Film Studies 490M - Cinema and Mind

Cinema can both explore and enact the nature and operations of the human mind. It can imagine and present the possibilities of the mind, and it enables us to visualize many of the mysteries of the mind. This relationship between cinema and the mind is the subject and focus of this course. We will look at the ways cinema represents various mental states and operations of the mind, whether those having to do with sensuality, memory, visions, dreams, states of emotional extremity, the repression of trauma, etc., and we will spend an equal amount of time exploring how cinema, through its many stylistic strategies, performs acts and processes akin to those of the mind. There will be significant attention paid to the formal and stylistic aspects of the medium. To complement this analytical dimension of the course, we will read and study works of film theory and philosophy that explore the relationship between cinema and mind.

FILM-ST 170,300+, COMM140/241,