CINEMA HISTORY AND CRITICISM

The course is included in the historical-artist course of the Egart curriculum and it is conceived as a transversal history of the main international cinematographies from their origin up till nowadays. Furthermore, with the support of excerpts from different movies, some of the main filmmakers’ profiles will be considered in details, so as to cross the stilistic, narrative and technological progress in the history of cinema.

Aim of the course is to fournish an overview of the most important topics, movements and experiences of the history of cinema. Students will be able to deepen the dynamics of film production, starting with the knowledge of the technical terminologies related to cinema. Moreover, the international approach to the history of cinema allows to deepen the sociological, historical and economic dynamics that have marked the evolution of the seventh art. A part of the course will also be dedicated to the critical approach to cinema, with particular reference to the multiple valences of peculiar interpretation tools, such as the concepts of editing, author, spectatorship.

No specific prerequisite is requested.

Styles, genres, cultural movements of the international history of cinema. The course will start from the pre-cinema, considering the evolution of the instruments invented for the vision of “moving images”, initially for a private, then for a collective vision. Starting from the European films of the origin (in particular France, Italy, England, Germany and Denmark), we will follow the birth and development of American cinema and that of the major cinemas of the rest of the world. The main directors will be deepened during the lessons through the vision of film clips. At the beginning of the course, the various terminologies with which to analyze the films will be explained. The critical approach to film analysis will be a necessary tool during the lessons.

Paolo Bertetto, Introduzione alla storia del cinema - Autori, film, correnti (Quarta edizione), Utet, Milano, 2023
Additional material will be available in the file on Moodle

During the course the students will be asked to interact with the contents of the lessons with open discussions. The final exam will then consist of a one-hour written test in which four open-ended questions will be asked.

The lessons will take place with a frontal methodology, but a seminar type interaction is strongly encouraged.

Italian

written