Requirements_Spa_435

Course objectives

1. To provide students strategies necessary to read a film and write about it.

2. This course explores how directors avail themselves of techniques such as camera angles, lighting, and composition to produce specific effects. Our task is to discover how the films we will watch deviate from established social norms to jolt audiences out of complacency in order to encourage critical viewing.

3. Within this context, we will examine how historical events such as the Mexican Revolution (1910) and the massacre of Tlatelolco (1968) as well as contemporary Mexican culture and identity are represented in these films.

4. Finally, in pertinent cases, we will discuss the aesthetic, thematic, and ideological relationship of the films to the novels on which they are based.

5. Students will have the opportunity to use their oral and written abilities in Spanish and to further develop their analytical skills.

Class requirements

1. Buy Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. Eigth Edition.

2. Attend public showing of Las caras de la luna at Market Arcade - downtown Buffalo - January 25

3. Buy or have access to at least three of the films in the course to write papers.

4. Write out answers at end of each chapter in Bordwell's book and on each of the films which will be posted in Blackboard.

Class expectations

1. Attendance: 2 free absences (oral grade lowered after 3rd)

2. Oral participation: students must be prepared for each class and must participate actively to receive good oral grades.

3. Two exams: I, February 27, 2007 and II, April 26, 2007

a. Each exam will constitute material covered in previous lessons up to the exam.

4. Three 3-5 page papers: due Feb. 13; March 27; and during the week of finals (no later than May 7).

Format of Papers: (follow MLA style)
a. typed, double spaced
b. 1-inch margins all around
c. pages should be numbered

Make sure you have a clear thesis statement (what you think is important about the film and enough evidence to prove it); use examples from the film to back up your statement, and finally, write a conclusion that generalizes the specifics of your argument. (No rewrites, but we can discuss your paper and ideas prior to the due date.)

Papers can be on films read in class or on other films by the same director. Topics, however, should be approved by professor in advance. I do not want a summary of what we have discussed in class.

Grade distribution

Papers, 15% each; Exams 20% each; and Class participation: 15% (students will be asked to provide summaries of chapters, have questions answered, and occasionally lead class discussion)
+'s and -'s will be assigned