When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more.

Required Texts

Singer, Irving. Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 0262692481.

———. Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. ISBN: 0262195011.

Where available, links to more information about each film viewed in the course have been made to the Internet Movie Database.

Readings and Films by Session

Course readings.

LEC #	TOPICS/READINGS/FILMS
1	Introduction: Myth in Visual and Literary Arts Film: Sturges, Preston. The Lady Eve, 1941.
2	Singer, Irving. Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998, pp. xi-50 and 131-52. ISBN: 0262692481. Film: Jeunet, Jean-Pierre. Amélie, 2001.
3	Bédier, Joseph. Tristan & Iseult. Rei ed. London, UK: Vintage, 1994. ISBN: 0679750169. Film: Cocteau, Jean, and Jean Delannoy. The Eternal Return, 1943.
4	Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN: 0141439505. (Including the prose epilogue.) Film: Asquith, Anthony, and Leslie Howard. Pygmalion, 1938.
5	James, Henry. Washington Square. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2002. ISBN: 0375761225. (Including introduction.) (Download a version of the text from Project Gutenberg.) Film: Holland, Agnieszka. Washington Square, 1997.
6	Singer, Irving. Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998, pp. 191-200. ISBN: 0262692481. Film: Wyler, William. The Heiress, 1949.
7	Singer, Irving. Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004, pp. ix-79. ISBN: 0262195011. Film: Hitchcock, Alfred. The 39 Steps, 1935.
8	Singer, Irving. Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004, pp. 221-257. ISBN: 0262195011. Discussion of Readings and Screenings to date -
9	Cocteau, Jean. Cocteau on the Film. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1972, pp. v-76. ISBN: 0486227774. Film: Cocteau, Jean. Orphée, 1950.
10	Cocteau, Jean. Cocteau on the Film. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1972, pp. 99-131. ISBN: 0486227774. Film: Cocteau, Jean. The Testament of Orpheus, 1960.
11	Singer, Irving."The Meaning of Death." In The Creation of Value: Meaning in Life Series. Vol. 1. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN: 0801854512. Film: Bergman, Ingmar. The Seventh Seal, 1957.
12	Discussion of Student Drafts of Paper 2 Film: Bergman, Ingmar. Through a Glass Darkly, 1961. (Interviews.)