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Content: This module introduces students to the critical study of moving images. Why are we fascinated by moving images? What is the relationship between moving images and reality? What distinguishes moving images from other kinds of images e.g., paintings and photographs? How do moving images signify? How do we engage with moving images emotionally, morally, and philosophically? Are moving images synonymous with ‘cinema’? Narrative is integral to human experience: we use it constantly to make sense of our experience, to remember significant events and relate them to others, and to establish the basic patterns of behaviour of our lives. Is narrative essential to moving images? Does a film have to tell a story? Where do stories come from? Do still and moving images tell stories differently? These are some of the questions we will explore in this module. Tutorials will serve to enrich, clarify, and illustrate crucial issues raised in the weekly lectures.

Teaching delivery: 10 x 1-hour weekly lecture and 10 x 1-hour weekly seminar

Indicative topics

• Medium specificity theoriesÌý
• Defining the moving imageÌý
• Moving images and realityÌý
• Realist and formalist theoriesÌý
• Moving images and narrativeÌýÌý
• Classical Hollywood cinemaÌý
• Alternatives to classical Hollywood cinemaÌý
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Module aims: Students will develop a familiarity with the key concepts and assumptions underlying various theories of moving images and learn to formulate new questions and problems posed by shifting notions of medium specificity.Ìý

Recommended reading

1. David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction. 12th edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2019).Ìý

Additional costs: A trip to the Cinema Museum

This module is taught at the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº East campus in Stratford.