Film & Media Studies

This course explores developments in the Hollywood film industry from the 1960s to the present. Students examine some of the key issues of this period, including the focus on modernist strategies, revisionist approaches, allusionism, and the new generation of Hollywood film school "auteurs." The course also examines the interconnection between entertainment industries, and the emergence and significance of "high concept" as a production and marketing strategy.

This course studies examples of successful imagined worlds (Zelda: Breath of the Wild), powerful storytelling (The Last of Us), literary games (Kentucky Route Zero), indie games (Braid), micro-Indies (Problem Attic), and classic adventure games (Monkey Island). Students explore the possibilities of play, world-building, narrative, character-design, game mechanics, and game dynamics. Technical understanding of the medium provides students with an array of opportunities for writing and imagining video games: composing narratives and shooting-scripts, creating avatars, and developing fictional worlds. The course introduces students to game development software, though it is not designed as a coding course. It is ideal for students looking beyond the surface of video games, wanting to engage with thoughtful critique of an emerging industry. The course reflects on the social implications of game design, taking into account discourses around gender, race, and sexuality.

The course examines the relationship between literature and cinema, focusing on narration, intertextuality, dialogism, and adaptation. Students analyze a selection of authors and their works alongside film adaptations, exploring the creative and critical interplay between text and screen. To be best prepared for the material, it is recommended to have completed a course in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction. 

This course examines the study and practice of storytelling for screen media. It will provides a framework through which to recognize and critically analyze key elements of the screenwriting process.

This course discusses state terrorism during the military dictatorship and issues in the quest for truth and justice. It explores the concept of human rights as encompassing issues related not only to political repression but also ethnicity, nationality, socio-economic inequality, and gender. This course studies different cultural products that represent aspects of human rights including: literature; photography; painting; theater; film.

This course examines the trajectory of the Academy Awards: from 1930s screwball comedies and backstage musicals to celebrated wartime classics; from 1950s Minnelli musicals to 1980s post-Vietnam war films. It will provide a concentrated, thumbnail history of American Cinema, which challenges students to consider and question the formal criteria (cinematography, acting, sound, editing) upon which critical judgement is based. It will introduce students to the canonical classics of American Cinema, inviting them to explore diverse film genres and even the occasional Academy extravaganza.

The course focuses on the history of North American cinema and in particular the identifying elements of production and industry (the genre system, the studio system, and the star system). Special attention is placed on cultural and formal elements as well as economic and distribution factors that have determined the success of North American cinema worldwide in a comparison with European cinema production. The topic for the 2025-2026 year is Hollywood Film Comedy (1920-1990). This course deals with, among others, the following thematic blocks: vaudeville comedy and film; slapstick comedy; screwball and romantic comedy; Hollywood comedians; New Hollywood comedy, Woody Allen.

Required readings include: 1) Institutional part: F. La Polla, Introduzione al cinema di Hollywood, Mondadori, Milano, 2006. Peter Decherney, Hollywood, Mulino, Bologna 2016. 2) Monographic course: Reference bibliography for preparing the paper will be available on the platform VIRTUALE from the beginning of the course.

The course is part of the Laurea Magistrale Program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. This course explores the role that visual imagery plays in contemporary society, by means of looking at the visual as a key communication as well as economic and cultural resource. The course offers both an overview of established critical theories of visual communication and more contemporary takes on visual analysis and visuality at large. To gain a critical understanding of the central role that visual communication plays in global and local contexts alike, the course relies on a wide range of examples and case studies from key communication industries including advertising, film, stock photography, branding, social media, and news media. As well as studying visual communication theories, methods for critical visual analysis and specific examples and cases, students develop their own original research on specific dimensions of visual communication.