GERM 3720 From Caligari to the Coen Brothers: Weimar Cinema To Film Noir

GERM 3720 From Caligari to the Coen Brothers: Weimar Cinema To Film Noir
From Caligari to the Coen Brothers: Weimar Cinema To Film Noir
This course traces the development of the filmic production of Weimar Germany, as well as its influence on classic and contemporary Hollywood film noir. Analyzing significant films from the era, we trace the stylistic, generic, and thematic trends that emerge in the pivotal years between the World Wars. How do these films come to terms with the radically new and different social circumstances of post-WWI Germany? How do they push the bounds of technical limitations and draw on the still-young media? And how do they influence, what is their relationship to classic Hollywood film noir, a genre that many German émigre filmmakers drew on in their American work? How does film noir in its original and its contemporary incarnations challenge or put to use the characteristic generic conventions that seem so indebted to Weimar cinema? Note: No knowledge of German required. Students in the German program may take this course with a German component.
credit hours: 3