COMM2930A/ UGED2637A Understanding Movies

Summer Term
School of Journalism and Communication
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

1. Course Description:
This course aims at helping students earn a solid vocabulary and a sharp eye in
analyzing films. At the first half of the course, students will learn about the basic
cinematic techniques and structures, including mise-en-scene and montage, use
of cinematic time and space, the image, soundtrack, the script and so on through
viewing local and international classical cinemas. The second half of this course
will introduce some theoretical perspectives such as realism, feminism,
postmodernism which will address the political, economic and socio-cultural
implications of movies. Equipped with these analytical tools, students are able
appreciate movies of different areas and different places.

2. Learning approach:
The course will combine different study methods developed in the
communication disciplines. First of all, students are able to experience the
cinema aesthetics through films preview. The assigned readings will facilitate
them acquire concepts and analyze the text in a more in-depth manner. Through
presentation and discussion in tutorials, they are expected to understand
theories and cinema texts from different perspectives. The lectures will
consolidate what they have learned from all of the above.

3. Prerequisite:
You don’t need to have any background knowledge related to cinema study
 before taking this course. Preferably, you are interested in watching non-
mainstream movies and you are willing to learn how to appreciate international
cinema.

4. Contact information of teacher members

Lecturer
Name Dr. Grace L K Leung
Office Location Humanities Bldg., Room 319B
Telephone 3943 7046
Email [email protected]
Teaching time & Venue Every Tue and Thur 2:30 - 4:15 pm (at NAH 115)
Consultation hours By appointment
Website http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/default.aspx?
cmd=faculty/17_LEUNG_Grace

Teaching Assistant
Name Miss Yuki Chung
Office NAH 413
Telephone 3943 3483 (Yuki)
Email [email protected]

5. Course content
The first part of this course (Lectures 1-6) is related to film form and aesthetics
which aims at equipping students with specific film languages for film
appreciation. The second part (Lectures 8-9) on blockbusters and genre draws
students’ attention to the institution dimension of film business and its impact on
film production. The last part on critical theories (Lectures 10-13) introduces a
variety of critical theories that will lead the understanding of movies to the
rethinking of significant issues of human concerns. Key concepts will be
introduced so that students can apply them in formulating their film analysis. The
sequence of these issues implies a progression of knowledge from film specific to
interdisciplinary approach and from film appreciation to critical evaluation.

6. Expected Learning outcome

1) Students will be able to develop film literacy and analyze movies through the
comprehension of film languages.
 2) Students will be able to relay the movies to their broader contexts of
production and consumption and through which to understand the cultural
diversity.
3) Students will be able to critically reflect upon ideologies underlying the film
texts.
4) Students are expected to enhance their intercultural sensitivity through
exposing to a variety of pictures from different places.
5) Students will be able to produce a critical film analysis that reflects upon
political, social and cultural issues embedded in film texts.

7. Learning activities
Lecture Tutorial Film preview Self-directed
Study
Time One hour and a 45 minutes 2 hours Approximately 1 hour
Per week half in class per week
Time 2:30-5:15pm TBA Out of class --
Venue U library Out of class
No of 12 9 12 --
sessions
Teaching Lecturer Teaching Lecturer Self-initiated by
members Assistant students

The following learning activities will be adopted in this course:

I. Interactive lectures
Present an overview of key analytical concepts, terminologies, theories and
explanations on international cinemas

II. Tutorials
 Students are expected to choose a topic related to the theme of that week
to give a presentation
 Its purpose is to stimulate students to learn the subject in a more in-depth
way by encouraging them to present one’s informed opinion on a chosen
topic and be responsible for answering questions from fellow students
 It also encourages students to discuss cinema related issues in class and in
the electronic platform.

III. Films preview

 Students are expected to preview the films, especially those with * before
they come to lectures
 During the lectures, the instructors will apply different concepts to discuss
the film. Only relevant film clips or footages will be screened in class.
IV. Self-directed study
 Encourage students to get prepared for the lectures by reading the
assigned readings and other related materials regularly

7. Assessment Scheme

Assessment Description Weight

Participation 10%
Tutorial  Students are required to choose a tutorial topic 20%
from the course outline and give a 10-minute
presentation in the tutorial.
 The presentation can be done in group
Mid-term  Students are required to answer a few short 40%
exercise questions related to the assigned movies that have
been covered in class.
 The tested areas will be the major concepts and
arguments related to movie appreciation.
End of term  Students are required to answer two sets of question 30%
quiz  The first is to preview a film clip and then answer
questions related to this clip
 The second part will be several short questions.

9. Detailed schedule

Lesson Topic Films preview Key words

1 (18/5) Introduction: Film *Bicycle Thieves (Italian, film style,
Styles: Realism and 1946) Ashes of Time《東邪 formalism and
Formalism 西毒》(Hong Kong, 1994) realism
2 (20/5) Film Narrative Rashomon《羅生門》 narrative
(Japan, 1950), Structure, story
*Hero 《英雄》( China, and plot, motifs
2002, 98 mins)
3 (25/5) Film Style: mise-en- *Clockwork Orange (Britain, Set, props,
scene 1971) lighting, location
Tutorials begin Children of Heaven (1998,
Iran)
4 (27/5) Film style: *Run Lola Run (Germany, Depth of field,
cinematography 1998, 81 mins.) framing, focus,
Days of Being Wild 《阿飛正 types of shots
 傳》(HK, 1991, 94 mins.);
5 (1/6) Film Style: sound Apocalypse Now (US, 1979), Off-screen voice,
*Singing in the Rain (U.S., sound bridge,
1952; 103 mins ) diegetic sound
6 Film Style: Editing *Battleship Potemkin (Russia montage,
(3/6) 1925), Old Boy (S. Korea, continuity
2003)
7 (8/6 ) No Tutorial Mid-term quiz
8 Movie as a big *The Golden Era, (PRC 2014), Studio system,
(10/6) business The Big Buddha +, (Taiwan, independents,
2018) integration
9 (15/6) Film genres *Waltz with Bashir, (Israel/ Genres,
France/ Germany/ US/ spectatorship.
Japan/Finland, 2008
10 Auteur Theory * All about my Mother Auteurism,
(17/6) (Spain, 1999) corporate
400 blows (France,1959) authorship
11 Film and Ideologies: *Vive L’Amour《愛情萬歲 feminism,
(22/6) Gender and 》(Taiwan, 1998) gender, sexuality,
Sexuality Orlando (British, 1999) queer theory,
12 The nation and *Persepolis (Iran, 2008) nation-state,
(24/6) identity Barefoot Gen (Japan, 1983) imagined
Tutorials end communities
13 Movies and The Inferno Affairs(HK, cultural
(29/6) globalization 2003) 《無間道》 homogenization
And Departed (US, 2006) and
(Last hour heterogenization,
Final Quiz) The New Man (Korea, 2013) crash of
civilization
14 (1/7) Public holiday

10. Learning Resources

Suggested textbook: David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson. Film Art (2015) 電影藝術 : 形
式與風格. 第六版. Trans. 曾偉禎. Taipei: McGraw-Hill Inc., 2001.

Lesson 1
Giannetti Louis (2011), Understanding Movies, Boston: Allyn & Bacon (12th edition),
Ch. 11 ‘Critique’, pp 473-509.

Nowell-Smith, Geoffery (2005)’Bicycle Thieves: The Resilience of Neo-realism” in

Jeffrey Geiger and R.L. Rutsky (eds.) Film Analysis: a Norton reader, pp.422-438.

Lesson 2
Prince Stephen (1997), Movies and Meaning: an introduction to Film, Boston: Allyn
and Bacon, Ch. 6 “the Nature of narrative in films”, pp. 184-213

Rawnsley, Gary (2010) The political narrative(s) of Hero” in Gary D. Rawnsley and
Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley (eds.) Global Chinese cinema : the culture and politics of Hero,
pp.13-26.

Lesson 3
Lehman Peter & Luhr William (2008), Thinking about Movies: Watching, Questioning,
Enjoying, Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub, 3rd edition, Chapter 2 & 3, “Mise-en-scene”
and “movement”, pp. 44-130

Nelson, Thomas Allan (1982) Kubrick: inside a film artist’s maze, Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, Chapter6, pp.133-164

Lesson 4
Giannetti Louis (2011), Understanding Movies, Boston: Allyn & Bacon (12th edition),
Chapter 1, Photography, pp. 1-46

Etherington-Wright, Christine and Doughty, Ruth (2011) Understanding film theory,

Chapter 3, Formalism Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave
Macmillan, pp.42-62

Lesson 5
Lehman Peter & Luhr William (2008), Thinking about Movies: Watching, Questioning,
Enjoying, Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub, 3rd edition, Chapter 5 “Sound” , pp. 184-236

Feuer, Jane (2005) ‘Singing in the Rain: winking at the audience’ in Jeffrey Geiger and
R.L. Rutsky (eds.) Film Analysis: a Norton reader, pp. 441-454.

Lesson 6
Giannetti Louis (2011), Understanding Movies, Boston: Allyn & Bacon (12th edition),
Ch. 4, ‘Editing’, pp.142-216

Nichols, Bill (2005) Battleship Potemkin: film form and revolution in Jeffrey Geiger
and R.L. Rutsky (eds.) Film Analysis: a Norton reader, pp. 159-176
Lesson 7: (Mid –term Quiz)

Lesson 8
Abrams, N, Bell, I & Udris, J (2001) ‘Cinema as institution.’ In Studying Film, Chapter
1, pp 7-45. London: Hodder Arnold.

Lodge, G (2014 Sept 6) Venice Film Review: ‘The Golden Era’. Retrieved from
https://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/venice-film-review-the-golden-era-
1201298611/

Lesson 9
Lehman Peter and Luhr William (2008), Thinking about Movies: Watching,
Questioning, Enjoying, Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, Chapter 5: Genres

Several film reviews on Waltz with Bashir, 2008

Lesson 10:
Wollen Peter (2004), From Signs and Meaning in the Cinema: the Auteur Theory in
Braudy Leo & Cohen Marshall (eds.) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory
Readings, New York: Oxford University Press

Wilson, E. (2020) ‘All about my mother: matriarchal society’ retrieved from

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6795-all-about-my-mother-matriarchal-
society

Lesson 11
Lehman Peter & Luhr William (2008), Thinking about Movies: Watching, Questioning,
Enjoying, Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub, 3rd edition, Chapter 12: Gender and Sexuality

Several film reviews on “Vive L’Amour”

Lesson 12
Crofts Stephen (1998), “Concepts of national cinema” in Hill J. and Gibson P. C. (eds.)
the Oxford Guide to Film Studies, pp. 385-394
Yoshiharu, T (2012) ‘Pan-Asian Cinema? The last of Japan-centred Regional
Cosmopolitanism’ in Japanese Cinema Goes Global. HK: University of Hong Kong
Press.

Lesson 13
Lehman Peter & Luhr William (2008), Thinking about Movies: Watching, Questioning,
Enjoying, Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 3rd edition, Chapter 16, Globalization,
Digitalization, Convergence: Current Trends: the Matrix

Leung, L. K. G (2019) ‘Hong Kong Cinema: its story of globalization’ in Innovative and
Creative Industries in Hong Kong: a global city in China and Asia. London & New York:
Routledge, (pp. 114-137)

When the east meets the west: Infernal Affairs vs. The Departed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=823BGo8CcGY

11. Academic honesty and plagiarism

Information regarding the academic honesty and plagiarism policy in the University is
located at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

All assignments should be submitted through Veriguide. Any assignment (i.e., project,
paper or essay) that shows evidence of plagiarism will be marked down severely. In
simple terms, plagiarism is copying passages and or/ ideas from other sources
without referencing those sources. It is the writer’s responsibility to cite the ideas
and work of other correctly and properly in your paper or essays. Please visit the
above websites for details and to avoid plagiarism.

12. Feedback and evaluation

Students are welcome to give comments and feedback at any time during the class.
Just stop by to talk to the instructor or teaching assistants. You can also send us mails
or post your comments on the University’s eLearning system