FTVMS 707

New Waves

Description

This course investigates some key moments in the first centenary of world cinema, ranging from French and British New Waves of the 1960s to Taiwanese and mainland Chinese New Cinemas of the 1980s. It considers these New Wave cinemas’ refreshing subjects, their close/critical interactions with social reality, their innovative styles and a youthful vitality demonstrated on the levels of narration, production and reception.

Through looking at three interrelated issues, ie, social critique, avant-garde style and the rejuvenation of (semi-)national cinema, the course examines some major products of major directors of these cinemas from three main perspectives: context, aesthetics and reception. In dealing with the texts from different cultures, the course will discuss such concepts as modernism, avant-garde, subjectivity, reflexivity and point-of-view.

Some primary texts studied include Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, 1962), Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959), A Time to Live, A Time to Die (Hou Hsiao Hsien, 1985) and Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, 1984).

Availability 2012

Semester 1

Lecturer(s)

Coordinator(s) Dr Xuelin Zhou

Points

FTVMS 707: 30.0 points

Restrictions

FTVMS 731