History of Film 2 picks op at the dawn of World War 2. Whereas a lot of Continental directors searched refugee in the United Kingdom and the United States, from the Thirties. A second generation of American directors like Welles and Ford, plus the European born directors (Wilder, Hitchcock, Sirk, ...) would help establish Hollywood's dominance in the film history. After WW2 Europe and Asia will recover and new directions in film shall compete with the declining Hollywood scene.

From Welles to Nolan, we will be discussing a broad range of influential directors and paradigm shifts. Illustrated with fragments and PPT slides, we will explore the evolution and pinpoint the landmarks.

Although Film history 2 benefits from the insights provided in the first part, it actually is a standalone course. In either way a basic knowledge of history of modern times and art history is manditory.

After the first four decades the 20th century, film became one of the most popular forms of art and entertainment. Narrative strategies and technological innovations lured large audiences to the theaters. Even in times of worldwide  depression, film was relatively cheap. It was a universal form of artistic expression, ranging from cheap entertainment to radical new approaches. Because film had to re invent itself over and over(after television, new media,...) it shows an interesting perspective of how new generations of film makers paid hommage to previous innovators but also got rid of some of the conventions. This is what makes the second part interesting.

Film History by Bordwell/Thompson is available in the campus library. PPT and film fragments will be available on Digitap. 

Student has to hand in a paper on a specific film or director at the end of semester 2 . Six pages (minimum) incl. illustrations and references.