French 335:
Fall 2010
Instructor: McRae Amoss Office Hours: M 2:00-2:50
Office: Grainger 302 W 11:00-11:50
Telephone: 395-2177 R 10:50-11:30
F 9:00-9:50
and by appointment
E-mail:
Course Description:
An introduction to cinema in French focusing on one of any number of particular topics within the broader subject. Topics may include: the history of French cinema, great directors, films treating a specific subject matter (love, war, family), films and literature, films and history, a particular director (Renoir, Truffaut, Godard) or group of directors (“le réalisme poétique” or “la Nouvelle Vague”), Francophone cinema, or films from a particular period. Students will learn the vocabulary required for describing and analyzing films in French. Prerequisite: FREN 202 or equivalent. 3 credits.
Text:
http://libguides.longwood.edu/film
http://www.citecinema.com/Cin%C3%A9matographie/Lexique/Lexique-Cinema.htm
http://thierry.coppis.free.fr/LEXIQUE.htm
Course Objectives:
Students will demonstrate the ability to:
1. Understand and respond in speech and in writing to a series of selected films in French.
2. Discuss films in French employing the proper technical vocabulary.
3. Summarize films and analyze them with respect to their themes, structure, and style.
4. Identify important French directors and characterize their oeuvre.
5. Relate individual films to the historical period in which they were produced and to the society they reflect.
6. Find related information using resources available in the Library and through the internet.
7. Report their analyses and information through e-mail, oral exposés, answers on written examinations, one-page critiques and a formal paper.
Course requirements:
Students will view films during the Monday evening class session beginning at 6:30 in Grainger 201.
At the beginning of the first class at which a film is to be discussed, students will turn in a one-page appreciation or critique of the film, reporting their reactions to its themes, structure, or techniques (not a summary of the plot) and ending with a series of questions (at least two) for further discussion. Since these appreciations will form the basis for part of the class discussion of each film, late submissions will not be accepted.
Students will participate in class discussions and will present exposés on the scheduled topics (students will submit a typed, detailed outline of each exposé on the day of its presentation to the class).
A mid-term and a final examination will give students the opportunity to demonstrate their comprehension of technical terms, their knowledge of the individual films studied, including the social and historical contexts, and their ability to produce a critical argument in response to a given question or topic.
Students will write a critical essay of 5-6 pages on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. Possible topics include the analysis of a particular theme in one or more films, the importance of a particular setting, character, or motif, a comparison of two or more films from a particular point of view. Students must discuss their first draft of the essay with the instructor.
Distribution of the final grade (grading is on a 10-point scale):
Presence and participation (including exposés) 20%
One-page critiques 20%
Mid-term examination 20%
Final examination 20%
Critical essay 20%
Participation and Attendance:
Since participation in class, besides being an important means of improving students’ ability to understand and speak French, is also a part of the final grade, class attendance is obligatory. The attendance policy is the one stated in the catalogue, to wit:
Students
are expected to attend all classes. Failure to attend class regularly impairs
academic performance. Absences are disruptive to the educational process for
others. This is especially true when absences cause interruptions for
clarification of material previously covered, failure to assume assigned
responsibilities for class presentations, or failure to adjust to changes in
assigned material or due dates.
It
is the responsibility of each instructor to give students a copy of his or her
attendance policy in the course syllabus.
Instructors
may assign a grade of “0” or “F” on work missed because of unexcused absences.
Instructors have the right to lower a student’s course grade, but no more than
one letter grade, if the student misses 10 percent of the scheduled class
meeting times for unexcused absences.
Instructors
have the right to assign a course grade of “F” when the student has missed a
total (excused and unexcused) of 25 percent of the scheduled class meeting
times.
Students must assume full responsibility for any loss incurred because of absence, whether excused or unexcused. Instructors should permit students to make up work when the absence is excused. Excused absences are those resulting from the student’s participation in a college-sponsored activity, from recognizable emergencies, or from serious illness. Faculty may require documentation for excused absences in their attendance policy. Student Health Services can provide documentation only for students hospitalized locally or absent at the direction of Student Health Services personnel.
Progamme du
cours (sous réserve de modification):
24 août
Introduction: le langage du cinema
film: René Clair, Entracte (1924)
26 août
film: Luis
Buñuel, Un chien andalou (1929)
exposé: Luis Buñuel
le
surréalisme en art
31 aoôt
film: Jean
Renoir, La règle du jeu (1939)
exposé: Jean Renoir
le
« réalisme poétique » dans le cinéma français
2 septembre
exposé: tradition et
modernité: le théâtre classique de Marivaux, Beaumarchais et Musset
agitation
sociale et la lutte des classes aux années 30
7 septembre
film: Marcel
Carné, Les enfants du paradis (1945)
exposé: Marcel Carné
Frédérick
Lemaître
le
théâtre romantique
9 septembre
exposé: l’occupation
de la France (1940-44)
l’histoire
de la pantomime
14 septembre
film: René
Clément, Jeux interdits (1952)
exposé: René Clément
la
France en 1939 et 1940
16 septembre
exposé: comment les
enfants comprennent la mort
le
rôle du jeu dans la vie d’enfant
21 septembre
film: François
Truffaut, Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959)
exposé: André Bazin
les Cahiers
du cinéma
23 septembre
exposé: François
Truffaut
les
principes de la « nouvelle vague »
28 septembre
film: Jean-Luc
Godard, A bout de souffle (1960)
exposé: conformisme
et révolte aux années 1950
30 septembre
exposé: la carrière de Jean-Luc Godard : films et politique
5 octobre
film: Alain
Resnais, Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
exposé: Alain
Resnais
Marguerite
Duras
l’emploi
de la bombe atomique au Japon à la fin de la 2eme guerre mondiale et ses effets
7 octobre
exposé résistance et collaboration en France pendant la 2e
guerre mondiale
14 octobre
Examen partiel
19 octobre
film: Agnès
Varda, Sans toit ni loi (1985)
exposé: Agnès Varda
le
problème du chômage et la vie des jeunes dans la société française
le
mythe de Vénus/Aphrodite
Sandrine
Bonnaire
21 octobre
à faire: consulter
le professeur pour identifier le sujet et les sources de votre mémoire
26 octobre
film : Jean-Jacques
Beineix, Diva (1980)
exposé : Jean-Jacques
Beineix
28 octobre
exposé : le « cinéma du
look » : Jean-Jacques Beineix, Luc Besson, Léos Carax
2 novembre
film: Régis
Wargnier, Indochine (1992)
lecture: Michèle
Bacholle, “Camille et Mùi ou du Vietnam dans Indochine et L'Odeur de la papaye verte,” French Review:
Journal of the American Association of Teachers of French, 74:5 (2001 Apr):
946-57
exposé: l’histoire
de l’Indochine
le colonialisme
et la décolonisation
4 novembre
exposé: le nationalisme et le communisme en Indochine
Catherine Deneuve
9
novembre
film: Michael Haneke, Code inconnu
(2000)
lecture: Robin Wood, “In Search of the Code Inconnu,” CineAction 62 (2003): 41-49 (available online through InfoTrac OneFile)
exposé: Michael
Haneke
la
France et les immigrants d’aujourd’hui
11 novembre
exposé: Juliette
Binoche
à faire : remettre le plan du mémoire
16 novembre
film : Jean-Pierre
Jeunet, Un long dimanche de fiançailles
(2004)
exposé : Jean-Pierre
Jeunet
la
guerre de 1914-18 dans l’imaginaire français
Audrey
Tautou
Gaspard
Ulliel
18 novembre
à faire : consultation
sur le brouillon du mémoire
23 novembre
film : Yann Samuell, Jeux d’enfants (2004)
exposé : Yann Samuell
Marion Cotillard
la
fantaisie comme genre littéraire et cinématographique
30 novembre
film : Cédric Klapisch, Paris (2009)
exposé : Cédric Klapisch
Romain Duris
2 décembre
Révision
à faire: remettre
le mémoire
Examen final: le
jeudi 9 décembre, 11h30 – 14h00.
Honor Code:
Students are expected to live by the Longwood College Honor Code. All work done for the class must be pledged.
Bibliography (on reserve in Greenwood Library):
Altman, Carol S. Enfance…inspiration littéraire et
cinématographique.
Austin,
Guy. Contemporary
French Cinema : An Introduction.
2nd edition.
Lanzoni, Rémi Fournier.
French Cinema : From Its
Beginnings to the Present. New York and London: Continuum, 2002.