Counts for Track S]