FAVz074 Media, Cinema and Controversy

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2018
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Daniel Biltereyst, prof. (lecturer), doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D. (deputy)
Mgr. Jitka Lanšperková (assistant)
Mgr. Kateřina Šardická (assistant)
Mgr. Petronela Vavreková (assistant)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, 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 13. 11. 12:00–15:40 C34, Wed 14. 11. 10:00–11:40 C34, 14:00–15:40 C34, Thu 15. 11. 10:00–11:40 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: 1/69, 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
This course will provide entrances on current trends within film and cinema historiography with a focus upon cinema as central societal platforms of public debate and controversy, but also of mechanisms of controlling, surveilling, censoring those platforms.
Learning outcomes
- foster a better understanding of key concepts around film, cinema and media as societally sensitive platforms for public debate, controversy and control - introduce and apply methodologies of researching media as societally sensitive platforms - get acquainted of important historical cases of controversial media, media products, media events, from the perspectives of their production, distribution, exhibition and reception.
Syllabus
  • 5 lectures:
  • - Tuesday 13/11, 12.00 - 13.30: Lecture 1: Concepts and Theories This lecture aims at introducing a few key concepts including public sphere and the media, public debate, controversy, moral and media panic, control, censorship, discipline, and surveillance. The lecture will go into a several cases of controversial new media, controversial media products or genres, and events, with cases like reality tv and the introduction of cinema as a societal danger. Text: o Reading text 1. Biltereyst, D. (2004), Media audiences and the game of controversy. On reality TV, moral panic and controversial media stories, Journal of Media Practice, 5(1): 7-24.
  • - Tuesday 13/11, 14.00 - 15.30: Lecture 2: Cinema Censorship I: USA and Hollywood pictures around the world This lecture aims at introducing the history of the highly sophisticated control mechanisms in Hollywood, probably the most powerful center of producing mediated imagery in the world. Besides going into the history of Hollywood censorship, the lecture also aims at focusing on the different mechanisms of controlling and evading institutional control, as well as comparing some mechanisms of censorship of US films abroad. Texts: o Reading text 2. Biltereyst, D. (2011) Censorship, negotiation, and transgressive cinema: Double Indemnity, Some Like it Hot and other controversial movies in the USA and Europe, pp. 145-160 in: K. McNally (Ed.) Billy Wilder, Moviemaker: Critical Essays on the Films. Jefferson, NA, USA: McFarland Publishers.
  • - Wednesday 14/11, 10:00-11:30: Lecture 3: Cinema Censorship II: varieties of control, censorship, discipline, surveillance This lecture aims at expanding the concept of film and cinema censorship by looking at a wide variety of other mechanisms of controlling film images, the places where movies were screened, how people watched, and other levels of control, censorship and surveillance around cinema as a societal institution. Text: o Reading text 3. Müller, B. (2004), ‘Censorship and cultural regulation: Mapping the territory’, pp. 1-31 in: B. Müller (ed.), Censorship & Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age, Rodopi.
  • Wednesday 14/11, 14.00 - 15.30: Lecture 4: Researching Film and Cinema Controversy I: traditions, methods, levels This lecture aims at going into approaches and methods of researching film and cinema controversy and control. This includes an overview of research traditions which focus on the film text (cf. representation, ideology, spectatorship) as well as traditions which aims at contextualizing controversial movies by using more contextualizing sources and traces, including those related to the movies’ societal and audience reception. A special focus will be laid on new cinema historiography which aims at defocusing the primacy of the film text. Text: o Reading text 4. Biltereyst, D. & Meers, Ph. (2018) Film, cinema and reception studies: Revisiting research on audience’s filmic and cinematic experiences, pp. 21-41 in E. Di Giovanni & Y. Gambier (eds.) Reception studies and audiovisual translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
  • - Thursday 15/11, 10:00-11:30: Lecture 5: Researching Film and Cinema Controversy II: cases This talk aims at going into historical cases around a few societally sensitive issues like politically controversial films, as well as the issue of exhibiting and screening sexually sensitive images with a special case study on the emergence and growth of sex cinemas. Text: o Reading text 5. Barker, M. et al (2007), ‘Audiences and Receptions of Sexual Violence in Contemporary Cinema: Baise-moi’, Research report for the British Board of Film Classification, 67-93 o Reading text 6. Biltereyst, D. (2018) Sex Cinemas, Limit Transgression and the Aura of ‘Forbiddenness’: The Emergence of risqués cinemas and Cinema Leopold in Ghent, Belgium, 1945-1954, Film Studies, 18(3): 14-33.
Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
Preliminary test based on the knowledge of papers in the reader (40%) and final test based on the knowledge of the lectures (60%). The knowledge of the essays will be tested before the first lecture.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught only once.
General note: Obligatory 100% attendance (with the exception of distance students who are allowed to miss 2 out of 6 sessions).
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