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Seminar: Film Theory

Why on earth would we need “theory” to watch movies? Doesn’t everybody know how to do that? Won’t “theory” spoil the whole experience of cinema by “reading too much” into everything? Isn’t “theory” the eternal enemy of imagination and pleasure? Don’t concepts get in the way of creativity? In the face of so many doubts, let’s take nothing for granted, neither “film” nor “theory,” neither “looking” nor “thinking.” Let’s see if we can start from scratch, in order to raise the most far-reaching questions. We will proceed in the simplest and most practical way possible. We will try to learn to see, and to think about seeing, in new ways. We will pursue cinematic analysis alongside self-analysis. Rather than surveying many different theories of cinema, we will pursue one or two theories as far as we can go. It will take the whole semester to ask our questions well. We will read difficult texts, watch demanding films, write essays and make images of our own.