Film & Media Studies

This course examines stars, celebrities, and fandom practices, as they are found in the media and popular culture (film, television, pop music, advertising, branding, news and magazines, the Internet and society media). Stars and celebrities also arise from beyond the mediasphere, with the possibility to consider literary stars, famous artists, royalties, and personalities from the fields of politics and sports. Academic approaches to fan cultures also critically engage with subcultural groups and participatory practices.

This course fulfils the dual function of introducing students to various canonical French texts and films and of introducing students to the study of narrative poetics, or "narratology" an important mode of literary analysis which was largely developed in France. Beginning with a comparative analysis of the narrative techniques of a 19th-century short story by Guy de Maupassant and its film adaptation by the great director Jean Renoir, the course then turns to the medieval and early modern versions of the popular tale LA CHESTELAINE DE VERGI. Afterward, students read the crucial 18th-century novel MANON LESCAUT, the source for Puccini's opera of the same name; they shall then turn to Emile Zola's 19th-century novel THÉRÈSE RAQUIN, studying both this text and its film adaptation. Finally, students examine a contemporary text remarkable for its narrative technique: Annie Ernaux's LA PLACE. 

Between the advent of talking pictures in 1927 and the official launch of the New Hollywood in 1967, the classic Hollywood system developed and experienced a golden age, followed by a decline that was to begin in the early 1950s. This is the official story, in line with a certain reality, but one to which the work of numerous historians has added nuance and nuance. This course takes a historical approach, incorporating recent research, to revisit the Hollywood studio system, based on the power of producers and the exploitation of stars. It also studies the structuring of film production into major genres (melodrama, western, musical, biopic, war film, social film, biblical epic, film noir, etc.), which are sometimes called into question by their reception, and whose stability is open to debate. The course also looks at the history of the introduction in the early 1930s of a self-regulatory code, the famous Hays Code, whose interpretation may have changed over time, and whose influence gradually waned between 1952 and 1967. It explores the ideological tensions that divided the Hollywood community, sometimes violently and permanently: the question of American involvement in the Second World War, the inquisitorial system of the "Witch Hunt" in the context of the Cold War. The essential contribution of artists and technicians from European immigrant backgrounds is studied, including producers, directors, actors and actresses, screenwriters, cinematographers and composers. The careers of figures who forged the identity and style of classic Hollywood cinema are also explored, including: Charles Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Ernst Lubitsch, Erich Von Stroheim, Joseph Von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Elia Kazan. The course also looks at the homogeneity of the classic Hollywood style described in Janet Staiger, Kristin Thompson, and David Bordwell's (also classic) THE CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA: FILM STYLE & MODE OF PRODUCTION TO 1960. The re-evaluation of the place of female directors (Dorothy Arzner, Ida Lupino), African-American directors (Oscar Micheaux), and marginal genres (horror, animation) in the Hollywood canon provides food for thought on the homogeneity of Hollywood style and the centrality of a hegemonic definition.

In this course, students explore the different areas and production roles that make up the filmmaking process. As a team, students create a short film. Guidance is provided through each production stage: development, pre-production, production, and post-production.

This course examines the ways in which meanings are discursively constructed in the news. It will also critically reflect and debate on issues of power relations and ideologies of the news media: the influence they exert both on our governments and major institutions as well as their ability to shape our ideas, beliefs and behaviors through the news discourse that we immerse ourselves in. Adopting a linguistic/semiotic perspective, this course offers detailed insights into the language of the news by discussing the main characteristics of news discourse and exploring theoretical frameworks to research and analyze the use of text and image in the construction of news and the manifestations of power, control and ideology in the press. 

This course teaches the art and craft of screenwriting. Students undertake a thorough investigation of plot structure and develop a sophisticated understanding of character development and theme, as well as consider other screenwriting concepts including subtext, scene design, and cinematic juxtaposition. The practical dimension of the course involve each student each writing a script for an 8-10 minute short film. Through guided writing exercises and in-class viewings, students work through a script development process that guides them from their initial conception to the completion of a fully revised script.

This course explores the use of music in Hollywood Cinema up to the present day.  The focus is on how music has worked to both support and undermine the dominant ideology of Hollywood Cinema. Students discuss the concept of the Classical Hollywood Score and how it has functioned in partnership with the Classical Hollywood Narrative. 

This course examines the evolving cultural dimensions of the digital domain. It examines moral issues, including privacy, surveillance, and hacking, as well as the political implications of our online lives. It also examines the aesthetic potential of the digital and investigates key concepts such as “virtuality,” “interactivity,” “hypertexts,” “simulation,” “cyborgs,” and “cyber-subcultures.” Media synergy and depictions of cyberculture in the cinema, literature, and other art forms will also be considered. 

This course will lead students to practice the content production and operation of all categories, all processes and all media. Students participate in the actual work of the project, master the ability of graphic writing, video production and podcast production in a real all-media environment, participate in large-scale live broadcasting and large-scale activities, carry out actual operation under the guidance of teachers, and ride the waves in the ocean of digital media. The content involved includes but is not limited to interviewing and photographing senior professors, new scholars, outstanding students and alumni, reporting campus scenery, interesting courses and lectures, campus sports activities, cultural activities, community activities, exhibition performances and so on.

This course examines seminal feature films and documentaries by such filmmakers as Perry Henzell, Humberto Solas, Euzhan Palcy, Felix de Rooy, Raoul Peck, as well as a number of new and young filmmakers, many working in video. The films will reflect the diversity of the region and its diaspora, and will include films in French, Dutch, Spanish, English and Creole. The course will explore representations of race, culture and landscape, migration and nation, as well as the impact of history, economics and politics of the region on the development of Caribbean cinema.