FAV330 Historical Poetics of Czech Cinema till 1922 II

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2018
Extent and Intensity
0/0/4. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Radomír D. Kokeš, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Jiří Voráč, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Patrycja Astrid Twardowska
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 14:00–15:40 C34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 69 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/69, only registered: 0/69, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/69
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 10 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The lecture cycle will focuse on the research questions related to the changes in the Czech fiction film until 1922.
It is this year that, after a detailed analysis of the film works on the one hand and the change of production conditions and practices on the other hand, seems to conclude a several-phase transition period of Czech cinema.
This period can be described as a cinema of open possibilites, searching for alternatives to filmmaking, film space and specific means, procedures and functions of film style.
Czech filmmakers weren´t forced to standardize the practices used in terms of production and distribution conditions, so there are various ways the artistic aspects could be dealt with.
Although they worked with several internationally established practices, they also used, combined, and changed them in such a way that they were in a strange position of striking alternatives rather than copies of recognizable trends.
The aim of the course is to reconstruct and explain these processes (a) through synchronous sections of individual years, showing the relative concurrency of various stylistic solutions, (b) through diachronic sections with different lengths of film reels, searching for a shape of a feature film or ways of structuring the film space.
The lecture cycle will consider the specific conditions that these synchronized and diachronically viewed aspects of film poetry could be influenced or caused by, as well as questions related to the possibilities of exploring author or collective poetics.
Presented historical research follows a research program of historical poetics, so its main research tools are detailed analysis of preserved cinematic works and application of discovered aesthetic standards, general trends and functional alternatives to accessible information about particular filmmaking practice.
Learning outcomes
Students will acquire an original awareness of the changes of early Czech cinema, of analytically based explanations of the history of Czech film as an artistic form and of the possibilities of poetological historical research of small national cinema.
Syllabus
  • The lecture cycle - which follows lectures from the previous semester - is going to aim to a diachronic explanations: how, at a given time, changed the forms and functions of certain practices along with the narrative process, plot, fictional world, the formation of the film space or the unity of working with film style in film works.
    At the end of the semester, the lectures will focus on the research of individual or collective poetics in Czech cinema in the given period.
Literature
  • KOKEŠ, Radomír. Rozbor filmu. 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2015, 264 pp. Spisy Masarykovy univerzity v Brně, Filozofická fakulta, sv. 430. ISBN 978-80-210-7756-0. Munishop info
  • KOKEŠ, Radomír. Poznámky k poetice filmu v českých zemích (1911-1915): formální tendence, filmová produkce a zubní extrakce (Notes to the poetics of cinema in the Czech lands (1911-1915): formal tendencies, film production, and tooth extraction). Theatralia. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2014, vol. 17, No 1, p. 330-352. ISSN 1803-845X. Digitální knihovna FF MU info
  • BORDWELL, David. Poetics of cinema. New York: Routledge, 2008, xii, 499. ISBN 9780415977784. info
  • THOMPSON, Kristin. Herr Lubitsch goes to Hollywood : German and American film after World War I. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005, 154 s. ISBN 9053567089. info
  • Early cinema : space, frame, narrative. Edited by Thomas Elsaesser - Adam Barker. Repr. London: BFI Publishing, 1997, 424 s. ISBN 0851702457. info
  • BORDWELL, David. On the history of film style. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997, x, 322. ISBN 0674634292. info
  • SALT, Barry. Film style and technology : history and analysis. 2nd. expand. ed. London: Starword, 1992, 351 s. ISBN 095090662X. info
  • BORDWELL, David, Janet STAIGER and Kristin THOMPSON. The classical Hollywood cinema : film style & mode of production to 1960. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985, xv, 506. ISBN 0231060556. info
Teaching methods
Lectures, film screenings, analyses of concrete films and parts of films. A section of the contact lectures will be oriented on distant study programme students. This part will be devoted to the introduction to the topic and selected topics that are not supported by the obligatory and recommended literature.
Assessment methods
Written essay.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2018/FAV330