42768 - Cinema and Literature

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will be able to investigate the interconnections between texts and languages in the field of film and literature. They will develop a good capacity of analysis through the exercise on exemplary study cases. They will be able to set analysis against the background of film history and cultural history.

Course contents

The course “cinema and literature + cinema and literature module 2” is a teaching composed of module 1 and module 2.

The course in its entirety constitutes a study of character construction in fiction film based on a twentieth-century notion of realism: complex, ambivalent, stratified characters, recognisable and bearer of neurotic traits that can be shared by the spectators. This notion has its roots in the nineteenth-century novel and theatre, but above all in the revisionist wave that spread from the Moscow Art Theatre to Central Europe and the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. The general context is Hollywood. We will analyze production and narrative structure, actors' engagement on- and off-screen. Examples of texts and films draw from the Hollywood period between the 1940s and the 1960s. Each case study will be investigated in relation to the American cinema; the Studio System and Star System; the national culture; celebrity culture of the period of reference.

To complete the full amount of 9 credits of the course Cinema and Literature, students must do both programs: the FIRST MODULE (on the historical and cultural bases of The Stanislawsky System, Group Theatre and Actors Studio, plus some general principles of film analysis) and the the SECOND MODULE, (dedicated to the analysis of specific aspects of the construction of the character according to the Strasberg method. This analysis is applied to the films in the filmography).

At the end of the first module there will be an intermediate test scheduled in November (the date will be published on Virtuale after the start of the course). At the end of the second module there will be a second test (scheduled in December). Following these two tests, there will be cumulative tests: comprising the program of module 1 and module 2.

In the first and second modules, the focus is on the construction of characters by:

Tennessee Williams (his work for the cinema, influence on the birth of a new acting mode in the United States)  

John Steinbeck (his radical realism and inter-generational conflicts)

Truman Capote (his focus on new lifestyles in the 1950s, portraits of new forms of celebrity).

We also analyze some screen personalities and their specific character building: actresses Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Harries, Carroll Baker, Audrey Hepburn, actors Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman.

Each of the films and literary texts is interwoven with the history of American cinema, the structure of the Studio System and Star System, and American culture of the period, including exchanges between theatre and cinema, celebrity culture, and the reverberation of major social changes on autobiographical narrative forms.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Collection of critical articles on the realistic character in U.S. literature and theatre. Critical articles on acting techniques for the character's construction in the specific American context of reference and on the themes of the course; case study analysis. These materials will be available on Virtuale, divided into thematic blocs.

Teaching methods

Lecture with examples from the films and texts indicated in the program. Projection of all films in the filmography.

The filmography includes film adaptations from literary texts and films that have been crucial in the career of actors and actresses. All films are to be watched integrally

 

A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan, 1951

The Rose Tattoo, Daniel Mann, 1955

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elia Kazan, 1958

The Fugitive Kind, Sidney Lumet, 1960

Breakfast at Tiffany, Blake Edwards, 1961

East of Eden, Elia Kazan, 1955

Baby Doll, Elia Kazan 1956

The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone José Quintero, 1961

In Cold Blood Richard Brooks 1967

Lecture with examples from the films and texts indicated in the program. Projection of all films in the filmography.

The filmography includes film adaptations from literary texts and films that have been crucial in the career of actors and actresses. All films are to be watched integrally

Assessment methods

'Written exam including multiple choice questions and open questions. Students will be examined on the basis of their knowledge of the collection of critical articles and their ability to critically analyze the films included in the filmography.

Teaching tools

'Film projections, videos, slides, powerpoint

Office hours

See the website of Sara Pesce