Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

This module introduces students to a compelling area of non-mainstream film production, commonly (but not unproblematically) referred to ‘art house cinema’. Students will be made aware of art cinema as a contested concept and of the debates surrounding its employment in describing a diverse body of works from around the world. The module aims to build a gradual understanding of various unconventional approaches to style, narrative and characterization, where linear cause and effect storytelling is rejected in favour of ambiguity and spatial and temporal dislocation. Students will thus be encouraged to consider this kind of filmmaking as a frequently inward-looking and contemplative cinema, but also as a cinema of transgression, provocation and excess, where themes of poverty, race, gender, sexuality, marginality, mental illness and violence are dealt with in brutal and uncompromising ways. Consequently, the module will also deal with the critical reception of these works and the controversy surrounding them. Directors studied include: Andrei Tarkovsky, Michelangelo Antonioni, Theo Angelopoulos, Derek Jarman, Pedro Almodóvar, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Zia Zhang-ke, Kelly Reichardt, Jan Svankmajer, Vera Chytilova, Roy Andersson, Yorgos Lanthimos, Lars von Trier, Gaspar Noé, Gus van Sant, John Waters, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, and Marina de Van.