Film

The Master of Letters consists of 50 per cent coursework (24 units of credit at 6 units of credit per course) and 50 per cent dissertation (24 units of credit). Coursework normally consists of 4 courses or equivalent, based on assessment for each of not fewer than 5000 words or equivalent, in reading courses relevant to the discipline area. The word length of the dissertation will be no fewer than 15 000 words, and no more than 20 000 words.

Film Noir

Credit: 6 Units of credit (12.5%)

Term: Terms 1 & 2

Contact: Associate Professor Errol Vieth

Description: In this course we explore film noir as a distinct style emerging in Hollywood in the middle of the twentieth century. Through a detailed examination of a range of films, we engage with the aesthetics and meanings of film noir, and its antecedents in European expressionist film. We locate the emergence of film noir in the context of American culture, and examine its influence on contemporary film. Through a study of the femme fatale and the flawed male hero, we trace the hidden, dangerous aspects of American film and its expression of an essential violence lurking in modern culture.

Approaches to European Film

Credit: 6 Units of credit (12.5%)

Term: Terms 1 & 2

Contact: Associate Professor Errol Vieth

Description: The course will allow students to develop an understanding of some of the most important European film styles and theories in the twentieth century. Beginning with Eisenstein's theory of film montage, the course follows various ideas about film by film makers and theorists throughout the twentieth century, including realists, neo-realist, surrealist, and expressionist styles and theories. The course will examine these various ideas through a viewing of a number of important films by European film-makers, as well as selected readings of theoretical and journalistic writing.

The Phenomenon of the Movie Star

Credit: 6 Units of credit (12.5%)

Term: Terms 1 & 2

Contact: Associate Professor Errol Vieth

Description: The star system and its practices were established early in cinema history, and quickly became integral to the industry, art and entertainment aspects of film. Recent academic work on stardom will be used to explore this enormously complex phenomenon, in the USA and elsewhere, and show how it negotiates a culture's contradictions. As well as academic texts, students will make use of fan magazines, biographies and autobiographies of stars and Internet material.

Dreaming Australian Culture: Film

Credit: 6 Units of credit (12.5%)

Term: Terms 1 & 2

Contact: Associate Professor Errol Vieth

Description: This coures is an overview of Australian film and examines film as storytelling, as narrative. Australian films have similar genres to those of, say, the U.S., but at the same time, elements of the content and themes are quite different. We will explore those similarities and differences, attempting to expand our understanding of Australian film. On the other hand, Australian films are similar to Hollywood films, and have generic elements that are similar to those films. These elements may be explored as well. The themes in film are Aborigines in film, early history, Australians at war, national identity, multiculturalism, religion, coming-of-age.

Screening Science

Credit: 24 Units of credit (50%)

Term: Terms 1 & 2

Contact: Associate Professor Errol Vieth

Description: This course examines the popular representation of science and technology through science fiction films. Films, like other fictional texts, play a part in constructing our world-view, in telling us stories about our culture, about the way we think, about the part played by institutions in our culture. Science is one such institution. For the purposes of this type of examination, films are cultural artefacts, which, when analysed, tell us something about the culture which produced them. At the same time, the course looks at the way in which the films are constructed and organised so that they tell these stories.

Queer Cinema

Credit: 6 Units of credit (12.5%)

Term: Terms 1 & 2

Contact: Associate Professor Wally Woods

Description: The objectives of this course are to introduce students to the study of queer theory and queer cinema. The course will explore the various ways in which queer subjectivities and desires have been closeted and censored in cinema, and various challenges to this normative mode of cinematic "production and consumption" will be discussed. On completion of this course students will have developed an understanding of queer as complex dynamic of non-normative subject-positions that include, but are not limited to, same sex passion. In each of the films studied students will have the opportunity to reflect upon questions of desire, identification, practice, pleasure, performance and spectatorship. Through film analysis and various readings, students will develop an appreciation of queer cinema in terms of the queering of boundaries and normative paradigms generally; whether these be of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic organization, violence, spectatorship or even aesthetic expectation.