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Cinescapes: Time, Space and Identity

Module description

Cinescapes is comprised of three main subject areas – temporality, space, and identity. The module draws upon key themes and theories based in the current and historical fields of film philosophy. Film philosophy engages with aesthetics, film form, history, geo-politics, and philosophical debates around film as an art form. The module focuses on a body of key films and texts in order to enable rich and reflective research. It will cover a range of exciting themes such as memory and trauma; marginality; road movies; cosmographies and sacred space; queer spaces and temporalities; slow cinema; and a number of case studies – such as a week on the city of Los Angeles. The films themselves are a balance of mainstream and so-called art films from across the globe. There will also be the chance to engage with animated and short films. The module asks the student to reflect upon thematic and aesthetic choices made by a variety of filmmakers in order to discuss and dissect the representation of diverse worlds on screen.

Module aims - intentions of the module

• To give students an informed appreciation and awareness of the rich and complex nature of contemporary film theory and philosophy, building on the theoretical debates addressed in level 1 (EAF1501). It uses films from a variety of geographical, cultural and historical locations in order to explore the complex relationship between film theory and film practice and to illuminate the ways in which film can function as an object of philosophical questioning.

• To address questions of space and setting; the representation of time and its relation to history and memory; and the way in which film articulates and contests ideas concerning gender, sexuality and race. Lectures and seminar tasks will model research and interpretation that debates the relation between film theory, film philosophy and the films themselves, from debating various theoretical tools to close sequence analysis in films that both illuminate and problematise the terms of the debate. Study group meetings and prepared seminar presentations will give students the opportunity to develop their own approaches to the syllabus texts and other materials.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. You should be able to demonstrate an informed understanding of a number of key debates in contemporary film theory and an ability to apply theoretical and philosophical paradigms to film;
• 2. You should be able to demonstrate an informed understanding of a variety of films relevant to theoretical debates in Film Studies;
• 3. You should be able to demonstrate understanding of the role of films as sites for the construction and contestation of certain ideological and philosophical notions;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. You should be able to demonstrate an informed understanding of a number of key debates in contemporary film theory and an ability to apply theoretical paradigms to film
• 5. You should be able to demonstrate an informed understanding of theoretical approaches to film and be able to use them to analyse a range of canonical and contemporary films
• 6. You should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the role of films as sites for the construction and contestation of certain ideological and philosophical notions

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Through essay-writing, you should be able to demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, a capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and a capacity to write clear and correct prose
• 8. Through research for seminars and essays, you should be able to demonstrate proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
• 9. Through research, seminar discussion, and essay writing you should be able to demonstrate a capacity to question assumptions, to distinguish between fact and opinion, and to critically reflect on their own learning process
• 10. Through sequence analysis, you should be able to demonstrate an ability to analyse film as an audio-visual medium

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Film and Philosophy: An Introduction to Cinescapes – The Subjects of the City
• The Postmodern City – Los Angeles
• Postcolonial Spaces
• Mapping Margins – Gangs, Ghettos and Violence
• Sculpting in Time – Slowness and Soviet Cinema.  
• The Road Movie
• History and Trauma - Key Themes: Nationhood, War, Race and Memory
• Cosmographies and Metaphysics – Philosophical Readings of Sacred Space
• Spaces of the Everyday - Gender, Mental Health and the Social Landscape
• Soundscapes, Voices, Bodies, Subjects
• Of a Queer Space and Time

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Core Viewing:

• Of Time and the City (Davies, 2008)
• In the Mood For Love (Wong, 2000)
• Repo Man   (Cox, 1984)
• Somewhere  (Coppola, 2010)
• Sin Nombre  (Fukunaga, 2009)
• Kung-Fu Hustle   (Chow, 2004)
• Stalker   (Tarkovsky, 1979)
• Russian Ark   (Sokurov, 2002)
• My Own Private Idaho   (van Sant, 1991)
• Thelma and Louise  (Scott, 1991)
• Hiroshima Mon Amour  (Resnais, 1959)
• Nostalgia for the Light (Guzmán, 2010)
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives  (Weerasethakul, 2010)
• The Tree of Life  (Malick, 2011)
• Red Desert  (Antonioni, 1964)
• A Woman Under the Influence  (Cassavetes, 1974)
• Klute  (Pakula, 1971)
• Under the Skin  (Glazer, 2014)
• Orlando  (Potter, 1992)
• Boys Don't Cry  (Peirce, 1999) 

Basic reading:

• Linda Williams and Christine Gledhill, eds.,  Reinventing Film Studies  (Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Mark Shiel,  Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context  (Blackwell, 2001)
• Andrei Tarkovskii,  Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema  (University of Texas Press, 1987)
• Michel de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven Rendall. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008)
• Allan Casebier,   Film and Phenomenology: Toward a Realist Theory of Cinematic Representation. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
• Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. (New York: Routledge, 1990)
• Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2: The Time Image.  (London: Continuum, 2005)
• Cathy, Caruth, Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History (Johns Hopkins U Press, 1996))
• Yvette, Bíro, Yvette Turbulence and Flow in Film: The Rhythmic Design. Trans. Paul Salamon. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2008)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1342

Key words search

cinescapes, philosophy, time, space, identity, feminism, film sound, film theory, Soviet Cinema, postcolonial cinema