Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Apply key theories and concepts of film studies to their analysis of individual films.
2. Conduct close textual analysis of the key films.
3. Critically analyse the conventions and cultural significance of key genre categories.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of social issues that inform the production and reception context of the key films.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of some of the key moments and debates in Italian cinema history.
6. Plan and write up a critical commentary on a select scene from one of the key films.
7. Apply a comparative approach to the analysis of two or more films in the final essay
8. Use a range of theoretical and critical sources to ground their argument in the final essay.

Indicative Module Content:

Topics covered in this module include:
-Introduction to Italian film studies and genre theory
-Genre as an analytic tool for exploring social change
-Neorealism
-Post-war cinema and the melodrama
-Commedia all’italiana
-Thriller and film noir
-Thriller and the mafia film

Student Effort Type	Hours
Lectures	12
Tutorial	12
Specified Learning Activities	43
Autonomous Student Learning	43
Total	110

Learning Requirements:

An interest in Italian cinema, culture and society.

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy  

Description	Timing		Component Scale		% of Final Grade
Presentation: Group presentation based on a set question.	Week 8	n/a	Graded	No	40
Essay: 2000-2300 word final essay. Students can choose from a range of titles.	Week 12	n/a	Graded	No	60

 

Resit In	Terminal Exam
Summer	No

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

For the group presentation: written feedback will be provided to each group. For the final essay: written feedback will be provided to each Individual student. The weekly seminars will consist of discussion based activities during which there will be regular opportunities for peer feedback

Reading List
Key Films
Roma città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)
Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti, 1960)
Il sorpasso (Dino Risi, 1963)
Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1952)
Respiro (Emanuele Crialese, 2002)
Angela (Roberta Torre, 2004)
Le conseguenze dell’amore (Paolo Sorrentino, 2007)

Select Secondary Readings
On Genre
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, ‘Film Genres’ in their Film Art: an Introduction (McGraw Hill, 2004), pp. 108-27.
Rick Altman, ‘What is Generally Understood by the Notion of Film Genre?’, in his Film/Genre (BFI, 1999), pp. 13-29.
John Storey, 'What is Popular Culture?’, in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (Pearson, 2006), pp. 1-12.
Christine Gledhill, ‘Rethinking Genre’, in Reinventing Film Studies, ed. Gledhill and Williams (Arnold, 2000), pp. 221-43.
Maggie Günsberg, ‘Introduction’ to Italian Cinema: Gender and Genre (Palgrave, 2005), pp. 1-18
Steve Neale, ‘Questions of Genre’, in Screen, 31:1 (1990), 45-66
Peter Hutchings, ‘Genre Theory and Criticism’, in Approaches to Popular Film, ed. by Joanne Hollows and Mark Jancovich (Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 59-78.
Mary Wood, ‘Popular Cinema and Box-Office Hits’, in her Italian Cinema (Berg, 2005), pp. 35-62.

On cultural studies:
Andy Willis, ‘Cultural Studies and Popular Film’, in Approaches to Popular Film, ed. by Joanne Hollows and Mark Jancovich (Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 173-91.

On Stars
Paul McDonald, ‘Star Studies’, in Approaches to Popular Film, ed. by Joanne Hollows and Mark Jancovich (Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 79-97.
Christine Geraghty, ‘Re-examining stardom: questions of texts, bodies and performance’, in Reinventing Film Studies, ed. Gledhill and Williams (Arnold, 2000), pp. 183-202.
Marcia Landy, Stardom Italian Style (Indiana University Press, 2008)
Stephen Gundle, ‘Stars and Stardom in the Study of Italian Cinema’, in Italian Studies 63:2 (2008), 261-66-

On Comedy
Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik, Popular Film and Television Comedy (Routledge, 1990); see particularly chapter 1 ‘Definitions and Forms’, chapter 3 ‘Gags, jokes, wisecracks and comic events’, chapter 4 ‘Laughter, humour and the comic’, and chapter 5 ‘Verisimilitude’.

Kristine Karnick and Henry Jenkins (eds), introduction to Classical Hollywood Comedy (Routledge, 1995), pp. 1-13.

Geoff King, Film Comedy (Wallflower, 2002), introduction, ‘Taking Comedy Seriously’, pp. 1-18

Name	Role
Assoc Professor Paolo Acquaviva	Lecturer / Co-Lecturer