Hollywood on Hollywood

Course Description:
The spine of the course will focus on key aspects of mainstream American cinema – the most influential and pervasive form of global mass media in the 20th Century. The course will balance introductory sessions on traditional industry, studio working practices and storytelling paradigms with core features of post-1958 film theory.

Applied practical criticism will focus on two renowned films on Hollywood itself – Vincent Minnelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful (1954) and Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) -, which we will share as seminar texts. Documentary excerpts on film history, technology, genre and certain directors (Fuller, Hopper) will support the programme.

Close reference to contemporary global developments in digital filmmaking as emerging from the United States will inform our enquiries. Amongst other things, therefore, we will consider the viability &relevance of traditional film practice, industry and criticism in the 21st century.

More info and the schedule can be found here.

Research Paper:

My research paper will be written in the context of the 2008 conference “Genre, Ideology and Culture in the Cinema” in Spain.
The abstract can be found here: abstract-genre-in-cinema.doc.