<p>Central European Cinema (10/7/2024) German Expressionist film, “thinly veiled ripoff of Dostoyevsky and Poe” in which a student in Prague becomes obsessed with a doppelgänger who brings about his demise</p>

Melodrama: film about a “vamp” so attractive that she ends up literally stealing people’s belongings

Survey of International Cinema: saw clip in class

Central European Cinema (10/7/2024) About a bank clerk who falls in love with a beautiful woman, steals her money, chases after her, leaves his family, then is haunted by his guilt. Saw some elaborate, very supernatural and spooky stills from the film; “if <i>Caligari</i>&nbsp;is too realistic for you, you’ll like this!”

Survey of International Cinema; Oscar Micheaux, first surviving feature film directed by an African-American

Melodrama: Rudolf Valentino matinee idol adventure film, unsurprisingly full of orientalism

Survey of International Cinema

Documentary Art and Reality; example of ethnography, pioneering documentary in cinema directed by Robert Flaherty. Saw a clip of "Nanook" playing with a gramophone record in class The Global Western (9/2/2025) Lit Film and Globalization (11/2/2025) saw the same clip of Nanook and the gramophone

Survey of International Cinema: French surrealism

Cinema and the 20th Century: professor mentions that Buster Keaton goes to Times Square and it is full of cows

Survey of International Cinema: French surrealism

Survey of International Cinema: Early Fritz Lang fantasy film (showed dragon slaying scene)

Survey of International Cinema: Early Fritz Lang fantasy film (showed dragon slaying scene)

Central European Cinema (10/7/2024) My professor called this “an amazing film for several reasons”. &nbsp;It focuses on an American who goes to the USSR and gets swindled by criminals who want to show him the negative side of Soviet society, only for him to come back to the states and disavow American society. &nbsp;Despite being directed by Kuleshov, there is no montage in it.

<p>Central European Cinema (9/30/2024) one of the viewing choices for the first week on Soviet montage. A sci-fi film about a proletariat who gets whisked into a sci-fi universe, so of course class struggle plays a role. Known for its lavish costumes and visuals, as well as its convoluted plot.</p><p>(10/7/2024) My professor doesn’t think it’s an amazing film per se, but viewed it as a fascinating case study of a country not too familiar with a genre dipping its toes in said genre; in this case the Russians making science fiction. &nbsp;A classmate of mine said that the inciting incident doesn’t even happen until 45 minutes in! &nbsp;Unlike the other Soviet films from the time, it’s not montage, not very “memorable” or distinct in filmmaking style. &nbsp;Another classmate of mine thought it had a jumbled plot; is it a dream, is it about sugar smuggling on mars?(???)</p>

Survey of International Cinema; early silent film

Documentary Art and Reality; example of ethnography, pioneering documentary in cinema directed by Robert Flaherty. Saw the tattooing scene in class

Central European Cinema (9/30/2024) one of the viewing choices for the first week on Soviet montage. (10/7/2024) My professor called it an example of “agitprop filmmaking”, with interesting intercutting even outside of montage. He doesn’t think Pudovkin has a distinct style, though. Unlike Eisenstein’s work, this has distinct characters, although we don’t know much about them

Melodrama

Survey of International Cinema; another controversial Tod Browning film

Central European Cinema (11/18/2024) City Symphony. Arguably the film that gives the City Symphony its name. A stylized but documentarian look at Berlin over the course of a day. &nbsp;Major influence on filmmakers who seek to incorporate impressionist painting influence, as well as the “cinema pure” movement in France, into their work. &nbsp;Influential on Brecht

Editing (9/12/2024) Soviet montage film, mentioned in a video discussing metric montage

Melodrama: saw opening scene of Joan Crawford dancing in front of the mirror, showing her movie star sex appeal years before Mildred Pierce

Melodrama

Central European Cinema (11/18/2024) City Symphony

Melodrama: GW Pabst melodrama about a woman who is seduced by her father's assistant, then sent away to a home for wayward girls, and presents a different vision of modern morality: the staff of this institution are abusive, but the women in the brothel are the more moral characters

Film and Video Production 1: a poetic visual examination/experimental documentary of Amsterdam after rainfall Central European Cinema (11/18/2024) City Symphony, saw the opening in class

(9/20/2024) mentioned during Potsdam studio lecture

Survey of International Cinema; Paramount exotic romance

Survey of International Cinema: French surrealism

Survey of International Cinema; early surrealist film with an all-black cast

Survey of International Cinema; pre-code Hollywood

Cinema and the 20th Century; scene from Oscar Micheaux’s race picture “Ten Minutes to Live” depicts two blackface performers mocking Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey (they reference his deportation), and Booker T. Washington, while the audience in the scene know who they are and know that the performers are mocking them; the movie is showing us how some (like the performers) are willfully ignorant of black activism and the plight of African-Americans. In another scene, a woman goes through Penn Station unscathed, then drives through city streets while pursued by a killer; this is essentially the plot of a typical film serial but with a mostly black cast

Survey of International Cinema: Clip shown in documentary, example of Ozu's shot compositions and camera lingering on small objects

Survey of International Cinema; pre-code Hollywood film with hints at sexuality

Survey of International Cinema; example of Universal gothic horror picture

Survey of International Cinema; Renoir (somewhat incoherent editing in his early film)

Survey of International Cinema; pre-code Hollywood musical

Melodrama

<p>Survey of International Cinema; pre-code Hollywood. Saw clip in Cinema and the 20th Century. Backstage musical, all the performances are done for the show within the film; saw the "Remember My Forgotten Man" number by Joan Blondell and the soldiers. Mentioned in Melodrama due to class subtext</p>

Survey of International Cinema: saw a TCM clip about Theresa Harris, featured a clip of her from this film as Barbara Stanwyck's friend

Survey of International Cinema; A movie studio film

Survey of International Cinema; pre-code Hollywood musical

The Global Western (9/30/2025) Starring Greta Garbo, as one of the most famous lesbians in Hollywood, as a queen who dresses as a man to seduce a man. &nbsp;Referenced in <i>Return of an Adventurer</i>, as the one female character gets the cowboy moniker “Queen Christina” as she cross-dresses.

Survey of International Cinema: French Poetic Realism (about impoverished lovers on a barge) saw clips of it (the scene of the male dunking his head in the water)

Survey of International Cinema; Renoir

The Global Western (8/26/2025) The first space-western, a bizarre serial about a singing cowboy who goes back and forth between his ranch and an underground 30s sci-fi serial setting

(9/21/2024) mentioned during the tour of Berlin.

Melodrama

Cinema and the 20th Century; New York romcom. saw a clip of Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur doing a "meet cute", as she's a reporter who poses as a dirt-poor woman to woo him at a restaurant, leading to a fight :). Here Jean Arthur is performing to be poor, but seems to be encouraging Mr. Deeds to beat up the wealthy glitterati at the table (Deeds is short-tempered, but not as dumb as he seems?) Urban qualities are embodied in Arthur's character

Pop Culture: Saw the awards show scene in class while discussing the 2018 Bradley Cooper version

Cinema and the 20th Century; Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sing "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" in Central Park while skating

<p>Survey of International Cinema: saw a TCM clip about Theresa Harris, showed a clip of her as a maid in this film</p>

(9/21/2024) mentioned during the tour of Berlin. &nbsp;Leni Riefenstahl documentary on the Nazi-era Berlin Olympics, a pioneering film that was one of the first sports docs to use slow-motion and extreme closeups of the athletes. Unfortunately, still a Nazi propaganda film

Cinema and the 20th Century; mentioned during lecture

Survey of International Cinema: French Poetic Realism (focuses on people on the margins of society, tone of nostalgia and melancholy, street lighting, start of film noir) story about doomed lovers w/a femme fatale; saw a clip of it. Survey of International Cinema

Melodrama: Bette Davis part

(9/21/2024) mentioned during the tour of Berlin. &nbsp;Antisemitic Nazi propaganda film, based on Suss Oppenheimer. Shot in the now-German ministry of finance building to make the Nazis look majestic

Survey of International Cinema

Survey of International Cinema; Michael Curtiz

Survey of International Cinema

Melodrama: mentioned in discussion of <i>High Noon</i>; another Gary Cooper film, this time a WWI-set picture in which he is thrust into a wartime situation that he doesn’t want to be in, akin to his <i>High Noon</i>&nbsp;character. &nbsp;Both films also include Quakerism as a major plot point. One of the biggest box-office hits of the time, helped by WWII; this was used as a drafting mechanism

Melodrama: Bette Davis plays a dastardly character

Survey of International Cinema: WWII propaganda film

Survey of International Cinema. Example of neorealism. Portuguese coming-of-age film we saw clip of in class

Survey of International Cinema. Example of Italian neorealism, adapted from a James Cain novel

Cinema and the 20th Century: Referenced in Do the Right Thing, the scene of a dangling lightbulb

Survey of International Cinema; appearance from Hattie McDaniel's brother Etta

Cinema and the 20th Century: Saw a scene of a jazz band performing in a seedy after-hours club from this film noir, playing a faster-paced tune, with a climactic drum solo; a coded seduction scene through music

Survey of International Cinema. Example of film noir

Survey of International Cinema. Example of Italian neorealism; saw the mother's death scene and prelude in class

Survey of International Cinema. Example of film noir. Saw clip in class of Gene Tierney rowing her boat towards the boy in the river

Renoir; Survey of International Cinema

(9/20/2024) mentioned during Potsdam studio lecture, first film shot in babelsberg post WWII

<p>The Global Western (9/2/2025) Ford’s postwar western. &nbsp;Saw a clip of Henry Fonda walking Clementine through town to the dance. &nbsp;Ford was a second-generation Irish immigrant, so this is an immigrant story: everyone at the dance is from somewhere else. &nbsp;The dance itself is at an unfinished church, so it’s an open outdoor space, giving us a look at the landscapes, showing America as a land full of possibilities. &nbsp;For the moment, everyone is paired up in a heteronormative environment. &nbsp;How much freedom can you have to still maintain law and order?—the question of the western. &nbsp;This whole dance scene is also nearly dialogue-free. &nbsp;Prof. Pike called this “a scene John Wayne could never be involved in”</p>

Directing (9/12/2024) saw Miss Havisham's introduction in class, compared each adaptation

Survey of International Cinema. British Comedy that takes place after the Blitz, with elements of neorealism

Survey of International Cinema. Lavish Technicolor film meant to lure audiences back in

Survey of International Cinema. Example of film noir

Survey of International Cinema: homoerotic experimental film, saw a scene of a man being tortured and beaten by doctors, with lots of fake blood and weird imagery

Survey of International Cinema: acclaimed Chinese film that remains obscure, Communist China refused to show it at festivals. Saw a trailer in class for a BFI restoration

Survey of International Cinema. Example of Italian neorealism. Saw a scene of a young boy's encounter with a Nazi who seems to groom him into joining the Hitler youth. Supposedly ends with the boy committing suicide (!)

Survey of International Cinema; Howard Hawks western w/homoerotic subtext; saw the scene of the cowboys comparing guns

Cinema and the 20th Century: Anticapitalist New York Film noir by a blacklisted filmmaker; saw a scene on the George Washington Bridge, and a striking image of the protagonist walking down a vast staircase on the side of the bridge, a scene that symbolizes going down the margins and postwar cynicism, which influenced that scene in <i>Parasite</i> where the family walks down the stairs in the rain. The uplifting Americana of the bridge is used ironically

Survey of International Cinema

Survey of International Cinema. Example of neorealism, albeit with some melodrama, still with working-class characters

Survey of International Cinema: Saw clip in class of a father and daughter eating dinner and talking about her fiancée. A seemingly mundane scene, but shot at a subjective camera angle and breaking the 180 rule with POV shots of each other

Survey of International Cinema. Example of film noir. Saw clip in class. About fruit smugglers

Survey of International Cinema. Example of film noir

Survey of International Cinema. Example of Italian neorealism, saw a scene of Ingrid Bergman watching the waters for fish

Survey of International Cinema; Ida Lupino

Survey of International Cinema. Example of neorealism, this time made in Spain. Proof of the international spread of neorealism. Saw dream sequence in class

Survey of International Cinema; Samuel Fuller, who was a major influence on the New Waves. he had a pulp sensibility but made films about topical social issues, renowned as an auteur among French New Wave directors. Gritty war drama, saw a clip in class of a black medic discussing his experiences with segregation to force a comrade to wise up; tackles race relations

Survey of International Cinema. Example of film noir

Survey of International Cinema. Early Bergman film about adolescence, saw a clip in class

Essential Elements of Film Sound (12/9/2024) Joan Crawford film noir where she, along with her lawyer, dictate the terms of her divorce into a dictaphone, only to leave the dictaphone on and find out about a plot to murder her!

Survey of International Cinema. Samuel Fuller is mentioned, use of optical zoom-ins

Survey of International Cinema. Ingmar Bergman; a European art film marketed as an exploitation film in the U.S.

Survey of International Cinema; Ida Lupino's daring controversial film noir

Survey of International Cinema; Clouzot, example of French "Cinema of Quality"