World Cinema

This course surveys the history, theory, aesthetics, and development of world cinema since the end of WWII. Starting with the influential Italian Neorealism, we will travel around the world through cinema in roughly chronological order and study important movements in the cinemas of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Discussion topics will include: The characteristics and cinematic approaches of each film; the socio-political contexts that made the directors choose the particular approaches; the concepts of first, second, and third cinema; the cultural or national identities and struggles explored in the formerly colonized or war-torn nations; the subjective psychologies investigated in the European mode of art films; the meaning of national cinema in the 20th and 21st centuries; and the cross-pollinations of directorial talents in the globalized film industry.