Course syllabus
SEMESTER 1, 2018
30 points
Course Convenor and Teacher: Dr Sophie Tomlinson
Humanities Building.
Level 6, Room 635
Phone 373 7599, ext. 87345
Office hours: Thursday 1.30-3 pm or by appointment.
Course delivery format:
3-hour weekly seminar: Mondays 9-12. Owen G Glen Building Room 307
Course Description:
Theatrical performance and dramatic composition present alluring subjects for modern cinema. Theatre on Screen examines a range of mainstream and art house films which create commercial and aesthetic appeal by engaging the shifting line between art and life, reality and theatre. Students are encouraged to draw on their varied academic backgrounds to investigate questions pertaining to theatre and theatricality in the set films and their source materials, and in particular to become ‘film literate’. We address critical themes via the analysis of films, screenplays, plays, novels and criticism. These themes include: imagining period theatre; spectatorship; gender and sexuality; theatre as a business; theatre and politics; the role of music; adaptation. In 2018 we focus on three overlapping genres: the backstage drama; the screen musical; theatre, sexuality, and politics.
Course goals:
To become what Vincent Lobrutto calls, ‘film literate’ (Becoming Film Literate, 2005), in particular to become aware of different directors’ use of shot, scene and sequence, which contributes to their distinctive film rhetorics (for 'shot, scene and sequence', see Samuel Crowl, Shakespeare and Film, 2008, pp. xxiii-xxv).
To grow confident in expressing your ideas orally to the group, specifically in the form of starting-questions and seminars for assessment.
To refine the expression of your ideas in writing by conducting a critical argument in the form of two essays for assessment.
To acquire competence in using printed and digital research tools relevant to the works studied.
Assessment Summary: 100 % coursework
2 x starting-questions (10%)
Oral seminar (15%)
Short essay 3,500-4,000 words (30%)
Long essay, 6000 words (45%)
Prescribed Viewing:
Les Enfants du Paradis (1945); All about Eve (1950); Kiss Me, Kate (1953); The Entertainer (1960); West Side Story (1961); Cabaret (1972); Mephisto (1981), Shakespeare in Love (1998).
All the set films are available through the General Library DVD collection for which you must consult the Catalogue; some are available online. Further copies of Kiss Me, Kate and Cabaret are available on Desk Copy at the Music Library, 6 Symonds Street.
Prescribed Texts:
John Osborne, The Entertainer (Faber, 1957); Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, Shakespeare in Love (Hyperion, 1999); Jacques Prévert, Les Enfants du Paradis, transl. Dinah Brooke (photocopy). The Entertainer is available at ubiq.
Further Reading:
Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin (1939), Klaus Mann, Mephisto (1936); John van Druten, I Am A Camera (1951).
Recommended Texts:
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 10th edn (2012), Thomas Caldwell, Film Analysis Handbook (2005), Julie Sanders, Adaptation and Appropriation (Routledge, 2006), Russell Jackson, Theatres on Film: How the Cinema Imagines the Stage (2013).
DUE DATES
Short essay: 9 April (4 pm)
Final major essay: submission date to be discussed with class.
Your two essays must focus on different set films, and you are encouraged to make your second, longer essay a comparative discussion. You may write on the same film on which you give your seminar.
NOTE
You are expected to attend and participate in all seminars having viewed and read the set films and texts beforehand. As assessment is wholly through coursework, you are expected to attend all classes. If unable to attend, please email me beforehand.
Requirements for presentation of coursework.
Assignments must be word-processsed in black, 12-point font with DOUBLE spacing between lines and a minimum 6 cm left-hand margin. Each page should be numbered and carry your name in the top right-hand corner. Please print on one side of the paper only and staple securely.
References
Your essays MUST be properly referenced according to either the Chicago or MLA style guide.
Procedures for submission of coursework
Students must place a hardcopy of their assignments in the EDWS assignment box at the Arts Student Centre, using the bar-coded cover sheet generated on CANVAS, and also submit an electronic copy of their assignments to turnitin.com through CANVAS. Both electronic and hardcopy submissions must be made before the assignment deadline expires. Marks for all assignments are provisional until they have been submitted electronically to turnitin.
Policy on Extensions and Late Assignments
EDWS requires the timely submission of all coursework. If you are unable to hand in an assignment by the due date, you MUST put your case for an extension to me, preferably via a face-to-face meeting. Extensions are granted only for compelling reasons, and evidence testifying to the cause of the need for an extension may need to be provided. An extension must be requested in advance of the due date for the assignment, unless there is a genuine cause preventing this, in which case the extension should be sought as soon as is practicable after the due date.
Any work handed in late without an extension will not be marked. Please make a note of this.
Relevant Internet Sites
Film Index International Online (available through our library)
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Script Database www.imsdb.com
British Film Institute Site www.bfi.org.uk
Rotten Tomatoes www.rottentomatoes.com
Timetable of seminars posted separately on Canvas
SYLLABUS: FILMS / READING
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: All about Eve (1951), dir. Joseph Mankiewicz
Screenplay available at http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/All-About-Eve.html
Week 3: Les Enfants du Paradis 1945, dir. Maurice Carné
Carné and Prévert, Les Enfants du Paradis, transl. by Dinah Brooke (distributed in photocopy)
Week 4: Les Enfants du Paradis 1945, dir. Maurice Carné
Week 5: Kiss me Kate (1953), dir. George Sidney
Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, c. 1592
Background viewing – The Philadelphia Story (1941) dir. George Cukor
MID-SEMESTER BREAK
Week 6: John Osborne, The Entertainer, 1960, dir. Tony Richardson
John Osborne, The Entertainer (1957)
Week 7: West Side Story (1961), dir. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise
Shakespeare, The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, c. 1594-5
Week 8: Cabaret (1972), dir. Bob Fosse
Background viewing – The Blue Angel (1930) dir. Josef von Sternberg
Weeks 9 and 10: Mephisto (1981), dir. István Szabó
Weeks 11 and 12: Shakespeare in Love, 1998, dir. John Madden
Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, Shakespeare in Love: The Screenplay, 1999.
Generic Information
Plagiarism: please note the following University policy:
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting his or her learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the world-wide web. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.
Appeal and complaint procedures
Any student who wishes to appeal a grade on an assignment must make a written submission to the lecturer detailing the grounds on which the appeal is made (i.e. identifying the academic merit of the essay which they believe has been overlooked). Please be aware that all assignments that receive a fail grade or borderline pass are automatically double-marked by the external assessor for the course.
For information about complaint procedures please consult the AUSA web site http://www.ausa.auckland.ac.nz/wave/grievance.html
Announcements and Resources for this paper are regularly posted on CANVAS.
The University’s policy is that all communication with students is via their university email address—please check your university email address regularly.
Course summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|