French Film Aesthetics

The seminar prioritizes a particular branch of French-language film theory and criticism that broadly deals with aesthetics, at the expense of reception and apparatus theories. We follow its history from the silent film-era writings of Germaine Dulac and Jean Epstein to the intersection of film aesthetics and French theory in the work of Barthes, Deleuze, Lyotard, and Rancière, to the most recent inquiries into such notions as montage, découpage, and mise en scène (Aumont, Barnard, Kessler). Weekly films will accompany the readings in order to put pressure on theory, but also to help dissipate its excessive maleness. Because French film aesthetics has been influential around the world and—vice versa—because world cinema has been crucial for the development of French film aesthetics, we will also see American, Italian, Soviet, Japanese, Iranian, Malian, and Taiwanese films, in addition to French films.

All films will be presented with English subtitles. There are no prerequisites for the course, but students wanting to enroll must be committed to attending the Tuesday night 6–9pm screenings, in addition to the 12:10–2pm seminars on Wednesdays.