Film (with a Term in Paris)

Course Structure

1. Advanced Film Theory
2. Film and Modernity
3. Dissertation:GPMS
4. develop your understanding and skills to a notably higher level of sophistication and achievement (appropriate to an Master’s level award) than would be expected at degree level, such that you leave the programme with a substantial analytic and critical understanding of film and film studies
5. develop your understanding and skills to the level necessary for entry into a research programme in film
6. develop your ability to think independently, argue with clarity and force, to discern areas of research interest within the field and be able to frame viable research questions
7. allow you to spend your first term in Canterbury, studying modules in film, and to spend your second term in Paris developing your interest in cinema within the context of city often seen to be central to the aesthetic developments of filmmaking and critical approaches central to the history of the discipline
8. consider the impact of French critics and filmmakers on the wider discipline of film
9. provoke reflection on areas of critical and theoretical approaches to French cinema and its context
10. nurture the intellectual skills cited above in the context of written work (essays and dissertations) as well as in the context of interpersonal interaction (seminars, research papers, supervision)
11. provide access to enhanced intercultural awareness and understanding through the opportunity to study in Paris
12. provide opportunities for the development of personal, communication and research skills and other key skills appropriate for graduate employment both in industry and in the public sector.
13. the interpretation and evaluation of film
14. concepts and practices integral to the production and reception of films, including authorship, genre, stardom, style, modernity, nationalism and internationalism, with an emphasis on the French context
15. processes and conceptualisations of pleasure and identification in film
16. debates in film theory, and in philosophy, pertaining to the nature of filmic representation, and its relationship with language, art, emotion, and consciousness
17. Modernism as an international movement in literature and art and the role of Paris as a site of modernist experimentation
18. the cultural history of modern Paris, as reflected in art and literature.
19. the ability to construct arguments and adduce appropriate evidence at a level appropriate for original research
20. questionning assumptions generally taken for granted at degree level
21. designing and implementing research projects informed by classical humanities approaches, including philosophy, literary theory, and history, with a particular emphasis
22. grasping how methods drawn from the social and natural sciences (such as economics and psychology) might inflect or inform research projects within the humanities.
23. analysing, with precision, the images and sounds which comprise films
24. analysing narrative and other forms and structures shaping films
25. drawing on intellectual knowledge, methods and techniques drawn from other disciplines (such as psychoanalysis, philosophy, and literary theory) in the study of film
26. mastery of the vocabularies developed to enhance the analysis and understanding of film and related media
27. articulating, in written and oral contexts, an understanding of film commensurate with the first four programme aims noted above
28. developing a comprehensive knowledge of the cultural development of modern Paris, as expressed in literature and art.
29. the ability to communicate effectively in both oral and written contexts, at a level appropriate for the conduct of original research
30. the ability to create, manage and self-direct essays and research projects, with the advice and supervision of teaching staff
31. the ability to integrate skills of argument and reasoning with those of empirical observation
32. the ability to contribute effectively to the exploration of a question or problem in the context of group discussion and analysis, through a combination of intervention, leading of discussion, and focussed attention to others
33. the ability to deploy the subject-specific understanding of the nature of film and related media – in relation to, for example, social and ethical questions – in the context of participation in society as workers and citizens
34. the ability to use various IT skills, ranging from word-processing and audio-visual presentation to research through web-based sources, at a level of sophistication commensurate with the production of original research
35. Living and working in diverse cultural environments: you will participate and work in academic communities in both Canterbury and Paris. You will thus develop cultural knowledge and understanding, flexibility, imagination, resourcefulness and tolerance.