Readings: 

A reader will include both classic essays from the period and modern historical and critical work.

Course Description:

This seminar will introduce students to a number of representative films of the French New Wave, perhaps the most important and emblematic moment in modern cinema, and a point of reference for filmmakers ranging from Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese to John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai.  Along the way, we will look at the theoretical and cultural factors that help explain this extraordinary flowering of filmmaking talent in the late 1950s and early 1960s; and we will also be reading some important short essays from the period that will help bring the films’ originality into focus.  Movies screened will be subtitled and will include works by Truffaut, Godard, Varda, Demy, Rohmer, Eustache, and others.

Additional Information:

Course limited to freshmen.

Section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes