Readings marked with a † should be read before the film; all other assignments should be read prior to the discussion at the next class meeting after the film.
[TC] = Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. 9th ed. Longman, 2014. ISBN: 9780321965240.
| SES # | FILMS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolis. Directed by Fritz Lang. Black & White, 153 min. 1927. |
† Davis, Kingsley. “The Urbanization of the Human Population.” In The City Reader. 4th ed. Edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. Routledge, 2007, pp. 17–26. Wells, H. G. “Mr. Wells Reviews a Current Film.” In Fritz Lang’s Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear. Edited by Michael Minden and Holger Bachmann. Camden House, 2000, pp. 94–100. ISBN: 9781571131225. Bunel, Luis. “Metropolis.” In Fritz Lang’s Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear. Edited by Michael Minden and Holger Bachmann. Camden House, 2000, pp. 106–8. ISBN: 9781571131225. [TC] Chapter 1. Read an in-depth critical review of a film you’ve seen, ideally one related to the some of topics we’ll be covering in this course. Good sources include The New York Times and The New Yorker, or something from Lopate (2006) (on reserve at the library). |
| 2 | Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. Directed by Walther Ruttman. Black & White, 65 min. 1927. |
† Mumford, Lewis. “What is a City?” (PDF) Architectural Record, 1937. Jacobs, Allan B. “Looking at Cities.” (PDF - 1.4MB) Places 1, no. 4 (1984). Brodnax, Mary M. “Man a Machine: The Shift from Soul to Identity in Lang’s Metropolis and Ruttmann’s Berlin.” Chapter 4 in Peripheral Visions: The Hidden Stages of Weimar Cinema. Edited by Kenneth S. Calhoon. Wayne State University Press, 2001, pp. 73–93. ISBN: 9780814329283. [Preview with Google Books] [TC] Chapter 2. |
| 3 | The Crowd. Directed by King Vidor. Black & White, 98 min. 1928. |
† Wirth, Louis. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” In The City Reader. 4th ed. Edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. Routledge, 2007, pp. 90–97. [TC] Chapter 3. |
| 4 | Modern Times. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. Black & White, 87 min. 1936. |
† Taylor, Frederick W. “Scientific Management.” Chapter 4 in Critical Studies in Organization & Bureaucracy. 2nd ed. Edited by Frank Fisher and Carmen Sirianni. Temple University Press, 1984, pp. 90–97. ISBN: 9780877223443. [Preview with Google Books] Mellen, Joan. Modern Times. British Film Institute, 2006, pp. 22–68. ISBN: 9781844571222. [TC] Chapter 4. |
| 5 | Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves). Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Black & White, 93 min. 1948. |
Gordon, Robert S. C. “Cities” and “Communities”. Chapters 5–6 in Bicycle Thieves. British Film Institute, 2008. ISBN: 9781844572380. [TC] Chapter 5. |
| 6 | The Naked City. Directed by Jules Dassin. Black & White, 96 min. 1948. |
† Crowther, Bosley. “‘Naked City,’ Mark Hellinger’s Final Film, at Capitol—Fitzgerald Heads Cast.” New York Times, March 5, 1948. [Selected Sections] Weegee. Naked City. Essential Books, 1945. McDonnell, Brian. “Film Noir and the City.” In Encyclopedia of Film Noir. Edited by Geoff Mayer and Brian McDonnell. Greenwood Press, 2007, pp. 47–61. ISBN: 9780313333064. [Preview with Google Books] Farish, Matthew. “Cities in Shade: Urban Geography and the Uses of Noir.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 23, no. 1 (2005): 95–118. [Excerpt] [TC] Chapter 6. |
| 7 | West Side Story. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. Color, 152 min. 1961. |
† Lewis, Oscar. La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—San Juan and New York. Vintage, 1966. [Excerpts] † Padilla, Ellen. “Race Relations: A Puerto Rican View.” Chapter 3 in The City in the Seventies. Edited by Robert K. Yin. F. E. Peacock Publishers, Incorporation, 1972. Kauffmann, Stanley. “The Asphalt Romeo and Juliet.” The New Republic 145, no. 17 (1961): 28–9. Sanchez, Alberto Sandoval. “West Side Story: A Puerto Rican Reading of ‘America’”. Jump Cut, no. 39 (1994): 59–66. |
| 8 | Play Time. Directed by Jacques Tati. Color, 115 min. 1967. |
† Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Random House, 1961, pp. 50–54. Rosenbaum, Jonathan. “Tati’s Democracy: An Interview and Introduction.” Film Comment. May 1973, pp. 341–66. Marie, Laurent. “Jacques Tati’s Play Time as the New Babylon.” In Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context. Edited by Mark Shiel and Tony Fitzmaurice. Wiley-Blackwell, 2001, pp. 257–69. ISBN: 9780631222446. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 9 | Midnight Cowboy. Directed by John Schlesinger. Black & White and Color, 113 min. 1969. |
† Milgram, Stanley. “The Experience of Living in Cities.” Chapter 36 in The City in the Seventies. Edited by Robert K. Yin. F. E. Peacock Publishers, Incorporation, 1972, pp. 250–59. † Delany, Samuel R. Time Square Red, Times Square Blue. New York University Press, 1999, pp. xi–xviii and 3–19. ISBN: 9780814719190. [Preview with Google Books] Clapp, James. “‘Are You Talking to Me?’—New York and the Cinema of Urban Alienation”. Visual Anthropology 18, no. 1 (2005): 1–18. |
| 10 | Blade Runner. Directed by Ridley Scott. Color, 117 min. 1982. |
† Jenkins, Henry. “Looking at the City in the Matrix Franchise.” Chapter 13 in Cities in Transition: The Moving Image and the Modern Metropolis. Edited by Andrew Webber and Emma Wilson. Wallflower Press, 2008. Bukatman, Scott. Blade Runner. British Film Institute, 1997, pp. 42–63. Davis, Mike. Beyond Blade Runner: Urban Control–the Ecology of Fear. Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, 1992. |
| 11 | Do the Right Thing. Directed by Spike Lee. Color, 120 min. 1989. |
† Sterritt, David. “He Cuts Heads.” In City that Never Sleeps: New York and the Filmic Imagination. Edited by Murray Pomerance. Rutgers University Press, 2007, pp. 137–50. ISBN: 9780813540320. [Preview with Google Books] Klein, Joe. “Spiked? Dinkins and Do the Right Thing.” New York Magazine, June 1989. Lee, Spike. “Say It Ain’t So, Joe.” New York Magazine, July 1989. Reid, Mark A., ed. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780521559546. [Preview with Google Books] [Selected Reviews] |
| 12 | London. Directed by Patrick Keiller. Color, 85 min. 1994. |
† Debord, Guy. “Theory of the D’erive.” In Situationist International Anthology. Edited by Ken Knabb. Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006, pp. 62–66. ISBN: 9780939682041.
|
| 13 | Night on Earth. Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Color, 129 min. 1991. | None. |
