Film Studies

Course summary

Film is the most important art form of the last 150 years. Not only does it entertain and captivate but it can also stimulate debate and change minds. As an art form, it functions at the intersection of commerce and industry, generating hundreds of millions, in some cases billions of dollars whilst simultaneously providing audiences with unforgettable experiences. Simply put the movies are magic. In Film Studies, we look at some of the mechanics that drive the cinematic experience whilst also enhancing its pleasure. By the end of the course, you will be fully cine-literate, able to analyse and think about films as groups and movements but also as cultural artefacts representative of the time and place in which they were made. You will have engaged with filmmaking as a practical pursuit as well, through writing screenplays and directing short films yourselves. Film studies is now taught in all the best universities in the world, including St Andrews and Cambridge in the UK, and is often taken as a joint degree alongside English Literature with which it shares many characteristics. As an A-Level, The subject combines particularly well with Art, English, History, Classics, Modern Languages, Psychology and Business Studies, though since it is multidisciplinary, Film Studies can complement any combination of subjects. For the exams, we will study the following films about specific key concepts. Hollywood 1930-1990 • Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942) • Do The Right Thing (Lee, 1989) • American Film Since 2005 No Country For Old Men (Coen Bros, 2005) • Frances Ha! (Baumbach, 2012) • British Film Since 1995 Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996) • Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004) • Global Film Victoria (Schipper, Germany, 2015) • Wild Tales (Szifron, Argentina, 2014) • Documentary Film Amy (Kapadia, UK, 2015) • Kurt and Courtney, Broomfield, UK, 1998) • Film Movements – Silent Cinema Buster Keaton shorts • Film Movements – Experimental Cinema Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, US, 1994)