So I've enrolled in two units of study at Open University, hopefully my first steps on the way to a Communications degree majoring in Media Communication. The two units I've chosen to start with are "Developing Research and Analytical Skills" and "Introduction to Film Analysis", and I just got word today on which films will constitute said introduction to film analysis.
- Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock)
- The Wizard of Oz (Fleming)
- Rear Window (Hitchcock)
- Citizen Kane (Welles)
- Vertigo (Hitchcock)
- Our Hospitality (Keaton/Blystone)
- Fight Club (Fincher)
- Samson and Delilah (Thornton)
- The Grand Illusion (Renoir)
- Batman (Burton)
- Rebel Without a Cause (Ray)
- Raging Bull (Scorcese)
- The Birds (Hitchcock)
- Run Lola Run (Tykwer)
- The Maltese Falcon (Huston)
- A Man Escaped (Bresson)
- Se7en (Fincher)
- Once Upon a Time in The West (Leone)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman)
- The Godfather (Coppola)
Four out of the twenty (that is, twenty per cent) are Hitchcock films. I dig the guy's movies, and sure it's not like he released the same movie over and over, but isn't the point of a course like this to get a wide range of source texts to study? And there's exactly one comedy on that list, which was released almost 90 years ago. I guess comedy isn't worth analysing.
I think we're expected to watch each movie on the list and then choose one to study for each of two our assessment tasks. This will give me a good excuse to watch a few unfamiliar movies, and perhaps grow my DVD collection in the process as well.
Milly
Posted February 19, 2010.I hope you wear a backpack like they do. Very cute.
I've only seen 6 of those movies. Is there an "Advanced film analysis" unit later that might have more variety?
Bradley Dixon
Posted February 20, 2010.Not really, unfortunately. There's one called "Classic Hollywood Cinema", which will probably be less diverse than the one I'm doing this study period haha.
As soon as I saw that photo I said to myself "OH MAN I WANT THAT ELEPHANT BAG".