| Kommentar |
This class will explore the tradition of film noir in America. While noir was created in the 1930s, 40s and 50s mainly in order to produce very inexpensive but profitable movies, it became high art in the opinion of critics in retrospect. We will study the themes and techniques of noir: the hard-boiled detective, the femme fatale and femme attrapé, corrupted society and opportunistic characters, ethical decisions and psychological states, the mazes of modernist space, the aesthetics of indirection. We will look at some classical film noir movies such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Big Sleep (1946), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Kiss Me Deadly (1955) as well as some neo- and retro-noir movies: especially Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), LA Confidential (1997), Lost Highway (1997). Issues such as American mythologies, gender performances, ethnicity and race will certainly play a central role—but also the question of popular culture and the entanglements of art and commerce. Reading · Essays for the class will be uploaded on moodle by the beginning of October. Requirements: · Organization of one meeting together with the instructor. · For the master students from 2013/14 the module exam is a self-study or a tutorial report. For the master students from 2014/15 it will be a multi-media presentation. Please register in Moodle (link in Agnes). Course key will be "Bogart". |
