Survey of the Soviet and Russian Cinema by (or about) Russian women, starting with the early Soviet propaganda films and ending with the present Russian version of hyper-realistic films. The course traces the evolution of Russian women, their changing self-awareness; it explores the conflict between the externally imposed role, and the women's own conception of her self and her destiny. The movies are analyzed through the prism of semiotic and discursive approach. No knowledge of the Russian language is required. Those students who would like to advance their Russian proficiency and have the opportunity to watch, read, write and talk about these films in Russian may sign up for this course under RU311 after consultation with the instructor. Taught in English.

This course introduces students to a wide range of film comedies, from Chaplin’s silent film through screwball comedy to satire, black comedy, and romantic comedies. We will study theories of comedy from the ancient Greek komos to Freud and feminist theory. We will focus on close reading of film form and specific frames and will introduce basic formalist vocabulary about mise-en-scene, cinematography, and editing. The result should be a better grasp of film genre and form and a better understanding of why comedy matters, in deeper philosophical and ideological ways.

This course will survey the major works of French cinema from the outset of filmmaking to contemporary films. The French made the first films and we will examine various different genres and styles of French film in relation to their representations of French culture.

This course focuses on Turkish German cinema, its history and aesthetic conventions, and also introduces students to literature, music, and cultural production at large along the Turkish German axis. We will discuss questions of identity, migration, mobility, nation, and belonging, and explore how these topics have been treated cinematically and across other genres. Special emphasis will also be placed on the cities of Berlin and Istanbul. Through on-site visits and field trips, we will explore firsthand the connections between historical context, cultural expression, social practices, and urban form, and trace the lasting impact of Turkish German entanglements and transnational cultural flows on the makeup and identity of those cities today. Sample filmmakers and other artists might include: Fatih Akın, Kutluğ Ataman, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Sabahattin Ali, and Ipek Ipekcioglu.

The purpose of the class is to study the history and themes of great movie thrillers. We will start early (1930, Fritz Lang) and go late (2017), and look at key elements of form and theme in these films, from the heist film to the political thriller, the police procedural, Hitchcock, the drama of the final girl, and ?race? and the thriller. All of our films raise important political and existential questions. We?ll look a little at genre theory, and film form: why do Lang or Hitchcock or Jordan Peele do this with the camera, with the lighting, with that graphic match. Another question: why do (some) people seek to be frightened by these movies?