Module: Film History & Theory

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Film History & Theory
Module Code	MCO1000 (ITS: CM286)
Faculty	Communications	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5

Description

This module documents and analyses the major developments in the evolution of cinema in a socio-historical context. It explores the key theoretical tools used to understand film and demonstrates how to apply these in order to critically analyse a broad range of films.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify and describe the major technological and artistic milestones in the history and pre-history of cinema
2. Explain and socially contextualise the core cinematic traditions that emerged out of America, Europe and the Soviet Union
3. Master the key theoretical frameworks used to analyse cinema such as genre, narrative, semiotics, feminist analysis, auteur theory and audience studies
4. Synthesise and apply the theoretical material in order to critically analyse a film or a body of filmic work
5. Advance original arguments regarding cinema s role in society using the relevant literature and original examples

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Lecture	22	Lectute / Screening
Seminars	22	Discussion / Screening
Independent Study	81	Reading / Viewing
Total Workload: 125

Section Breakdown
CRN	21312	Part of Term	Semester 2
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	Debbie Ging	Module Teacher

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Formal Examination	n/a	100%	End-of-Semester

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

The pre-history of cinema.
Early experiments in cinema, technological versus cultural determinsim.

Basic codes and techniques of cinema.
Realism versus artifice, The Lumières and George Mélies.

Griffith and the rise of Hollywood.
The Birth of a Nation and editing.

Montage and modernism.
Eisenstein and Soviet cinema.

German Expressionism.
Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler, the 'optical unconscious'.

Auteur Theory.
Cahiers du Cinéma and the 'politique des auteurs'.

Genre and society.
The western, the gangster film, film noir, horror, musical, melodrama.

The woman's film.
The male gaze, gender and the voice.

Sound and the voice.
Narration, the voice and the psychological functioning of sound in cinema.

'Alternative', experimental and counter-cinema.
Challenging Hollywood, queer cinema, art film / film art.

New cinemas in a globalised, digital age.
Bollywood and Nollywood, film in the digital age, realism and special effects.

Indicative Reading List

Books:

Graeme Turner: 2002, The Film Cultures Reader, Routledge,,
Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster: 2002, Experimental Cinema: the Film Reader, Routledge,
Brian Michael Goss: 2009, Global Auteurs: Politics in the Films of Almodovar, Von Trier and Winterbottom, Peter Lang Publishing,
Jill Nelmes: 2007, An Introduction to Film Studies, Routledge,
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson: 2003, Film Art: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill,
Yvonne Tasker: 2004, Action and Adventure Cinema, Routledge,
Pam Cook: 2007, The Cinema Book, British Film Institute,
Yvonne Tasker: 1998, Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, Routledge,
David Cook: 2004, A History of Narrative Film, Norton & Co,
Martin Barker and Thomas Austin: 2000, From Ants to Titanic: Reinventing Film Analysis, Pluto Press,
Vito Russo: 1987, The Celluloid Closet, Harper and Row,
David Gerstner and Janet Staiger: 2002, Authorship and Film, Routledge,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

1: Online Journal, Jump Cut - Review of Comtemporary Media,
416517: 1, Online Journal, Sense of Cinema,
http://www.sensesofcinema.com: 416518, 1, Online Journal, Cineaste journal
http://www.cineaste.com: 416519, 1, Online Journal, British Film Institute
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/: