Film Studies

Overview

The opportunity to study a variety of filmic texts and topics including national cinema, mainstream and marginal film, the significance of the film star, expressions of gender and sexualities on screen

• An emphasis on analytical skills valuable in the contemporary employment sector
• Critical analysis of the ways in which Film Studies theories overlap with wider literary, legal, sociological and philosophical theories
• The opportunity to study abroad at a variety of international partner institutions
• An exciting combination of subjects, teaching styles and student participation carried out in a friendly learning environment

Our Film Studies course is open to both students with and without prior Film Studies experience. In short, we welcome those with enthusiasm for filmic knowledge and an enquiring mind (please see page XXX for academic entry requirements). It is an interdisciplinary course combining the specialist skills and expertise of staff from a range of subjects including English, Media, Communications and Culture, American Studies, Visual Arts, Sociology and Music, coordinated and administrated by the School of Humanities.

Film Studies is a broad and challenging discipline involving the rigorous and critical study of films from around the world. It is an exciting and relatively new academic discipline that allows students to develop skills in critical argument, and involves imaginative engagement with films from the past and present and from a variety of different global cultures. Recognising that film has become one of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most preeminent and influential forms of both art and mass entertainment, the course allows students to investigate the possibilities and limitations of film language and its influence on how we understand our own (and others’) history, as well as our various forms of identity (individual, national, sexual, racial). All modules offered will be taught by a team of staff who are research active and experts in their fields, with a commitment to lively and innovative teaching methods.

Students will explore the ways in which our familiarity with and understanding of film has become central to the way in which we understand the world. Students will investigate how meaning is created in cinema, who the author of a film is, how films are categorised in relation to each other, how the meanings of films are shaped by the historical period and national cultures that produced them and what ideas and ideologies about ‘race’ and gender films include and exclude. Students will also have the opportunity to take a practical module in digital video enabling them to combine their theoretical knowledge with practical skills.

Course Content

Students will take a series of modules, some of which are compulsory, some of which can be chosen from a list of available options. In the first year students will take two compulsory core modules that introduce the core theoretical aspects of the programme. These provide the necessary skills to move into the second year. In addition to the core modules students have the opportunity to select up to a further four filmic modules.

As students work their way through the degree programme they will begin to discover the specific areas of study that they want to pursue most dominantly. As such, they are able to specialise in particular areas of film according to personal interests, career aspirations and strengths. The study of national cinemas, in particular, represents a strong and wide-ranging strand of the programme with options in German, Russian, British, French, Asian and North American cinemas.

Students will also have the opportunity, if they wish, to study abroad for one semester in the second year. Under this scheme students can study in universities in Europe, Australia, Canada or the US.

First year

These are not exhaustive descriptions, but give some idea of the range of modules available.

Autumn Semester core module

Reading Film: with an emphasis on variety of film practice, this module aims to introduce essential elements of film language, narrative and analysis in order to engage you in thinking critically about the choices made by filmmakers in constructing the look and sound of their films. This course lays the foundation for later study. Texts currently studied include Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) and Dead Man’s Shoes (Meadows, 2004).

Optional modules include:

Germany Through the Lens
Digital Video
Popular British Cinema: From the 1990s to the present day

Spring Semester core module

Approaches to Film: this module focuses more specifically on ways of categorising film via an investigation of film history, film politics and film genre. Texts to be studied include Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936), Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944) and Breathless (À Bout de Souffle) (Godard, 1960).

Optional modules include:

Introduction to European Cinema
Understanding Culture

Second year

Autumn Semester core module

Gender and the Cinematic Gaze: this module explores the significance of gendered representation in film, focusing on theories of gendered spectatorship, voyeurism and the dis/pleasure of looking. You will be introduced to a number of significant theorists such as Laura Mulvey, Judith Butler and Sue Thornham in order to gain an understanding of gender as a cultural and social construction (differentiated from ‘sex’) and influenced by political movements such as feminism. Texts to be studied include Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954), Beauty and the Beast (Trousdale and Wise, 1991), Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) and Caramel (Labaki, 2007).

Optional modules include:

French Cinema
Politics and Cinema
German Cinema
Teenage Dreams: Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Theory
Hooray for Hollywood? Approaches to American Film

Spring Semester core module

Film Genre, Narrative and the Star: this module evaluates the significance of generic categorisation, narrative order and the position of the Hollywood star in association with filmic constructions of identity and pleasure. Through theoretical and illustrative lectures and contextualised screenings, this module will allow you to explore the ways in which certain genres (documentary, horror and the blockbuster) operate in line with audience expectations, as well as asking pertinent questions such as: what is the relationship between performance and stardom and moreover, why are we, as filmic spectators, so interested in film stars? Texts to be studied could include Harlan County USA (Kopple, 1976), Scary Movie (Wayans, 2000) and Titanic (Cameron, 1997).

Optional modules include:

Horror Cinema
Twentieth-century Novels into Films
Unheard Melodies? Music in the Narrative Film
Alfred Hitchcock’s America

Third year

Modules studied in the third year are more specialised and vary from year to year. You will have developed intimate knowledge of filmic auteurs, national cinema and historical periods and can base your study choices on your own strengths and interests. Current choices include:

Shakespeare on Film
British Society through the Eyes of British Film: 1960s to the Present
Postmodernism: Fiction, Film and Theory
Screening Sexualities: Spectatorship, Spectacle and Specificity
Dissertation in Film Studies
Asian Cinemas
Film Noir

Codes and Combinations

Students are candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) (BA Hons) if their two Principal courses are in humanities and/or social science subjects.

All students who study a science subject are candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science (with Honours) (BSc Hons).

Dual Honours Course can be combined with:

* subject to approval

Foundation Course available:

Teaching and Assessment

This course is concerned primarily with the theoretical dimensions of Film Studies. As well as the familiar lecture, screening and seminar format there is also a strong emphasis on critical analysis and peer engagement both in class and via the Keele Learning Environment. Methods of assessment are varied and will include individual essays, group presentations, learning environment peer review projects and examinations.

Programme specifications (new window)

Skills and Careers

By graduation, students will have acquired skills of analysis, organisation and written expression and will have experience of both individual and team working. Students may choose to enter into a career in film, in a media-related field or go on to further study. Whatever the preference, students will have a broad range of career opportunities and an excellent academic background to support their desired career choice.

Visit our Careers pages (new window)

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of Film Studies, the programme combines well with many other academic disciplines, in particular English, Media, Communications and Culture, American Studies, Sociology and History. The combination of disciplines does not only apply to humanities and social sciences; students may also enjoy the combination of Film Studies with other disciplines such as Business Management. Film Studies is offered in combination with a wide range of other Principal courses.

Students on this course have the fantastic opportunity of attending and participating in a film summer school at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea.