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273 Course Description--Syllabus and Calendar: Best Sellers

Instructor: Prof. Stefan Fleischer
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00p.m.-4:00p.m.
or by appointment
Room: Clemens 405
Tel: 645-2575 x1031
E-mail: engstef@acsu.buffalo.edu
Note: I encourage e-mail exchanges on anything and everything. I am hoping to have a listserv up and running for more public information exchange. Stay tuned.

Syllabus and Calendar 

Texts: Peter Benchley, Jaws; Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove; Richard Price, Clockers; Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon; Elmore Leonard, Out of Sight; William Gibson, Neuromancer. Available at University Bookstore.

Films: "Jaws" and "The Last Seduction" (because of the Buffalo jokes). Also "Out of Sight." There will be two or three you will need to see on your own as well.

Aims of the course: I'm interested in what the culture as well as what the culture industry has on its mind. I'm interested in the ways popular fiction and popular films intersect and inflect one another. Some themes for the semester: Open American spaces and reckless adventure; the city and its underground; film noir and neo-noir. We will proceed by means of close reading and analysis.

Requirements: Reading to be done before the date due. I will require 2 brief analytical papers, a mid-term exam (IDs and a spot analysis) In addition, a number of brief quizzes as a check to see if you’re keeping up with your reading and screenings. I will give a one hour (optional) final on Friday, April 27.

Forewarned is forearmed: There is a lot of reading in this course. It would be extremely helpful if you would get a chunk of it started during winter intersession. Both Lonesome Dove and Clockers, if at all possible.

Attendance Policy: Two absences will be tolerated. More will jeopardize your grade.

Week 1—(Jan 17-19) Try to have a quick read through Benchley’s Jaws by Jan. 19

Week 2—(Jan 22-24-26) Screening "Jaws"

Reading: Start Lonesome Dove by Jan. 26. Screening "Maltese Falcon" Read enough of Maltese Falcon to get the flavor. Read through to the Flitcraft episode as soon as you can.

Week 3—(Jan 29-31, Feb 2) continue topics and screenings from week 2. Topic: Defining and analyzing narrative style in novels and film.

Week 4—(Feb 5-7-9) Continue topics from week 3.

Week 5—(Feb 12-14-16) Reading: finish Lonesome Dove by Feb. 14.

First brief paper due Feb 16. Choose a key scene in Lonesome Dove: analyze the scene to show how McMurtry’s style illuminates a character and/or develops narrative richness.

Week 6—(Feb 19-21-23) Reading: Start Clockers

Week 7—(Feb 26-28, March 2)

Spring Recess, March 5-9

Week 8—(Mar 12-14-16) Finish Clockers by Mar. 12

Week 9—(Mar19-21-23) I will update the syllabus sometime in here.

Week 10—(Mar 26-28-30) Reading: Out of Sight. Screening: "Out of Sight."

Week 11—(April 2-4-6) Screening: "The Last Seduction."

Week 12—(April 9-11-13) Continue topic and viewings from previous week

Week 13—(April 16-18-20) Reading: Neuromancer

Week 14—(April 23-25-27) Summary—suggestions for further study: film, popular fiction and cultural literacy.

Second paper due April 23:

Week 15—April 30—Last class. Pizza and wings as is the custom. Film clips and, I would hope, some humor and conviviality.

Resources: My web site and links. These will be updated frequently

http://cas.buffalo.edu/english/faculty/fleischer/courses.htm. http://wings.buffalo.edu/courses/fa00/eng/256mar/info/index.html . This is the index page to Carine Mardorossian’s film course material. Prof.Mardorossian’s site is particularly well-designed. It also has lots of ideas for paper topics and other good things.

Glossary: This is merely a start. I will make additional entries via the listserv.

meaning  1. Referential meaning: Allusion to particular items of knowledge outside the film which the viewer is expected to recognize. 2. Explicit meaning: Significance presented overtly, usually in language and often near the film’s beginning or end. 3. Implicit meaning: Significance left tacit, for the viewer to discover upon analysis or reflection. 4. Symptomatic meaning: Significance which the film divulges, often "against its will," by virtue of its historical or social context.

medium close-up  A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large; a human figure seen from the chest up would fill most of the screen.

medium long shot  A framing at a distance which makes an object about four or five feet high appear to fill most of the screen vertically. See also plan américain, the special term for a medium long shot depicting human figures.

                    Links: Professor Carine Mardorossian's Homepage | Introduction to Film (English 256)

In this course, we will survey some significant mainstream Hollywood films (most are multiple Oscar winners) from the era around WW II to the present. We will study this rich matter from two angles: 1) How Hollywood inflects social/political/cultural forces and 2) How these films work as formal aesthetic achievements.

Requirements: attendance at all screenings. Frequent film response papers, (usually) one page or so in class (may be revised—added to, qualified at home and handed in on the following class day,) 2 analytical papers (approx. 5 pp.,) a mid-term exam (mostly identification questions) and an impromptu-exam analyzing visual style near the end of the semester. Alternatively, you may do a final paper, due on the last day of class.

Attendance Policy: 2 absences will be tolerated. More will jeopardize your grade.

Here’s a tentative list of the films we’ll be studying:

Gone With the Wind, Victor Fleming – 1939 (excerpts) The grand Hollywood ‘Dream Machine."

Casablanca, Michael Curtiz –1942 (And Best Years of Our Lives,

William Wyler-1946) These are two significant takes on America in World War II.

Notorious, Hitchcock – 1946. Our focus will be on formal matters

The Third Man, Sir Carol Reed – 1949. An American Film?

On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan- 1954 (Compare with Pollack’s Tootsie) Topical focus will include special emphasis on acting, especially the influence of Actor’s Studio "method"

Matewan, John Sayles – 1987. The next 3 films represent a counter-Hollywood

The Grey Fox, Phillip Borsos – 1982 (compare with Eastwood’s Unforgiven)

The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan - 1997

Last Picture Show, Bogdanovich – 1971- The next three films: Hollywood anomalies or renaissance?

The Godfather, Coppola - 1972

Silence of the Lambs, Demme 1991

We will also study three or four films that, although not mainstream, are significant and, to my mind, beautiful. Here’s an example from John Sayles’ Matewan: In the film, Sid Hatfield, a legendary sheriff in West Virginia, is given an order to evict striking coal miners by Baldwin-Felts agency company police (a.k.a. "gun thugs"). He refuses to carry out the order because, as he tells the Baldwin-Felts agents: "I know Mr. Felts and I wouldn’t piss on him if his heart was on fire." This is muscular language, imaginatively employed. It takes a smart and courageous man to speak Truth to Power that way. It’s worthwhile to study such matter. In real life, Baldwin-Felts "gun thugs" later assassinated Sid Hatfield for his support of the striking miners.

I will require you to view a small list of films out of class, on your own. ITS has a small viewing facility available in Capen 24. You may bring your own videotape or take one from my reserve shelf in the UGL. But you must book ahead, at least one day in advance (call 645-2803) to reserve the room. If you can coordinate with 3or 4 others, the booking will be more efficient. And, (who knows?) you may get into a fruitful conversation after the screenings.

Required text: Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art (5^th or 6^th edition). Available at University Bookstore.

Week 1—(Jan 17) Introduction. How to use Bordwell. Excerpts. Clips. We will plunge right in.

Week 2—(Jan 22-24) Casablanca and Best Years…

Reading: Bordwell—Chapter 1 (a quick take,) Chapter 2, especially "form vs. content," "formal expectations," …experience. One way Film Art is organized is around the notion that form determines the way we experience film. Hence, an analysis of formal elements opens the way to a critical understanding of expressive meanings.

Week 3—(Jan 29-31) continue topics and screenings from week 2

Week 4—(Feb 5-7) Notorious. Further Readings in Bordwell as we go along.

Week 5—(Feb 12-14) The Third Man

First brief paper due Feb 12. On a formal issue: mise-en-scene, camera mobility, POV shots or some other element, for example. Limit your discussion to one key scene or sequence from the main film list or the recommended list. The point: to show how formal elements constitute expressive meanings.

Week 6—(Feb 19-21) On the Waterfront

Week 7—(Feb 26-28) Matewan

Week 8—(Mar 12-14) The Grey Fox

Brief report on 2 or 3 films viewed outside class: Due March 14. Refer to the film- groups list for ideas. This may serve as a preliminary version of your optional final paper.

Week 9—(Mar19-21) The Sweet Hereafter

Week 10—(Mar 26-28) Last Picture Show

Week 11—(April 2-4) The Godfather

Week 12—(April 9-11) Continue topic and viewings from previous week

Week 13—(April 16-18) Silence of the Lambs

Week 14—(April 23-25) Summary—suggestions for further study: film and cultural literacy.

Second paper due April 23: This paper should take one of Bordwell’s extended analyses and develop it further. You should try to figure out what Bordwell omits or emphasizes in a pedantic way. You should take it one step further and make it better, subtler and more alert in its handling of detail, to emerge with an analysis more attentive to expressive meaning. Length: 5-7 pp.

Week 15—April 30—Last class. Pizza and wings as is the custom. Film clips and, I would hope, some humor and conviviality.

Resources: My web site and links. These will be updated frequently

http://cas.buffalo.edu/english/faculty/fleischer/courses.htm. http://wings.buffalo.edu/courses/fa00/eng/256mar/info/index.html . This is the index page to Carine Mardorossian’s film course material. Prof. Mardorossian’s site is particularly well designed. It also has lots of ideas for paper topics and other good things.

Glossary: This is merely a start. I will make additional entries via the listserv.

meaning  1. Referential meaning: Allusion to particular items of knowledge outside the film which the viewer is expected to recognize. 2. Explicit meaning: Significance presented overtly, usually in language and often near the film’s beginning or end. 3. Implicit meaning: Significance left tacit, for the viewer to discover upon analysis or reflection. 4. Symptomatic meaning: Significance which the film divulges, often "against its will," by virtue of its historical or social context.

medium close-up  A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large; a human figure seen from the chest up would fill most of the screen.

medium long shot  A framing at a distance which makes an object about four or five feet high appear to fill most of the screen vertically. See also plan américain, the special term for a medium long shot depicting human figures.

mise-en-scene  All of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the settings and props, lighting, costumes and make-up, and figure behavior.

Links: Professor Carine Mardorossian's Homepage | Introduction to Film (English 256)

Curriculum Vitae (excepts) | Courses | Home |
 Oxford English Dictionary | Hollywood Imaginary | Some Reviews

Last Updated: Monday, August 27, 2001 For comments or questions contact: Prof. Stefan Fleischer