FAVz016 American Cinema: Inside and Outside the System

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 5 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: k (colloquium). Other types of completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Dr Jan-Christopher Horak (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Petr Szczepanik, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: doc. Mgr. Petr Szczepanik, Ph.D.
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 120 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/120, only registered: 0/120, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/120
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives (in Czech)
The first three lectures will focus on the history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from its inception in the silent period to the present, seeing it as a paradigmatic example of the development of the Hollywood studio system in its various phases. The following two lectures will deal with the position of the avant-garde in relation to mainstream filmmaking, looking first at early cinema (pre-1917) and then at the American avant-garde in the 1920s/30s. A final lecture will discuss the interrelationship of film preservation and the construction of film history.
Jan-Christopher Horak received his B.A. in history from the University of Delaware, an M.S. in film from Boston University, and his PhD. from the Dept. of Communications at the Westfalische Wilhlems-Universitat in Munster, Germany. His long career as a film archivist and curator has taken him from George Eastman House, where he was Senior Curator of the Film Department to the directorship of the Munich Filmmuseum (Germany). In 1998 he became Founding Director of Archives & Collections at Universal Studios, then moved to Hollywood Entertainment Museum, where he was curator until 2006. He has taught as an Adjunct at the University of Rochester, the Munich Film Academy, the University of Salzburg, and at Wayne State University's Program Abroad, and has been Visiting Professor at UCLA since 1999, teaching in Critical Studies and in Moving Image Archive Studies. Horak has published numerous books, including "Making Images Move: Photographers and Avant-Garde Cinema" (1997), "Berge, Licht und Traum. Dr. Arnold Fanck und der deutsche Bergfilm" (1997), "Lovers of Cinema. The First American Film Avant-Garde 1919-1945" (1995), "The Dream Merchants: Making and Selling Films in Hollywood's Golden Age" (1989), "Anti Nazi Filme der deutschsprachigen Emigration von Hollywood" (1984), "Fluchtpunkt Hollywood. Eine Dokumentation zur Filmemigration nach 1933" (1986 expanded 2nd edition), "Helmar Lerski - Lichtbildner. Fotographien und Filme 1910-1947 (1982), and Film und Foto der zwanziger Jahre" (1979).
Syllabus (in Czech)
  • 1. Three lectures on the history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as the paradigm of an American studio in the classic Hollywood period.
  • 2. Two lectures on avantgarde film. One lecture on interrelationship between avant-garde and early cinema, better said, avant-garde practices in early cinema. Second lecture on early American Avant-garde.
  • 1. Lecture on film historiography, i.e. the interrelationship between the construction of film history and film preservation/archival practice.
Literature
  • Jan-Christopher Horak; ‘Unplumbed Possibilities: James Sibley Watson’s Avant-Garde Industrial Films,’ in: Film History , Vol. 20, No. 1, 2008
  • Peter Bart: Fade out : the calamitous final days of MGM. New York: Morrow 1990
  • Christopher Horak: “The Gap Between 1 and 0: Digital Video and the Omissions of Film History,” In: The Spectator, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Spring 2007)
  • Jan-Christopher Horak: The Dream Merchants: Making and Selling Films in Hollywood's Golden Age. Rochester: George Eastman House 1989
  • Samuel Marx: Thalberg and Mayer. The Make-Believe Saints. New York: Random House 1975
  • GOMERY, Douglas. The Hollywood studio system : a history. 1st pub. London: BFI Publishing, 2005, vii, 333. ISBN 1844570231. info
  • Lovers of cinema : the first American film avant-garde, 1919-1945. Edited by Jan-Christopher Horak. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995, xii, 404. ISBN 0299146847. info
Assessment methods
elective course, colloquium, written test
100% presence at the lectures is required
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
Information on completion of the course: Full time students: 100% presence at the lectures is required. Distance students: two absences are tolerated.
The course is taught only once.
The course is taught: in blocks.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2009/FAVz016