CLASSES

Screening, Lecture, and Tutorial  Time

Screening: Wednesday 1 pm -3 pm in Y3AT1.

Lecture: Wednesday 3 pm - 4 pm Y3AT1.

Tutorial Times: Wednesday  10 am (W6B 354); Wednesday 12 noon (W6B 350); Wednesday 4 pm (TBA); Wednesday 5 pm (Y3A 211).

In order to participate properly in weekly tutorial discussions you should have watched the film, heard the lecture or i-lecture, and read the set tutorial readings contained in your MAS 304 Unit Reader before coming to the tutorial. These set readings will for the most part be held to around 25 pages each week, and some readings are very short. But on several occasions more readings will be included in a given week.These are intended to assist you with the writing of your three assignments, and are not necessarily expected to be discussed in tutorials.

REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED TEXTS AND/OR MATERIALS

Unit Texts

1. Dossier of Readings available for purchase from the University Co-op bookshop. A copy of these Readings will be placed on Closed Reserve in the Library.
2. Further set readings available on E-reserve in the Library.
3. All set and recommended DVDs are held in Closed reserve.

See section: '2012 MAS304 Learning and Teaching Schedule'

 Mas 304 Learning and Teaching Schedule

 Week 1 (1/8/12): Lecture: Introduction: the 'smart' film (Dr Noel King)

 Screening:The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach: US: 2005: 81 mins)

Recommended Films: The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson: US: 2001: 110 mins); Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson: 1996: US: 91 mins); Simple Men (Hal Hartley: 1992: GB/US: 105 mins); I’m Not There (Todd Haynes: US/Germany: 2007: 136 mins); Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff: 2001: GB/US/Germany: 112 mins)

No Tutorial

 Week 2 (8/8/12): Lecture: Taking a Walk around a City (Dr Noel King)

Screening: Adam and Paul (Leonard Abrahamson: Ireland: 2004: 83 mins)

Recommended Films: Garage (Leonard Abrahamson: Ireland: 2007: 85 mins); Violent Cop (Sono Otoko Kyobo ni Tsuki) (Takeshi Kitano: Japan: 1989: 103 mins); Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders:1984 : Wst germany/France/UK/US:140 mins)

Tutorial Reading for Adam and Paul

Essential

Colm Toibin, “Reading the City,” Brick 76 (Winter 2005): 35-43.

Diog O‘Connell, New Irish Storytellers: Narrative Strategies in Film (Bristol, England: Intellect Press, 2010): 89-113.

Paul Farren, “Losing the Plot,” Film Ireland 103 (March-April 2005): 12-14

Tutorial Reading for the 'smart' film.

Essential.

Jeffrey Sconce, “Irony, nihilism and the new American ‘smart’ film,” Screen 43.4 (Winter 2002): 349-369.

Recommended.

Claire Perkins, “Sequelizing Hollywood: The American ‘Smart’ Film,” in Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Constantine Verevis, ed., Second Takes: Critical Approaches to the Film Sequel (Albany, New York: State Univ. of New York Press, 2010): 87-104.

Kent Jones, "The Royal Tennenbaums," essay at Criterion DVD website

 Recommended (for Adam and Paul and Violent Cop)

Casio Abe, Beat Takashi vs. Takeshi Kitano (Kaya Press/Muae Publishing, 1994): 45-69.

Mark Woods, “Making Ends Meet,” Film Ireland 100 (September-October, 2004): 42-44.

“Shades of Green: Irish Film Poll,” Film Ireland 100 (September-October, 2004): 26-29.

Week 3 (15/8/12): Lecture: Taking a Film for a Walk (Dr Matthew Asprey Gear)

Screening: Touch of Evil (Orson Welles: 1958:US: 93 mins/108 mins)

Recommended Films: Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander MacKendrick: 1957: US: 96 mins))

Tutorial Readings.

Essential

Peter Lev, Transforming the Screen 1950-1959: History of American Cinema vol. 7 (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2003): 229-231.

Walter Murch, “Restoring the touch of genius to a classic,” The New York Times (September 6^th, 1998):

Recommended

Terry Comito, “Welles’s Labyrinths: An Introduction to Touch of Evil,” in Terry Comito ed., Touch of Evil (Rutger’s Univ. Press, 1985): 3-33.

Michael Sragrow, “Touch of Evil,” in Jay Carr, ed., The A List: The (USA) National Society of Film Critics’ 100 Essential Films (New York: Da Capo Press, 2002): 290-293.

Barry Gifford, “Touch of Evil,” in Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir (Jacksonville, Mss: Univ Press of Mississippi, 2000): 172-174.*

James Naremore, Sweet Smell of Success (London: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Week 4 (22/8/12): ): Lecture: Sydney and Crime (Dr Peter Doyle)

Screening: Heatwave (Phillip Noyce: Australia: 1982: 86 mins)

Recommended Film: The Killing of Angel Street (Donald Crombie: Australia: 1981: 96 mins); Animal Kingdom (David Michod: Australia: 2010: 113 mins); Snowtown (Justin Kerzel: 201: Australia: 119 mins)

Tutorial Reading

Essential

Brian McFarlane, “Heatwave,” in The Oxford Companion to Australian Film ed. Brian McFarlane, Geoff Mayer, and Ina Bertrand (Melbourne: Oxford UP, 1999): 204-205

Geoff Mayer, “The Killing of Angel Street,” in The Oxford Companion to Australian Film ed. Brian McFarlane, Geoff Mayer, and Ina Bertrand (Melbourne: Oxford UP, 1999): 251-252.

Peter Doyle, “The Big Combo,” Metro Magazine 123 (2000): 43-48.

Recommended

Peter Rees, Killing Juanita: A True Story of Murder and Corruption (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2004): Extract *

 Week 5 (29/8/12): Lecture: An Australian Badland: On Jindabyne (Dr Anthony Lambert)

Screening: Jindabyne (Ray Lawrence: Australia: 2006: 119 mins)

Recommended Films: section of Short Cuts (Robert Altman: US: 1993: 188 mins): Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi) (Agnès Varda: France: 1985: 105 mins); Somersault (Cate Shortland: Australia: 2004: 106 mins);

Tutorial Reading

Essential

Raymond Carver, “So Much Water, so Close to Home,” (long version) in Raymond Carver, Collected Stories (New York: Library of America, 2009):864-883.

Hunter Cordaiy, “Man, Woman and Death: Ray Lawrence on Jindabybe,” Metro Magazine 149 (200): 38-41.

Anthony Lambert and Catherine Simpson, “Jindabyne’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland,” M/C Journal 11, 5 (2008), at:

Recommended

Paul Kelly, “Everything Turning to White,” song.

Ross Gibson, Seven Versions of an Australian Badland (Brisbane: Univ. of Queensland Press, 2002): Extract.

Alison Smith, Agnes Varda (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1999): 114-134.

Susan Barraclough, Sans toit ni loi (Vagabonde),” Monthly Film Bulletin (): 119-120.*

Jason Wood, “Vagabonde (Sans toit ni loi),” in Jason Wood, 100 Road Movies (London: BFI, 2007): 214-215.*

Holly Willis, “Vagabond,” Senses of Cinema 31 ( April 2004), at: http://sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/vagabond; accessed 3/05/2012

 Week 6 (5/9/12): Lecture: Easy Rider, New Hollywood and the US Tradition of 'the Road' (Dr Noel King)

Screening: Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper: 1969: US: 114 mins).

Recommended films: Wanderlust (Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman: 2007: : 84 mins); Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson: 1970: US: 98 mins); Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg: 1973: US: 115 mins); The Last Detail (Hal Ashby: 1974: US: 114 mins); Vanishing Point (Richard Sarafian: 1971: GB: 107 mins); Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger: 1969: US: 113 mins); Electra Glide in Blue (: 1972: US: 109 mins); The Rain People (Francis Ford Coppola: 1969: US: 112 mins); Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More (Martin Scorsese: 1974: US: 112 mins).

Tutorial Reading

Essential

Thomas Elsaesser, “The Pathos of Failure: American Films in the 70s: Notes on the Unmotivated Hero” Monogram 6 (1975): 13-19.

L. M. Kit Carson, “Easy Rider: A Very American Thing,” Evergreen Review 13, 72 (November 1969): 24, 26-27, 70-72.

Lee Hill, Easy Rider (London: BFI, 1996): 8-15, 66-73.

Chris Hugo, “Easy Rider and Hollywood in the ‘70s,” Movie 32 (1986): 67-71.

Paul Warshow, “Easy Rider,” Sight and Sound (Winter 1969/1970): 36-38.*

David Cook, Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam 1970-1979 (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2000): 67-72, 133, 156-157.

Recommended

Walter Salles, “Notes for a Theory of the Road Movie,” The New York Times (‘The Film Issue’, November 11, 2007), at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/magazine/11 roadtrip-t.html (accessed 5^th July 2010).*

Rob Spillman, “Roger Corman,” Details (February 1997) * (E-reserve 54665)

Michael Atkinson, Ghosts in the Machine: The Dark Heart of Pop Cinema (New York: Limelight, 2004). Extract* (E-reserve 66989)

Barbara Klinger, “Landscaping the Nation: The Road to Dystopia in Easy Rider,” in Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark, ed., The Road Movie Book (London: Routledge, 1997): 179-203.* (E-reserve 66769)

Jason Wood, Road Movies (London: BFI, 2007): xv-xxiii.* (E-reserve 66561)

Jeff Greenfield, “Retrospective: Easy Rider,” Esquire (July 1981): 90-91* (E-reserve 66817)

Chuck Klosterman, “On the Road,” The Believer (March-April 2008): 7-11.* (E-reserve 66562)

 Week 7 (12/9/12): Lecture: The Graduate Now and Then (Dr Jane Simon)

Screening: The Graduate (Mike Nichols: US: 1967: 110 mins)

Recommended Films: Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn: 1967: US: 111 mins); Bullitt (Peter Yates: 1968: US: 113 mins)

Tutorial Reading

Essential

James Monaco, The Sixties: 1960-1969: History of the American Cinema vol. 8 (Berkeley, California: Univ. of California Press, 2001): 182-184.

Jami Bernard, “The Graduate,” in Jay Carr, ed., The A List: The (USA) National Society of Film Critics’ 100 Essential Films (New York: Da Capo Press, 2002): 138-141.

Andrew Sarris, “After The Graduate,” American Film 3, 9 (1978): 32-37.

Recommended

David Pirie, ed., Anatomy of the Movies (New York: Macmillan Pub. Co., 1981): 40-51.

MID SEMESTER BREAK MONDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER TO FRIDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER INCLUSIVE.

MONDAY 1ST OCTOBER LABOUR DAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY.

 Week 8 (3/10/12): Lecture:  Ways of thinking about New Hollywood (Dr Noel King)

Screening: A Decade Under the Influence (Richard La Gravenese: 2003: US: 108 mins).

Recommended Films: Easy Riders and Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (Kenneth Bowser: 2003: Canada/GB: 119 mins); “The Film School Generation” episode from the American Cinema TV series (Annenberg/CPB Project: 1995: 60 mins)

Tutorial reading:

Essential

David Cook, “Auteur Cinema and the ‘Film Generation’ in 1970s Hollywood Cinema,” in Cook, Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of watergate and Vietnam 1970-1979 (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2000). Extract.

Recommended

Steve Neale, “’The Last Good Time We Ever Had?: Revising the Hollywood Renaissance,” in Linda Ruth Williams and Michael Hammond, ed., Contemporary American Cinema (Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill Education, 2006): 90-112.* (E-reserve 66788)

 Week 9 (10/10/12): Lecture: Genre Revision in the New Hollywood Cinema (Dr Noel King)

 Screening:Night Moves (Arthur Penn: 1975: US: 99 mins)

 Recommended Films: Chinatown (Roman Polanski: 1974: US: 131 mins); The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman: 1973: US: 111 mins).

 Tutorial reading

 Essential

 Richard Combs, “Night Moves,” Sight & Sound 44, 3 (Summer 1975): 189-190.

 Tag Gallagher, “Night Moves,” Sight & Sound 44, 2 (Spring 1975): 86-89

 “American Auteur Cinema: The Last – or First – Great Picture Show,” in Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, and Noel King, ed., The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s (Amsterdam: AUP, 2004): 37-69.*

 Recommended

 Thomas Schatz, “Genre in the New Hollywood,” in Schatz, Old Hollywood/New Hollywood: Ritual, Art, and Industry (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1983): 243-257.*

 Week 10 (17/10/12): Lecture: Post New Hollywood and Cult Movies

 Screening: Cutter’s Way (Ivan Passer: US: 1981: 109 mins).

 Recommended Films: Blade Runner (Ridley Scott: US: 1982: 117 mins); Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah: US/Mexico: 1974: 112 mins);

 Tutorial reading

Essential

 David Thomson, “The Deaths in Santa Barbara,” Sight and Sound 51, 2 (Spring 1982): 114-117.

 Michael Atkinson, “Close to the Bone,” Sight and Sound 21, 7 (NS) (July 2011):

 Recommended

John Caughie and Gillian Skirrow, “Ahab, Ishmael … and Mo,” Screen (1982): 54-59.

Melanie Wallace, "Cutter's Way," Film Quarterly 35, 2 (Winter 1981-1982): 56-60.

 Week 11 (23/5/12): Lecture: The Big Lebowski and Cult Movies (Dr Noel King)

  Screening: The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen: 1998: US/GB: 127 mins).

 Recommended films: Blood Simple (Joel Coen: 1984: US: 99 mins); The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy: 1973: UK: 88 mins); Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson: 1987: UK: 107 mins); Repo Man (Alex Cox: 1984: US: 92 mins);

 Tutorial Reading

 Essential

 Barbara Klinger, “Becoming Cult: The Big Lebowski, replay culture and male fans,” Screen 51.1 (Spring 2010): 1-20.

 J. Tyree and Ben Walters, The Big Lebowski (London: BFI, 2007): Extract.

 Recommended

Karl French and Philip French, “Introduction,” to their Cult Movies (London: Billboard Books, 1999): 6-8.

 Bruce Kawin, “After Midnight,” in J. P. Telotte, ed., The Cult Film Experience (Austin, Texas: Univ. of Texas Press, 1991):18-25.

 J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Afterword,” to Hoberman and Rosenbaum, Midnight Movies (New York: Da Capo Press, 1991): 321-330.

 J. P. Telotte, “Beyond All Reason: The Nature of the Cult,” in J. P. Telotte ed., The Cult Film Experience (Austin, Texas: Univ. of Texas Press, 1991): 5-17.*(E-reserve: 50850)

 Week 12 (30/5/12): Lecture: The Big, Loud Movbie (Dr Noel King)

 Screening: Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton: 1964: UK: 110 mins)

 Recommended Films:Con Air (Simon West: 1997: 115 mins); The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin: 1996: US: 121 mins); Jaws (Steven Spielberg: 1975: US; 124 mins).

Tutorial Reading

Essential

Larry Gross, “Big and Loud,” Sight and Sound 5, 8 (August, 1995): 6-10.

John Gregory Dunne, Monster: Living Off The Big Screen (New York: Vintage, 1997): 35-38.

Janet Abrams, “Escape from Gravity,” in Jose Arroyo, ed., Action/Spectacle/Cinema: A Sight and Sound Reader (London: BFI, 2000): 106-113.

Recommended

Sheldon Hall, “Tall Revenue Features: The Genealogy of the Modern Blockbuster,” in Steve Neale, ed., Genre and Contemporary Hollywood (London: BFI, 2002): 11-26.

Geoff King, “Spectacle, Narrative, and the Spectacular Hollywood Blockbuster,” in Julian Stringer. ed., Movie Blockbusters (London: Routledge, 2003): 114-127.

Kristin Thompson, “Hopes and Fears for Hollywood,” in her Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1999): 335-352.

Justin Wyatt, High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1994): 1-22.

 Week 13 (6/12/12): No lecture or screening: tutorials devoted to individual presentation of tutorial discussions of week 12 film, and discussions, as needed, of final assignment questions. 

 In 2012 in MAS 304 we examine the following topics: the concepts of “cult cinema”,  the “new American ‘smart’ cinema”; US Cinema in the “New Hollywood” period (from the late-1960s to the mid-1970s); the genealogy of the Hollywood “big, loud movie”; examples of Australian cinema in the 1980s and the 2000s; the (broad) concept of perambulation applied to and located within two films (the Irish film Adam and Paul and the Hollywood film Touch of Evil).

The sequence of weeks and topics runs as follows:

In weeks 1 to 5 we consider questions of historical context, and film style, by a scrutiny of films from Ireland, 1950s Hollywood, contemporary Hollywood, and Australia.

In weeks 6 to 9 we examine the moment of New Hollywood Cinema. Many accounts of New Hollywood say it begins in the mid-to-late 1960s with the promise of a re-energised, innovative American cinema generated by the merging of the traditions of Classical Hollywood (1930-1960, covered in MAS 205) with the stylistic influences of the European art cinema of the 1950s and early 1960s (also covered in MAS 205), and the influence of Roger Corman’s ‘school’ of low-budget exploitation filmmaking. The result: a “New Hollywood.”

In weeks 10 to 13 we examine the concepts of  “cult cinema,” and the “big, loud movie,” by way of UK and US film examples.