The Hollywood Film Industry
Fall 2005
FILM 202/ENGL 292
TR 10:30-11:50, Towne 303
screenings: T 4:30-7 Logan 402
Professor Peter Decherney
decherney@sas.upenn.edu, 215-746-3156
office hours: 3600 Market, rm. 105, Thur 12:30-2:30pm and by appointment
grader: John Lessard, jlessard@sas.upenn.edu
ASSIGNMENTS
Weekly, one-page response papers + event report (20% of final grade), annotated bibliography (20%), midterm (30%), and final (30%). Attendance is mandatory; more than two unexcused absences will result in the reduction of your course grade; more than two missing response papers (not including event report) will result in the reduction of your final grade.
REQUIRED TEXTS (available at the Penn Book Center on 34th Street)
John Belton, American Cinema / American Culture, 2nd ed.
Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America, rev. ed.
Aljean Harmetz, The Making of Casablanca
all other readings are available through Blackboard
Sept 8) Introduction: A Thumbnail History of Hollywood
THE INVENTION OF HOLLYWOOD
Sept 13) Thomas Edison and the Trust
Sklar, ch. 2-3.
Belton, ch. 1.
screening: Before the Nickelodeon (1982)
Sept 15) Melodrama and the Rise of Narrative Film
Sklar, ch. 4.
Belton, ch. 6.
Sept 20) The Birth of the Studio System
Belton, ch. 4.
Sklar, ch. 5, 6, 9.
screening: Sunrise (1927)
THE GOLDEN ERA OF THE STUDIO SYSTEM
Sept 22) Movie Stars and the Globalization of the Film Industry in the 1920s
Sklar, ch. 13.
Belton, ch. 5.
Robert Allen, “William Fox Presents Sunrise”
Sept 27) The Depression and the New Deal
Sklar, chs. 11-12.
Giuliana Muscio, “Cinema and the New Deal”
screening: The Jazz Singer (1927)
Sept 29) Sound and Classical Hollywood Style
Belton, ch. 2-3.
Donald Crafton, “The Reception of The Jazz Singer”
Oct 4) No Class – Rosh Hashanah
Oct 6) view Blonde Venus (1932) in class
Oct 11) The Production Code and the Genre System
Sklar, 8, 10.
Belton, chs. 7-9, 11.
“The Production Code” (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5099/)
Lea Jacobs, “Something Other than a Sob Story”
screening: Casablanca (1942)
Oct 13) No Class – Yom Kippur
Oct 18) No Class – Fall Break
Oct 20) Hollywood at War
Sklar, ch. 15.
Harmetz, chs. 1, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 17.
Saturday Oct 22) Penn Film and Media Pioneers
Oct 25) IN-CLASS MIDTERM
screening: Double Indemnity (1944)
Oct 27) The Blacklist and the Cold War
Belton, chs. 10, 12.
event report due in lieu of response paper
Nov 1) Postwar Genres: Film Noir and Science Fiction
James Naremore, “The History of an Idea”
Nora Sayre, “Watch the Skies”
screening: Easy Rider (1969)
THE NEW HOLLYWOOD
Nov 3) Countercultures and the Rating System
Thomas Schatz, “The New Hollywood”
Belton, ch. 14.
Sklar, ch. 18.
Nov 8) Guest Speaker: Robert Cort
class will meet during screening time (4:30-6:00), Logan 402
view Blade Runner (1982) on your own in the library
Nov 10) Big Media, Television, and Blockbusters
Belton, ch. 13
Sklar, ch. 16-17.
Peter Biskind, “Blockbuster”
William Paul, “The K-Mart Audience at the Mall Movies”
Nov 15) Home Video and the 1980s
Guliana Bruno, “Ramble City”
Frederic Wasser, “The Development of Video Recording”
screening: Three Kings (1999)
HOLLYWOOD TODAY
Nov 17) Indiewood
Belton, ch. 15.
Sklar, ch. 20-22.
Justin Wyatt, “The Formation of the ‘Major Independent’”
James Schamus, “To the Rear of the Back End”
Nov 22) Politics and Hollywood After 9-11
Matt Zoller Seitz, “Ribbons of Revenge”
screening: Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Nov 24) No Class - Thanksgiving
Nov 29) The Digital Experience
Lev Manovich, “What is Digital Cinema?”
John Belton, “Digital Cinema: A False Revolution”
Dec 1) The Future of the Movies
Dec 6) Exam Review
Dec 8) FINAL EXAM
