CANG 9172: Exploring Cinema’s Dark Side (C1 level)
Instructor: Caroline Boreham
Course Outline:
What makes films so apt at exploring our uneasy feelings? What elements of cinema can provoke anxiety, fear, or even dread in its viewers? In this course, we will watch films that interpret the emotionally tense and at times surreal worlds of the gothic. Cinema has long been interested in the more explicit elements of gothic tales—spooky castles, strange disappearances, a past that won’t stay dead, but in this course we will focus on how the gothic continues to underpin major themes and atmospheres in more modern pastures. We might not be entering many dark castles, but we will be exploring spaces that have to do with the drama—and horror—of everyday life. Our films will range from older, more “classic” gothic films, such as Hitchcock’s Rebecca, to more recent films that use the gothic to represent emotional trauma, haunting personal pasts, and disquieting socio-political contexts. Indeed, as our films cover the period from 1940 to the present, we will not only pay close attention to how they unsettle us as present-day viewers, but also investigate what sort of climates might have brought us such strange works in the first place.
Flipped Classroom Approach: This course is modeled on the flipped classroom approach, which requires students to engage with the materials at home on their own before coming to class to discuss them. In concrete terms, this means that you will have a film to view before coming to class every week; you will also prepare a few short reading exercises or other activities that are designed to help you work through the film and its themes. In-class time will be reserved to student presentations, scene analysis activities and class discussion.
Objectives: This is a discussion-based class and participants will be expected to contribute actively to our talks every week. We will analyse cinematic effects and techniques from the perspective of non-specialists and ordinary viewers. This approach will require students to think about how film technique affects them on a more personal level. For this reason, a background in film studies is not at all necessary. In the written assessments, students are encouraged to go beyond ‘good’ written expression of English and to develop their own voice and style.
Possible films: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich); Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg); Klute (Alan J. Pakula); Get Out (Jordan Peele); Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)
Evaluation: Ongoing Assessment (50%): writing assignments; oral presentation; film club assignment. Final Essay (50%)
