Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with the necessary tools for an advanced historical-theoretical approach to cinema and the moving image, with a focus on the relationship between cinema, visual arts, the discipline of art history and museum institutions.
- Knowledge and comprehension skills:
Understand and know the historical and theoretical characters of the film medium through different tools (volumes, articles, films and multimedia materials), refining the ability to move within the perimeter of advanced research in the field of cinema and media. Understand the historiographical, aesthetic and mediological problems underlying the medium and the contemporary media landscape.
- Applied knowledge and understanding skills:
Apply knowledge and comprehension skills to the complex landscape of film studies, visual culture and contemporary mediality. Mature reasoning skills and intellectual agility in the theoretical study of media experience. Develop skills both in devising and supporting arguments and in solving problems pertaining to film history and theory.
- Autonomy of judgment:
Develop ability to gather and interpret information, knowledge, and data useful for determining autonomous judgments in the area of film and media history and theory, including cross-cultural, historical, and aesthetic reflections. Develop ability to make critical judgments and complex arguments in a structured manner regarding historical, historiographical, and theoretical issues about the film medium. Know how to interact critically with the scholarly literature of film studies, media studies, and visual culture studies.
- Communication Skills:
Communicate effectively, accurately, thoroughly and clearly information, ideas, problems and solutions concerning the subject matter to specialist and non-specialist interlocutors.
- Learning skills:
Develop learning skills, elaboration of a working method and critical reworking necessary to refine, with a high degree of autonomy, studies in the field of film and media both with a view to eventual continuation of postgraduate studies and in the professional world.
Prerequisites
General knowledge of film history, the major theoretical concepts and elements of film language. For those who have never taken an institutional film history course in their studies, we recommend consulting the textbook: David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, Jeff Smith, Storia del cinema. Un'introduzione, Italian ed. edited by Elena Mosconi and David Bruni, McGraw-Hill Education, 6th ed., 2022. Adequate language skills for understanding complex texts in Italian and English.
Course unit content
The course will address the relationship between cinema and the visual arts, both historically and theoretically, also reflecting on the contemporary panorama. It will examine at the general relationships between cinema on the one hand and painting, sculpture, architecture, design and urban planning on the other, analyzing issues of filming, quotation, inspiration, inclusion, and remediation of art and artistic heritage in cinema; the art documentary, in historical and contemporary perspective; the genre of artist biography, fictional or documentary; the representation of the museum in cinema; the relationship between cinema and the museum institution.
Full programme
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Bibliography
Required text:
Antonio Costa, Il cinema e le arti visive. Nuova edizione riveduta e ampliata, Einaudi, Turin 2022.
Theprofessor will make available on the course page on Elly a handout with pdf texts in Italian and English, concerning the topics touched upon in the classes: the study of these texts is mandatory for exam preparation.
Teaching methods
Lectures with presentation of multimedia material; discussion time; analysis of film sequences.
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral interview aimed at verifying the knowledge learned and the methodological tools acquired through attending lectures, studying the bibliography and viewing the exam filmography.
The student should be able to correctly place the objects and issues under examination in their historical, theoretical and cultural context of reference.
The following will be considered for evaluation: accuracy of preparation, mastery and extent of argumentation, student's expository ability and breadth of reasoning, and terminological accuracy.
A failing grade is determined by a lack of knowledge of the minimum course content. A sufficient assessment (18-23/30) is determined by an acceptable level of preparation by the student; average scores (24-27/30) are awarded to the student who demonstrates a more than sufficient (24-25/30) or good (26-27/30) level of knowledge and critical learning. The highest scores (28/30 to 30/30 cum laude) are awarded based on the demonstration of a very good to excellent level, accompanied by considerable personal and critical acquisition of the content (30 cum laude).
The exam filmography, provided by the lecturer at the beginning of the course and specified in the detailed syllabus available on the course page on Elly, is an integral part of the exam. Some exam questions will focus on the films included in it, which must be seen in their entirety.
There are no midterm or out-of-call tests.
The exam is in Italian. In exceptional cases, for foreign and non-Italian-speaking students, it is possible to request in advance to take it in English, with specific bibliography; the lecturer will evaluate on a case-by-case basis.
Other information
There are no differences in the programme for attending and non-attending students. However, attendance and active participation in class is strongly recommended.
Students must register on the course page on Elly platform to find the complete syllabus with filmography and all materials pertaining to the course.
Some lectures will be devoted to a detailed analysis of some films in the filmography: prior viewing is recommended.
For any questions or clarifications, students are invited to contact the lecturer at the email address paolo.villa@unipr.it
Those interested in a dissertation in Theories of Cinema may contact the lecturer. The grade-threshold for a dissertation in the subject is 27; no dissertation requests will be accepted less than six months before the session in which one intends to graduate. Students are encouraged, when requesting a dissertation, to propose one or more topics of their interest, which will be discussed with the lecturer.
Here are the topics of interest to the professor (on which he may assign the thesis in case the student prefers not to propose a topic of his or her own interest): European cinematic avant-gardes in the 1920s, Italian and European documentary cinema, art documentaries, relations between cinema and the visual arts, biopics on artists, the image of Italy in Hollywood and European films, costume films from the 1980s to the present, contemporary European cinema, cinematic representation of the landscape and the city, the history of movie theaters, and the history of movie posters.
Office hours: During class period, Tuesday afternoons from 3 pm. Outside of class period, see the lecturer's page: https://personale.unipr.it/it/ugovdocenti/person/256402 for any notices and cancellations. Reception is held at the Unità di Arte, Cinema e Spettacolo, Palazzo della Pilotta (fifth floor), Piazzale della Pace 7/A. Please send an by email in case you intend to show up for reception, especially outside of teaching periods.
