LECTURE ONE: INTRODUCTION

HF2025NEurope meets Hollywood

Europe

What kind of film narrative is associated with Europe and which with Hollywood?

Drawing on your knowledge, list features for each, e.g.

EUROPE HOLLYWOOD subtitles English

language documentary forms fiction/animation

Small group brainstorm

Traditional concepts in Film Studies EUROPE Art cinema Diverse Auteurs Independent producers Intellectual Ambiguous narrative Open Local (or national) Alternative Difficult Art Niche Margins

HOLLYWOOD Popular/genre cinema Monolithic Stars Studio system Popular Clear narrative Closed Global The ‘norm’ Straightforward Commerce Mainstream Centre

Aim of this moduleTransnational approachCrossing boundariesUndermining traditional binary conceptsLooking at geographical movement between

Europe and HollywoodPoints of intersection and cross-cultural

collaboration

Challenging such binaries

Europe meets Hollywood

Europe and Hollywood are large conceptsTherefore need to break downOur focus is thereforeWeimar cinema (Germany) 1920sÉmigré directors/stars in HollywoodArt cinema in Hollywood

Focus of the module

See Reading Week 8 for this referenceHighlights the focus of this module:‘A cinema of in-between’‘A form of cinematic expression which highlights

the dialectics of outsider and insider, of the liminal, fluid and temporary, of upward and downward mobility, of high brow and low brow.’

Wilder represents the problematic of the Europe/Hollywood axis

Hollywood is not extrinsic to Europe Europe is not extrinsic to Hollywood

Gerd Gemünden on Billy Wilder

‘liminal’, meaning on the threshold between two states

Definition:‘situations and conditions that are

characterized by the dislocation of established structures, the reversal of hierarchies, and uncertainty regarding the continuity of tradition and future outcomes’

Something that happens when Europe meets Hollywood!

Definition of ‘liminal’

To explore the history of the relationship between filmmaking in Hollywood and Europe from the early 20th Century through to the present day

To critically analyse received notions of Hollywood hegemony and examine the hidden histories of international collaboration and engagement by professionals as well as audiences across the two continents

To investigate specific case studies of film professionals who practised their art in both Europe and Hollywood.and critically interpret different theoretical and critical academic perspectives on Weimar cinema in particular, and on the writing of a film history in general

To study the textual features of films from a transnational perspective as well as the historical and institutional contexts which shaped them

Aims of the module

Traditional dichotomy has been undermined in recent scholarship which centres on the ‘transnational’

E.g. Tim Bergfelder:‘Transnationalism always needs to encompass

a dialogue between transitoriness and location, and between émigrés and hosts, and involves a process that blurs and ultimately dissolves the boundaries between these oppositions.’

The Europe/Hollywood Axis

Module booklet on WebLearnApproaches on the moduleScreenings on the moduleAdditional ScreeningsAssessmentsSeminars

Overview of module progression

Nosferatu

Pandora’s Box

Scarlet Street

The Apartment

The Night of the Hunter

NosferatuAvailable in full on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcyzubFvBsA