Philosophy and Cinema
Code: 100279 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Philosophy | OT | 3 |
| Philosophy | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Andrea Lorena Soto Calderon
- Email:
- andrea.soto@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites to take this course, although it is recommended to have taken the course of Aesthetics.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Philosophy of Cinema is an elective course in the fourth year of the philosophy degree. The aim of this course is to offer a general introduction to philosophical thought on cinema, while at the same time it takes an approach to how cinema has affected philosophical thought. It is an approach that questions the uniqueness of cinema, that aims to think about its intimate materiality in order to analyze how it is that it is constituted as a philosophical question. Therefore, the perspective adopted by this subject is far from the initial distrust expressed by philosophy towards cinema; on the contrary, it is interested in the type of aesthetic and temporal experience, in the performative possibilities that cinema enables.
On the other hand, the aim of this course is to introduce a philosophical reflection on the present. With the conceptual tools provided in the course, the aim is to enable students to understand and think philosophically not only through traditional written discourse, but also from other media and other forms within an operational field, without ceasing to create philosophical concepts from film.
Competences
- Philosophy
- Identifying the main philosophical attitudes in the field of aesthetics and critically applying them in the art world.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- Accurately describing an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
- Distinguishing and analysing classical and current debates of the History of Art.
- Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
- Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
- Organizing their own time and work resources: designing plans with priorities of objectives, calendars and action commitments.
Content
Introduction 1: what is the philosophy of cinema?
Theme 2. Image and medium
Theme 3. Montage and representation
Theme 4. Perception of temporality, breaking the classical narrative model.
Theme 5. Thinking through images.
The conceptual developments will be carried out in an interweaving with the analysis and viewing of various film fragments, such as, for example, the work of: Sergi Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, John Ford, Luis Buñuel, Luca Antonioni, Robert Bresson, Yasujirō Ozu, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Luc Godard, Abbas Kiarostami, Andreu Tarkovski, Lars Von Trier, Béla Tarr, David Lynch, Akira Kurosawa, Adrienne Rich, Yvonne Rainer, Chantal Akerman, Marguerite Duras, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, David Cronenberg, Carlos Saura, José Luis Guerín, Isaki Lacuesta, Carla Simón, Albert Serra, Pedro Costa, Raúl Ruiz, Lucrecia Martel.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Classes, seminars, microgroup and individual tutorials | 60 | 2.4 | 1, 2, 4, 5 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| viewing and analysis of films | 38 | 1.52 | 1, 2, 4 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Individual and group readings, development of concept maps | 42 | 1.68 | 1, 4, 5 |
The methodology of the classes will combine the format of lectures and seminars, with the use of texts, visual and audiovisual material. In preparation for the seminars, students must read weekly the texts proposed in each topic, as well as watch film excerpts, which will then be discussed in small groups and presented in a plenary session. The course requires a commitment to individual reading and viewing of film material, from which work will be done in group sessions. Likewise, situated knowledge will be promoted, which is why the perspective of thinking through diverse cinematographic practices is very important.
Students will also have individual tutorials in which they will be accompanied in the elaboration of their work or in specific doubts related to their own research.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exercise on text commentary and film excerpts | 33% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 3, 4 |
| Realization of a video-essay based on the contents of the second part | 33% | 4 | 0.16 | 1, 2, 3, 5 |
| Written exam on the contents of the first part | 33% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 4, 5 |
OPTION 1
Continuous Evaluation, will consist of:
a) Written exam on the contents of the first part (33%)
b) Exercise on text commentary and film excerpts (33%)
c) Video essay based on the contents of the second part of the course (33%)
The Department of Philosophy agreed that the first-semester students would have two periods dedicated to assessment activities and one week during which students could specifically prepare for the exams, in the format that each instructor will specify at the beginning of the course. The dates for the review week and the assessment periods are:
-
October 27 – October 31: review or tutorial week
-
November 3 – November 7: assessment week
-
January 8, 9, 12, 13, 14: assessment week
The exact dates of the deliveries will be announced in the first days of class, in order to be able to coordinate it with the other subjects of the Department.
OPTION 2
Single evaluation, will consist of:
The completion of a written exam in which all the contents of the subject will be evaluated (100%) (individual activity).
Recovery
In the case of continuous evaluation, students who have failed one, two or all three tests, may be submitted to re-evaluation and recover the test or tests they have failed. In order to go to re-evaluation, it will be necessary to have taken at least two of the three tests.
When a student has not taken any of the tests, or has only taken one of the tests, he/she will be considered "not evaluable".
All three tests must be passed in order to pass the course. The final grade will be the average grade of the three tests.
In the case of a single evaluation, the reevaluation will consist of a written exam in which all the contents will be evaluated.
In case the student makes any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation of the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the learning process that may be instructed. In case of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.
In this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not allowed in any of its phases. Any work that includes fragments generated with AI will be considered a lack of academic honesty and will result in the activity being graded with a 0 and cannot be recovered, or higher penalties in serious cases.
Bibliography
The bibliography will be uploaded in the Virtual Campus the day the course begins.
Students will have at their disposal a dossier of texts for study and class work.
The selection of the filmography will be developed throughout the course.
Software
No especific software is needed.
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |