Content
CCS 381: The class, its topic
Core ideas
- What is cinema?
- A personal anecdote
- Understanding cinema by looking at its roots:
- the relationship with other technologies (the train, the automobile, the plane, etc.)
- the politics of mass influence
- the birth and the popularization of psychology and psychiatry
- healing
- lessons or models for self-improvement
- The French New Wave, and the 1960s and 70s as the golden era of cinema
- using the camera to tell a story: the initial sequence from “Le Mans” (1971)
- Acting and the calculated, selective use of the body within a film scene
- Editing and movement: introducing dynamism through editing
- The road movie genre: some examples
- Matrix for the analysis of road movies
Scenes exemplifying some of the core concepts
Notice the stiffness in the police captain’s body posture, and the way the camera angle includes the photos of crime scenes in the background of the office and the board to the right, showing crime-related statistical trends. (“In a Lonely Place,” 1950)
In a Lonely Place (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1950)
Le Mans (dir. Lee H. Katzin*, 1971)
- From 00:14 to 7:14
- From the beginning to the moment when Michael Delaney (Steve Mc Queen) leaves the scene of last year’s race accident, and the title of the film appears on the screen