A Study of National Cinema with either:
- Historical contextualisation
- Foreign cinema contextualisation
What is National Cinema?
Coursework rules:
No texts that have
already been taught in class or last year
Centres must not ‘teach’ the content for the areas of research - it is expected that each candidate’s work will reflect individual choice
of research topic.
Teachers will provide candidates with an overview of how to:
- Make sense of ideas and theories
- Contextualise their investigation using secondary research sources (eg the work of recognised theorists)
- Analyse primary materials (textual analysis of films)
Must be Film Theory or Historical Context relevant to your area of study eg:
- British National Identity (Higson)
- Feminism (Mulvey/ EA Kaplan)
- Postmodernism (Jameson - recycling ideas, Lyotard - a lack of Narrative or Genre structure)
- Mirror Stage (Lacan)
- Oppositional Gazes (The Black, Queer, Female)
- Psychoanalysis (Freud)
- Marxism (Ideology and Dominant Ideas to maintain a class system)
- Authorship (Bazin - The Auteur)
The Trick to research is:
It's an investigation...you are looking for CLUES to follow LEADS to MAKE LINKS.
Sometimes it will be a dead-end.
Sometimes it will take you in another direction
Everything you discover is built on what other people have found.
Keep a record of your path (like breadcrumbs) and what got you here.
Some suggestions of Titles:
Historical influence on contemporary (2003-pres)
Classic Westerns and Django Unchained
Hammer Horror/Video Nasties to Modern Horror
Gangster/Mafia films influence on Modern Gangster
War films influence on Inglorious Basterds
French New Wave on US Independent
Dogma 95 influence on US Independent
German Expressionism influence on Tim Burton
Film Noir and Neo Noir
The Influence of Hitchcock as an Auteur on contemporary film
Foreign & English Adaptation
Girl with Dragon Tattoo
Old Boy to modern equivalent
Ringu to The Ring
The representation of minorities/women in a national cinema
Bollywood (Ind)
Volver (Spa)
Once were Warriors (NZ)
City of God (Braz)
Reading Week
The research study should be presented as a sustained piece of work of 850 words and include:
- an introduction explaining the focus the research (100 words)
- a description of key texts both primary and secondary (textual studies of films and theorist/critics analysis, contexts surrounding its production) (300 words)
- the aims of the research - what you are seeking to find out or series of research questions. (200 words)
- a discussion of the relevant ideas, films and secondary research (100 words)
- conclusions - a clear statement of what has been discovered (100 words)
- a bibliography and filmography.
- formulate hypotheses
- evaluate and draw conclusions from their findings
- present findings
- reference source materials appropriately.
