VES 70: The Art of Film

Harvard College/GSAS: 4249

Lecture: Tu/Th 10-11am, Carpenter Center B-04
Screening: Tu 7-10pm, Carpenter Center Main Auditorium (B-03)
Weekly discussion sections: TBD
Attendance at screenings is mandatory. Please see below for details on attendance policies.
Instructor:
Adam Hart,
adamhart@fas.harvard.edu
Office Hours: Thurs 11-1pm, and by
appointment, in CC204-a

Teaching Fellows:
Kate Rennebohm,
krennebohm@fas.harvard.edu
Stephanie Lam,
stephanielam@fas.harvard.edu
Office Hours TBA

Course Description
What is cinema, and what does it do? How do we respond to moving images, and do we respond
to certain kinds of images differently than others? How have filmmakers pushed at the boundaries
of the medium to expand the language and experience of cinema? And what are the stakes of
those expansions?
This course attempts to tackle the big questions about film (and video, and installations, and the
moving image more broadly). These are, indeed, very big questions, and each weeks topic could
easily encompass an entire semester-long course on its own while still only scratching the
surface. Through our screenings, readings, lectures, and discussions, we will provide an
introduction to these topics, and provide you with the vocabulary and critical tools necessary to
understand and analyze a wide range of films.
The focus in this class is on films themselves specifically on their style and structure. As
such, we will be watching a lot of movies. Many of these works may challenge your

preconceptions of what a film is or what a film should be/do. But this class aims to expand your
cinematic palette, and will teach you to understand the continuities between, say, a traditional
narrative like Kung Fu Hustle and non-linear or elliptical narratives like Mulholland Drive as well
as more abstract, non-narrative even non-figurative types of film.
One of the primary goals of this course, and of film studies more generally, is to understand how
audio-visual form constructs meaning. This, of course, includes looking at the conventions of
narrative filmmaking, and how style creates and characterizes story and characters, but it also
includes explorations of form that do not rely on traditional narrative architecture. The screenings
for this course encompass an extremely wide variety of styles, modes, and traditions. High quality
analysis is not dependent on approval (i.e. you dont have to like a film to write a good analysis),
but properly appreciating and analyzing the films in this class absolutely requires an open
mind.
This course will provide you with an (idiosyncratic) introduction to the film canon,
including long-celebrated classics, recent masterpieces, and innovative avant-garde works.
Class time is limited, so we will not be able to exhaust the films were watching, and there are
some that will only get brief mention in class or in section. Once again, this is partially due to
limited class time, but partially by design; you will, in this course, be exposed to a rough
approximation of the widest variety of films we can fit into a semesters worth of screenings.
Goals for the class
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This class will provide you with an introduction to formal analysis of films. This begins
with simple description of formal elements, but quickly moves to discussion of how films
create meaning, and how form interacts with content (story, character, themes,
structure, etc).
You will learn the relevant terminology to describe a films form and style, and will get a
brief introduction to the ways in which the significance of the elements this vocabulary
describes have evolved over time and in different national contexts.
You will watch a number of films that challenge notions of what films can be/do, and
will learn to understand the significance/stakes of those challenges.
You will work with your TF to learn how to construct arguments based in cinematic
analysis for your writing assignments.

Assignments
There will be three writing assignments. More information on each will be provided in advance
of each due date. The first assignment will be a shot-by-shot breakdown of a short film sequence,
the second a fleshed-out sequence analysis (i.e. an interpretive argument focusing on a short
sequence), and the final, longer, paper a more traditional essay in which you will construct an
argument about one films style and structure based in close formal analysis.
You will additionally, be asked to write weekly blog postings to the class website in preparation
for your discussion sections. Topics will be announced in class or over email with plenty of
notice. These are required. Each should be 1-2 paragraphs (<400 words), and, although it
doesnt need to be polished, each should demonstrate a substantial amount of thought put into the
questions raised by the topic and by the materials for the week. Please see grading policy below
for details on the overall effect these will have on your grade. We understand that with a recurring
weekly assignment such as this, there will be some weeks when writing a blog post will not be
possible. For this reason, you will be allowed to miss one posting. However, if you miss more
than that (including posting late these are intended to prepare both you and your TF for

discussion section, and are therefore time sensitive), then your overall grade for the course will
suffer. This goes beyond the participation grade multiple missed postings will put you at risk of
failing the class. Details regarding weekly deadlines will be decided by your TF.
Grading
First Assignment: 15%
Second Assignment: 25%
Final Paper: 35%
Participation (including blog posts): 25%
Although this is a lecture course, participation is key. This means, at the most basic level, being
present. Attendance is mandatory for all course meetings, discussion sections, and
screenings. You are allowed three unexcused absences total (again, this includes screenings,
where we will be taking attendance). Unexcused absences beyond that will cause your grade to
suffer. After four or more absences, excused or otherwise, you are missing too great a
percentage of the course and risk being given a failing grade for the course as a whole. You
are, further, required to show up on time for classes and screenings, which start promptly at 10:06
am and 7:06pm, respectively. To reiterate, we do take attendance and not showing up will
adversely affect your grade. And students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss both
the films and the readings assigned for that day. (More on the readings below.)
You will, additionally, be asked to participate in discussions in section as well as, occasionally,
during the lecture. We do everything we can to make our classes safe, supportive learning
environments in which everyone can feel comfortable speaking, but do understand that some
students are more reluctant to speak in public than others. The weekly blog posts will allow those
students who miss a class meeting or who do not speak in class an opportunity to demonstrate
their command of the material and to contribute thoughtful, insightful observations to the class.
Laptop Policy
Laptops and cellphones are not permitted in class. Notes will be taken by hand. Readings
should be printed out and brought to class. If there is a legitimate reason for you to use a laptop,
talk to your TFs or me at the beginning of the semester and we are happy to accommodate you. In
general, we need students to be engaged, fully attentive, and ready to participate at all times.
Academic Integrity
Any submitted assignments or blog posts must be your own original work. Any writing or ideas
that originate elsewhere (in print or otherwise) must be properly cited. Please consult the Harvard
Guide to Using Sources for an overview of the universitys policies for engaging with other
peoples ideas in your writing: http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu. If a student is caught
plagiarizing, he or she will automatically be given a zero for the assignment and risks
further disciplinary action, including being given a failing grade for the course.
Reading Material:
All readings will be posted on the course website under Materials for the relevant week. In
addition to PDF scans of the required readings, you can also find select clips and videos, images,
and suggestions for further readings. On the syllabus below, I have listed readings by week rather
than by individual class meetings. We will expect you to have completed all readings before
you write each weeks blog post, and will otherwise specify (in class or over email) which
readings will need to be completed by each meeting. I reserve the right to change the readings
at any time, although you will be given plenty of advanced notice. If you have any difficulties
accessing any of these files, please contact your TF immediately.

The readings come from a variety of sources, but the two most frequently utilized texts are David
Bordwell and Kristin Thompsons Film Art: An Introduction (marked in the readings as simply
Film Art and Andr Bazins What Is Cinema? Film Art is recommended as an introduction to a
wide variety of methods and issues in film studies. The readings we will be using for this course
will come from the most recent (10th Edition), but the only significant differences among the
assigned readings from the 9th edition come in the brief chapter (~12 pages) on animation. What
Is Cinema? is a classic of film studies and film criticism and cannot be recommended highly
enough, but it is, frustratingly, only available in the US in a flawed translation. All of the essays
we will read in class come from the recent translation by Timothy Barnard for Caboose Books.
Not assigned, but recommended, is Timothy Corrigans invaluable A Short Guide to Writing
About Film, an informative, highly readable, and, importantly, brief text that focuses on
demonstrating (specifically for college students taking one of their first film courses) how to
analyze and write essays on films.
Screenings/Videos:
Attendance at screenings is mandatory. You will not only find it to be a much more rewarding,
worthwhile experience to watch these films on a big screen, but it will make analyzing them and
writing about them come more easily and naturally. You notice things in a giant, pristine image
that you dont even on high definition televisions, let alone on a laptop. You might be able to find
versions of In the Mood for Love or 2001: A Space Odyssey online, but to do so would be to miss
their appeal entirely. (This goes double for non-narrative or abstract films that are entirely
dependent on the experience of the image.) Additionally, several of the films shown for class are
not available in any form on video and can only be seen by attending the screening.
Nearly all of the films on the syllabus can be obtained through the Film Studies Library on the 4th
floor of Sever. Some can also be found through Harvards libraries, or from Netflixs dvd/blu ray
service. A few are available through subscription streaming services. Youtube is a last resort, as
the quality of the image and the provenance of the video are uncertain. When possible, we will
post videos of the shorter films to the website, but students cannot assume that this will be
possible for every film. (These are posted primarily to enable re-watching films.) For some of the
longer films we will attempt to post versions of the files to dropbox to facilitate re-watching and
closer analysis, but, again, this cannot be assumed.
Accommodations for students with disabilities:
Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability
must present their Faculty Letter from the Accessible Education Office (http://
aeo.fas.harvard.edu) and speak with us by the end of the second week of the term. Failure to do so
may result in our inability to respond in a timely manner. All discussions will remain
confidential, although we may contact AEO to discuss appropriate implementation. We are happy
to make any and all necessary accommodations and allowances, so please contact us as soon as
you are able.

Course Schedule
1. Jan 27-29: Aesthetics and Representations: What Are We Seeing When We Watch a Film?
In-Class/Online: Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, US, 1963, 4m), Empire (excerpt) (Andy Warhol,
US, 1964, 485m), A Man and His Dog Out for Air (Robert Breer, US, 1958, 2m), Atlantiques
(Mati Diop, France/Senegal, 2009, 15m)
Screening: Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki Hayao, Japan, 1997, 135m)
Readings: Yale Film Analysis Website: Basic Terms (http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/),Stan
Brakhage, from Metaphors on Vision; Charles Burnett, Film as a Force for Social Change,
Manthia Diawara, Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance (excerpt),
Diane Waldman, Theres More to a Positive Image Than Meets the Eye (suggested)*
- Questions for the week: What is cinema? More specifically, what is a cinematic image?
How do we relate/respond to films? What are the stakes of cinematic representation?
How do we understand images outside of representation (or even figuration)? Why, and
how, do images matter?
2. Feb 3-5: The World Viewed: Cinematography
Screening: Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1958, 129m), Study in Choreography for Camera
(Maya Deren, US, 1945, 4m), Go! Go! Go! (Marie Menken, US, 1962, 12m), Eye Music in Red
Major (Marie Menken, US, 1961, 6m)
Readings: Lisa Dombrowksi, Postwar Hollywood: 1947-1967 from Cinematography (ed.
Patrick Keating), Andr Bazin, Ontology of the Photographic Image, Yale Film Analysis
website: Cinematography (http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/), Christopher Lucas, The
Modern Entertainment Marketplace, 2000-present from Cinematography (ed. Patrick Keating)
(suggested assigned for Week 13)*, Tom Gunning, Whats the Point of an Index, or, Faking
Photographs (suggested assigned for Week 13)*
- Questions for week: How are cinematic/photographic images created, and what how does
the way in which they are filmed affect the meaning of images? How have the usages of
cameras, lenses, and other image-making technologies changed over time? What
assumptions (and what constructions) are inherent in the sort of invisible or classical
styles of photography that dont call attention to themselves? What other models of
camera usage have filmmakers employed?
3. Feb 10-12: Assemblage, Montage, Collage: Editing

Screening: In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, 2000, 98m), At Land (Maya
Deren, US, 1944, 15m), Passage lacte (Martin Arnold, Austria, 1993, 12m)
Readings: Film Art: The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing (excerpts: 218-235), Andr Bazin,
The Evolution of Film Language, Bazin, Editing Prohibited (aka The Virtues and
Limitations of Montage), Yale Film Analysis website: Editing (http://classes.yale.edu/filmanalysis/) (suggested)*, Sergei M. Eisenstein, The Dramaturgy of Film Form (suggested)*
- Questions for the week: What are the possible systems through which sequences of
moving images assembled, and how do those methods of assembly create meaning? How
are space and time constructed through editing? In what ways do non-classical systems
of editing work differently from more familiar styles associated with mainstream
narrative filmmaking? What role can editing play in constructing a narrative?
Friday, Feb 13: Paper 1 due to your TF by 5pm
4. Feb 17-19: Making Images Move: Animation
Filmmaker Jodie Mack will be in class on Feb 17, following a screening of a selection of
Macks films at the Harvard Film Archive at 7pm on Monday, Feb 16. A small selection of her
films will be posted online and short films and clips will be shown in class.
Screening/Online: A Man and His Dog Out for Air (Robert Breer, US, 1957, 2m), Eyewash
(Breer, US, 1959, 3m), Fuji (Breer, US, 1974, 9m), Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons
(Breer, US, 1980, 7m), Early Abstractions (Harry Smith, US, 1946-57, 23m), Dante Quartet
(Stan Brakhage, US, 1986, 6m), Black Ice (Brakhage, US, 1994, 2m), Mouseholes (Helen Hill,
US, 1999, 10m), Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer, Czechoslovakia, 1982, 14m),
Jumping (Osamu Tezuka, Japan, 1984, 7m), Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, US, 1953, 7m), Allures
(Jordan Belson, US, 1961, 8m), Permutations (John Whitney, US, 1966, 8m)
Readings: Kristin Thompson, Implications of Cel Animation, Film Art: The Animated Film
(386-398), Esther Leslie, Animation and History, Lev Manovich, from The Language of New
Media (298-307) (suggested)*
- Questions for the week: What do we mean when we call a work an animated film?
What can an animated image do that a photographic image cannot, and how do
filmmakers exploit those possibilities? Is a film made of conventionally photographic
images merely one type/genre of animated image (perhaps even a more limited one), or
are there fundamental differences between the two modes? Do we respond to nonphotographic images differently than we do photographic ones, even if drawn (or
computer-generated) images are naturalistic or closely resemble photographic images?
Some of these films emphasize discontinuity between frames/images; what are the effects
of such discontinuous motion (and is motion the correct term here)?
5. Feb 24-26: Staging: Mise-en-scene and Pro-Filmic Composition
Screening: Playtime (Jacques Tati, France, 1967, 155m), Premonitions Following an Evil Deed
(David Lynch, US/France, 1995, 1m) (online)
Readings: David Bordwell, Staging and Style (excerpt: 1-40) from Figures Traced in Light:
On Cinematic Staging, Yale Film Analysis website: Mise-en-Scne (http://classes.yale.edu/filmanalysis/), Andr Bazin, The Evolution of Film Language (revisited)*, Bazin, William Wyler,
or, the Jansenist of Directing (suggested)*
- Questions for the week: How do filmmakers utilize the possibilities of composition and
movement within the frame? How do they draw the viewers attention through
arrangement of figures and dcor? How do filmmakers engage staging through editing
and cinematography? What are the effects of an emphasis on staging (rather than editing)
to construct a scene?

6. March 3-5: Audio-Vision: Film Sound and Films Sonic Possibilities

Screening: Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, US, 2001, 147m), Hacked Circuit (Deborah Stratman,
US, 2014, 14m), T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (Paul Sharits, US, 1968, 12m)
Readings: Yale Film Analysis website: Sound (http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/), John
Belton, Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound, Michel Chion, Projections of Sound on
Image from Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen (3-24)
- Questions for the week: What are the expressive possibilities of the audio track? How do
sound and image relate to and affect one another? How have filmmakers exploited the
artistic possibilities for non-synchronous (or, rather, unconventionally synchronized)
sound-image relations? How have conventional sound-image relations been constructed
and how have they evolved over time?
7. March 10-12: Leaving the Movie Theater: Expanded Cinema
Screening: Carpenter Center Galleries (videos by Ulla von Brandenburg, Martha Rosler, Gerard
Byrne, and Elizabeth Price selections TBD) & Line Describing a Cone (Anthony McCall, UK,
1971, 30m) (screening time/location TBD)
Readings: Erika Balsom, Architectures of Exhibition (excerpt) from Exhibiting Cinema in
Contemporary Art, Maeve Connolly, Between Space, Site, and Screen from The Place of
Artists Cinema: Space, Site, and Screen (18-35)
- Questions for the week: How are moving images experienced differently in a gallery (or
elsewhere) than they are in a movie theater? How do artists address this different mode of
engagement/spectatorship? How does that engagement change when a video is projected
against an open wall vs inside an enclosed space, and how does a viewing experience
inside that enclosed space differ from that of a cinema?
Friday March 13: Paper 2 due to your TF by 5pm
8. March 24-26: Systems of Meaning: Spectatorship & Ideology
Screening: Daisies (Vera Chytilova, Czechoslovakia, 1966, 79m), Mutiny (Abigail Child, US,
1983, 10m), Water Sark (Joyce Wieland, Canada, 1965, 14m)
Readings: Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, bell hooks, The
Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators, Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, How Films Mean, or,
From Aesthetics to Semiotics and Half-Way Back Again Diane Waldman, Theres More to a
Positive Image than Meets the Eye (suggested)*
- Questions for the week: What ideological assumptions are inherent in conventional styles
and constructions? Who precisely is the viewer who is being addressed? How is
perspective constructed in narrative film, and what role does identification play in
cinematic spectatorship? What relationships do ones gender, race, and socioeconomic,
cultural, and national backgrounds have with the way one responds to a film, and,
crucially, what assumptions do filmmakers (Hollywood primarily, but narrative cinema in
general) make about the viewers background? How do those assumptions manifest in
stylistic and organizational choices? How have filmmakers pushed back against those
structural assumptions and constructed alternative modes of filmmaking and
spectatorship?
9. March 31 April 2: Structure 1: Narrative Organization
Screening: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US, 1941, 119m), La Noire de (Ousmane Sembene,
Senegal/France, 1969, 60m)
Readings: Film Art, Narrative Form (72-110), Marsha Landy, Politics and Style in Black
Girl, Andr Bazin, The Technique of Citizen Kane (suggested)*

Questions for the week: What is narrative, and what is its relation to narration? How
is a narrative/narrator position constructed visually? What are the relations between
voice-over or a narrator and narration more broadly construed? How are stories structured
(and what is a story)? What are the limits of narrative? What precisely is being
structured by a story?

10. April 7-9: Structure 2: Non-narrative organizations

Screening: Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929, 80m), (nostalgia) (Hollis
Frampton, 1971, 36m), Arnulf Rainer (Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1960, 7m)
Readings: Film Art: Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom) (429-432), Dziga
Vertov, WE Variants of a Manifesto, Vertov Man with a Movie Camera, Peter Kubelka,
Theory of Metrical Film, P. Adams Sitney, Structural Film (excerpt) from Visionary Film:
The American Avant-Garde Cinema
- Questions for the week: When a film is not structured by a story, what sort of structural
principles, devices, and modes organize sounds and images? What possibilities are
opened up when a film is not limited by narrative construction? How does organization
within sequences (if such division is even possible) relate to the structure of the film as a
whole?
11. April 14-16: The Art of the Real 1: Modes of Documentary
Screening: Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1990, 100m), Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich, 1990,
47m)
Readings: Michael Renov, Towards a Poetics of Documentary (excerpt: 21-36), Scott
MacDonald, Interview with Su Friedrich (308-318), William C. Wees, No More Giants
(excerpt: Third Person Autobiography: 32-38)
- Questions for the week: How can we discuss the aesthetic functions of documentary?
What is/are documentarys relationships to the document? In what ways can
filmmakers employ documentary footage/content? How can non-documentary content
(i.e. staged scenes) be employed within a documentary? What assumptions,
constructions, and conventionalized stylistic choices are made by documentary
filmmakers? How can we precisely distinguish fiction and non-fiction, and how do we
discuss films that blend the two modes?
12. April 21-23: The Art of the Real 2: Realism(s)
Screening: Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, US, 1979, 83m), When It Rains (Burnett, US, 1995,
13m)
Readings: Andr Bazin, The Myth of Total Cinema, Bazin, An Aesthetic of Reality:
Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of Liberation (excerpt: 21-27), Paula Massood, An
Aesthetic Appropriate to Conditions: Killer of Sheep, (Neo) Realism, and the Documentary
Impulse, Paul Sharits, Notes on Films 1966-68, Charles Burnett, Film as a Force for Social
Change (revisited)*, Jack Smith, The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez
(suggested)*
- Questions for the week: What do we mean when we describe a film as realistic, and
how has that evolved over time? How can we characterize the styles that we think of as
naturalistic or realist? What relationships do they have to documentary? To other forms
of narrative film? What are the political or ideological functions of realism? Besides
naturalism, how else do artists and filmmakers conceive of realism? Can an abstract or
non-figurative film be realist, and how do we square the realist goals of filmmakers
seeking to reject the artifice of illusionism with conventional understandings of
realism? How does the political/ideological project of those filmmakers relate to that of a
naturalist filmmaker?

13. April 28-30: Playing with Images: Optical Printing, Digital Manipulations, and Special
Effects
Final paper intro paragraph due this week deadlines to be determined by your TF
Screening: Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, Hong Kong/China, 2004, 109m), Instructions for a
Light and Sound Machine (Peter Tscherkassky, Austria, 2005, 17m), The Wolf of Wall Street VFX
Highlights (Brainstorm Digital, 2013, 3m) (online), A Glitch Is a Glitch (Adventure Time)
(David OReilly, US, 2013, 11m) (online)
Readings: Stephen Prince, Painting with Digital Light (excerpts: 70-80, 87-98) from Digital
Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality, Christopher Lucas, The Modern
Entertainment Marketplace, 2000-present from Cinematography (ed. Patrick Keating), Tom
Gunning, Whats the Point of an Index, or, Faking Photographs
- Questions for the week: How have filmmakers historically through optical printing
techniques and more recently through digital effects manipulated images, and how have
those manipulations affected our experience of films? The most visible example of
special visual effects has, in the modern cinema, been action/sci fi blockbusters (and now
superhero films), that provide a certain kind of spectacle, but how else have visual
manipulations been employed? How has the nature of that manipulation changed with the
advancement of digital technology? What repercussions do these various effects have on
our relation to the film image? Is a CGI-heavy film like Kung Fu Hustle a cartoon? How
about Avatar or The Hobbit? What about a film like Wolf of Wall Street or Gone Girl that
seems to be more photographically grounded but nonetheless has extensive digital
manipulation of nearly every frame? Does it make sense to draw a line between
photography and animation anymore, and what is the significance of that line?
14. May 5: And Beyond the Infinite
Screening: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, US, 1968, 161m)
Wednesday May 13: Final Paper due to your TF by 5pm.