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2012/13 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

FREN3825 Rethinking French Cinema: André Bazin and After

20 creditsClass Size: 12

Module manager: Margaret Atack
Email: m.k.atack@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2012/13

Pre-requisite qualifications

Ability to study a module taught in French, usually evidenced by having successfully completed level 2 of a degree programme including French.

This module is approved as an Elective

Module summary

This course will study Welles’s Citizen Kane, some of André Bazin’s writings on film, and some of the key postwar films by France’s leading directors. Citizen Kane galvanised French critics and writers alike when first seen in France after the war in 1946, and was hailed as opening a revolutionary new way of thinking about and creating film by André Bazin, one of the most influential writers about film.He co-founded the Cahiers du cinéma in 1951; some of his iconoclastic young collaborators were to become the leading lights in the Nouvelle Vague movement, and in parallel, a more politically engaged Rive gauche group was also expanding the limits of film.With this extraordinary burst of creativity, theoretically and aesthetically, they wrote themselves into the history books of world cinema history, and of French cultural history.The course will be taught in French and assessed in French and in English. This course has grown out of Prof Atack's research into the culture and cultural history of postwar France, cf her book May 68 in French Fiction and Film and supervision of research MA on early films of Godard, Resnais and Marker, etc.

Objectives

- To analyse key writings of André Bazin
- To understand the importance of Citizen Kane in the development of film in France
- To analyse films by some of France key directors in the light of the work of Bazin and Welles, in order to understand their cultural and filmic originality
- To understand the role of film in French postwar cultural history.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be able to demonstrate:
- specialist knowledge of postwar debates in France on the nature of film;
- specialist knowledge of the work of some of France leading directors associated with `the Nouvelle Vague and Rive Gauche groups;
- advanced critical analysis, informed by this knowledge and understanding, of the set texts;
- the ability to use written and oral communication effectively;
- the capacity for independent thought and judgement;
- critical reasoning.

Skills outcomes
On completion of this module students should have developed:

- Advanced level skills of cultural and historical analysis as applied to key texts of Bazin and the Cahiers du cinéma, the films of the Nouvelle Vague and Rive gauche.
- The ability to evaluate a variety of films using critical vocabularies appropriate to the analysis of film.
- Advanced level written and oral skills in French in the language of intellectual analysis, debate, and formal presentation.
- Research skills, including the retrieval of information, the organisation of material and the evaluation of its importance.
- Efficient time management and organisation skills.
- The skills supporting the ability to learn independently.

Syllabus

Films and text for detailed study:

- André Bazin, Qu’est-ce que le cinéma?
- Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, 1941
- Louis Malle, L’Ascenseur à l’échafaud, 1957
- Claude Chabrol, Le Beau Serge, 1958
- Alain Resnais, L’Année dernière à Marienbad, 1961
- Chris Marker, La Jetée, 1962
- Jean-Luc Godard, Le Mépris, 1963
- François Truffaut, La Nuit américaine, 1973.

Programme of study:

- Weeks 1-2: Introduction to key concepts and cultural history; Bazin and Citizen Kane
- Weeks 3-4: Chabrol and Malle: La Nouvelle Vague
- Weeks 5-6: Resnais and Marker: the Rive gauche group
- Weeks 7-8: Godard and Truffaut: Filmer le film
- Week 9- 10: Revisiting of key themes; formative assessment: exam essay preparation and dissertation consultation.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	9	1.00	9.00
Seminar	1	2.00	2.00
Seminar	9	1.00	9.00
Private study hours			180.00
Total Contact hours			20.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Students will need to read/view all the texts on the syllabus, as well as a selection of secondary texts (historical and critical) from the reading list.

They will devote time to preparing seminar themes each week, and will make a formal seminar presentation. They will research and write a dissertation.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

For the essay, to be written in French, there will be individual consultations on the student’s choice of topic, and written feedback on the draft plan.

For the examination, written in English, there will be group discussion of sample questions, and the opportunity to submit draft exam answer plans for written feedback.

Written comments will be given on the student presentations handed in at the end of the relevant seminar.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3,000 words	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)	2 hr 00 mins	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 11/04/2013

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