This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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History of Cinema

Code: 100079 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2502758 Humanities OT 3
2502758 Humanities OT 4

Contact

Name:
Maria Rosa Gutierrez Herranz
Email:
mariarosa.gutierrez@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required


Objectives and Contextualisation

- Knowing the main film schools and authors of the history of cinema

- Understanding the cinematographic context in which these movements are developed


Competences

    Humanities
  • Analysing the regulations about cultural and natural heritage.
  • Critically analysing today's culture and its historical conditions.
  • Designing, producing, disseminating and commercializing a cultural product.
  • Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  • Properly using the resources and methodologies of the study of contemporary culture.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing the legal framework of copyrights in cinematography.
  2. Applying the knowledge about aesthetic ideas and art theory to the analysis of the cinematographic imagery.
  3. Contrasting the various legal frameworks of the artistic heritage.
  4. Designing programmes of museography or management of the artistic heritage.
  5. Distinguishing the techniques and elaboration process of an artistic object from the avant-garde and the latest artistic trends.
  6. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  7. Preparing a proposal for an exhibition from a provided material.
  8. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of the contemporary world.
  9. Relating the artistic creations from various periods with other cultural phenomena.

Content

I. Early cinema

1. Origins of cinema: historical context

2. Pre-cinematic devices: inventions and mythical imaginary

3. Pioneers of cinema: science, entertainment and industry

4. Cinematographic genres: the cinema between high and low culture

5. Primitive Mode of Representation (M.R.P.) vs. classic cinema (M.R.I.)

II. American classic cinema

1. Hollywood: birth and evolution

2. Cinema as an industry: Studio System and Star System 

3. The grammar of classic cinema

4. Film genre codes: main authors

III. European realisms 

1. French poetic realism

2. Italian neorealism

IV. New European film and American alternatives

1. Nouvelle Vague

2. Cinema Nuovo

3. Free Cinema

4. Neue Deutscher Film

5. Other European cinematographies

6. New Hollywood and American Independent Cinema

V. Avant-garde, underground and experimental cinema 

1. French impressionism

2. German Expressionism, Kammerspielfilm and New Objectivity

3. Soviet montage films and kino-glaz

4. Cinema and artistic avant-gardes, experimental and underground film

VI. Peripheral cinematographies

1. Latin America

2. Asia

3. Africa

VII. Overview of contemporary cinema


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CLASSES 24 0.96 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Type: Supervised      
VIEWING AND COMMENTARY OF FILMS 58 2.32 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Type: Autonomous      
READINGS AND PERSONAL WORK 25 1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
STUDY OF THE CONTENTS 25 1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

- Theoretical and practical classes directed by the professor

- Viewing and commentiary of films

- Study, readings and personal work

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
EXAM OF THE CONTENTS I 35% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
EXAMEN OF THE CONTENTS II 35% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
ORAL PRESENTATION ABOUT A FILMMAKER 20% 1 0.04 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
VIEWING AND COMMENTARY OF FILMS 10% 14 0.56 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

- Exam of the contents I (35%)

- Exam of the contents II (35%)

- Oral presentation about a contemporary filmmaker (20%)

- Viewing and commentary of films (10%)

 
Observations:

- Single assessment: work about a filmmaker (20%), exam of the contets I and II (70%) and viewing of films (10%)

- Review: on carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.

- Recovery: to participate in recovery, students must have previously been evaluated in a set of activities whose weight equals a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade. The activity of viewing and commentary of films and the oral presentation about a filmmaker will not be recoverable.

- Not assessed/Not submitted: students will obtain a “Not assessed/Not submitted” course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

- Plagiarism: in the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for thisactivity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


Bibliography

Film History

AA.VV., Historia General del Cine (12 vols.), Cátedra, Madrid, 1995-1998

Gubern, Romà, Historia del cine (2 vols.), Lumen, Barcelona, 1971

Sánchez Vidal, Agustín, Historia del cine, Historia 16, Madrid, 1997 

Early Cinema

Burch, Noël, El tragaluz del infinito, Cátedra, Madrid, 1995

American Classic Cinema

Altman, Rick, Los géneros cinematográficos, Paidos, Barcelona, 2000

Bordwell, David; Staiger, Janet; Thompson, Kristin, El cine clásico de Hollywood, Paidos, Barcelona, 1997

Gomery, Douglas., Hollywood: el sistema de estudios, Verdoux, Madrid, 1991

European Realisms

Quintana, Àngel, Fábulas de lo visible, El Acantilado, Barcelona, 2003

New European Film

Torreiro, Casimiro; Riambau, Esteve; Monterde, José Enrique, Los “Nuevos Cines” europeos (1955-1970), Lerna, Barcelona, 1987

Avant-garde, Underground and Experimental Film

Sánchez-Biosca, Vicente, Cine y vanguardias artísticas, Paidos, Barcelona, 2004

Tejeda, Carlos, Arte en fotogramas. Cine realizado por artistas, Cátedra, Madrid, 2008

Peripheral Cinematographies

Elena, Alberto, Los cines periféricos: África, Oriente Medio, India, Paidos, Barcelona, 1999

Contemporary Cinema

Quintana, Àngel, Después del cine. Imagen y realidad en la era diglital, El Acantilado, Barcelona, 2011


Software

- Moodle

- Teams


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Spanish second semester morning-mixed