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Schedule of Meetings, Readings, & Screenings

Note: Many of the films in this series contain violence, profanity, drug usage, and/or frank sexual content. These films are intended for mature audiences and are not suitable for children under 17 who are unaccompanied by an adult. If you are disturbed by R-rated film content, you should drop the course.

All screening times given below are approximate.

Key to abbreviations for assignments listed on this page:
FNW Marie, Michel. The French New Wave: An Artistic School. Blackwell, 1997.
HFNW Neupert, Richard. The History of the French New Wave. Wisconsin, 2004.
CDC1-CDC2 Hillier, Jim, ed. Cahiers du Cinema the 1950s -1960s. Harvard, 1985-6
TBA To be announced
Online You can access several of the readings below online; just click on the hyperlink for that reading. If a reading is not hyperlinked, it is only available in the texts listed above. Note that the online readings are PDF files, readable only via Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you may download it for free at http://www.adobe.com

Please note: this syllabus is subject to change (with notice).

 

Section 1: Early Influences 

Week 1         Early French, American, & Italian Influences

August 22

Reading: CDC1: Jacques Rivette, “The Genius of Howard Hawks” (126-132)
  CDC1: Erich Rohmer, "Ajax or the Cid?" (111-115)
  HFNW, "Jean-Pierre Melville" (63-72)
Screening: Bob le flambeur (Bob the Gambler) (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1955; 97 min.)
  and an excerpt from Rebel without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955; 147 min.)
Assignment: In-class writing assignment # 1

August 24

Reading: CDC1: André Bazin, "Umberto D" (180-181)
  CDC1: Eric Rohmer, François Truffaut, Fereydoun Hoveyda, and Jacques Rivette, "Interviews with Rossellini" (209-217)
  HFNW: "Agnès Varda" (56-63)
Th. in-class screening: Excerpt from Il Mio Viaggio in Italia (My Voyage in Italy) (Martin Scorsese, 1999)
Assignment: Quiz on Thursday; sign up for Group Presentation

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946; 114 min.)
  Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948; 133 min.)
  Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954; 118 min. CMS 2100 T at 6p)
  Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945; 100 min.)

 

Week 2      Auteurs & Aesthetics: A "Nouvelle vague" 

August 29-31

Reading: FNW Ch. 1: "A Journalistic Slogan and a New Generation" (5-25)
  HFNW Ch. 1: "From Ciné-Clubs to Film Journals" (26-36)
  HFNW: "Roger Vadim" (73-85)
Screening: Et Dieu… créa la femme (And God Created Woman) (Roger Vadim, 1956; 95 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
  A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)
  La Ronde (Max Ophuls, 1950)
  Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958) and Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)

 

Week 3        Influences & Manifestos: André Bazin & the Cahiers Critics

September 5-7

Reading: FNW, Ch. 2: “A Critical Concept”
  HFNW, "Alexandre Astruc & the Caméra-stylo" (45-56)
  HFNW, Ch. 7: "The Cahiers du cinéma Cohort" (247, 279-298)
No class or screening on Tuesday for Labor Day Holiday
Assignment: Quiz on Thursday; Group Presentation outline due Thursday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  CDC2: Cahiers du Cinéma, "20 Years of French Cinema: The Best French Films since the Liberation" (82-83)

Week 4      Group Presentations: French New Wave Directors

September 12-14

FNW Director Presentations:
1) Claude Chabrol 5) Agnès Varda
2) François Truffaut 6) Jacques Rivette
3) Jean-Luc Godard 7) Louis Malle
4) Eric Rohmer 8) Jacques Demy

 

Section 2: Realism & the Critical Legacy of Bazin

Week 5        Truth Cinema: Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette

September 19-21

Reading: FNW, Ch 4: “A technical practice, an aesthetic”
CDC1: Rivette, “Notes on a Revolution” (94-97)
  CDC2: Labarthe, "The Purest Vision: Les Bonnes Femmes" (49-53)
  HFNW, Ch. 4. "Claude Chabrol" (125-160)
  HFNW, Ch. 7: "Eric Rohmer" and "Jacques Rivette" (247-279)
T in-class screening: The Girl at the Monceau Bakery (Rohmer, 1962; 22 min) and
an excerpt from Six in Paris (Gare du Nord) (Jean Rouch, 1965; 15 min.)
Screening: Les Bonnes Femmes (The Good Girls) (Chabrol 1960; 93 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  Le beau Serge (Chabrol, 1958; 98 min.)
  Les Cousins (Chabrol, 1959; 112 min.)
  Les Biches (Bad Girls) (Chabrol, 1968; 100 min.)
  L'Enfer (Hell) (Chabrol, 1994; 100 min.)
  Paris nous appartient (Paris Belongs to Us) (Rivette, 1960; 140 min.)
  Celine and Julie Go Boating (Rivette, 1974; 193 min.)
  La Belle Noiseuse (Rivette, 1991; 240 min.)
  Any films from "The Moral Tales" series and "The Four Seasons" series (Rohmer)

 

Week 6        Autobiography & Adolescence: François Truffaut

September 26-28

Reading: FF, Ch 10: Gillain, “The script of delinquency…”
  HFNW: "Francois Truffaut: The New Wave's Ringleader" (161-206)
  CDC1: Godard, "Les 400 Coups" and Fereydoun Hoveyda: "The First Person Plural" (51-59)
T in-class screening: Les Mistons (The Brats) (Truffaut, 1957; 17 min.)
Screening: Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows) (Truffaut, 1959; 95 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) (Truffaut, 1960; 92 min.)
  Jules & Jim (Truffaut, 1962; 105 min.)
  La Peau douce (Soft Skin) (Truffaut, 1964; 113 min.)
  La Nuit Américane (Day for Night) (Truffaut, 1973; 115 min.)

 

Week 7        Gangsters & Modern Love: Jean-Luc Godard

October 3-5

Reading: FF, Ch. 11: Marie, “‘It really makes you sick!’…”
  HFNW: "Jean-Luc Godard: Le Petit Soldat" (207-247)
T in-class screening: Vivre sa vie (My Life to Live) (Godard, 1962; 85 min)
Screening: A bout de souffle (Breathless) (Godard, 1959; 89 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  Le Petit Soldat (The Little Soldier) (Godard, 1963; 88 min.)
  Les Carabiniers (The Riflemen) (Godard, 1963; 80 min.)
  Le mépris (Contempt) (Godard, 1963, 103 min.)
  Alphaville (Godard, 1965; 99 min.)
  Eloge de l'amour (In Praise of Love) (Godard, 2001; 115 min.)

 

Week 8        Color & Modern Love: Godard / Midterm Exam

October 10-12

Reading: Review HFNW: "Jean-Luc Godard: Godard and Color" (230-235)
Midterm review
T in-class screening: Une femme est une femme (A Woman is a Woman) (Godard, 1961; 84 min.)
Screening: Pierrot le fou (Godard, 1965; 110 min.)
  Midterm Exam take-home essay questions distributed Tuesday; due Thursday
  Midterm Exam in-class short-answer questions Thursday (Bring 2 pens & your books)

 

Section 3:  The Politics and Poetics of the Left Bank Group

 

Week 9       Modern Love & Sexual Themes: Louis Malle & Jacques Demy

October 17-19

Reading: FNW, Ch. 5: “New Themes & New Bodies…”
  HFNW: "Louis Malle" (85-124)
T in-class screening: Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961; 90 min.)
Screening: L'Ascenseur pour l'eschafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) (Louis Malle, 1958; 92 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  La Ronde (Max Ophüls, 1950; 95 min.)
  Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955; 110 min.)
  The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930; 99 min.)
  Les Amants (The Lovers) (Malle, 1959; 88 min.)
  My Dinner with Andre (Malle, 1981; 110 min.)
  Au revoir, les enfants (Goodbye, Children) (Malle, 1987; 104 min.)
  Vanya on 42nd Street (Malle, 1994; 119 min.)

 

Week 10       Color, Musicals, & Silent Cinema: Malle & Demy

October 24-26

Reading: Douchet, Ch. 4 & 16: “Favorite Directors” & “Composers” (book on reserve)
T in-class screening: Zazie dans le Métro (Malle, 1959; 89 min.)
Screening: Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) (Demy, 1964; 91 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  La Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels) (Demy, 1963; 79 min.)
  Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort) (Demy, 1967; 125 min.)
  La Peau d'âne (Demy, 1970; 90 min.)

 

Week 11      Love & War: Alain Resnais, Chris Marker

October 31 - November 2

Reading: Alan Williams, “Filmmaking at the Margins”
  CDC1: Domarchi, Doniol-Valcroze, Godard, Kast, Rivette, Rohmer, "Hiroshima, mon amour" (59-72)
T in-class screening: Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog) (Resnais, 1955; 31 min.)
Screening: Hiroshima, mon amour (Resnais, 1959; 86 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (Resnais, 1961; 94 min.)
  Muriel ou le temps d'un retour (Muriel) (Resnais, 1963; 115 min.)
  Je t'aime, Je t'aime (I love you, I love you) (Resnais, 1968; 91 min.)

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  Le Joli Mai (The Pretty Month of May) (Marker, 1963; 165 min.)
  Le Fond de l'air est rouge (Grin without a Cat) (Marker, 1977; 240 min.)
  Sans soleil (Sunless) (Marker, 1982; 100 min.)
  Le Tombeau d'Alexandre (The Last Bolshevik) (Marker, 1992; 120 min.)
  Immemory (Marker, 1999; CD-ROM)

 

Week 12       Documentary + Fiction: Chris Marker, Agnès Varda

November 7-9

Reading: HFNW: "Agnès Varda" (56-63)
  Douchet, p. 219: “Cleo from 5 to 7" Le Monde interview with Varda and review of the film (book on reserve)
T in-class screening: Lettre de Siberie (Letter from Siberia) (Marker, 1957; 62 min.)
or La Jetée (The Jetty) (Marker, 1962; 30 min.)
Screening: Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cleo from 5 to 7) (Agnès Varda, 1961; 90 min.) 
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  La Pointe courte (Varda, 1956; 86 min.)
  Le Bonheur (Happiness) (Varda, 1965; 79 min.)
  Black Panthers (Varda, 1968; 47 min.)
  Une chante. l'autre pas (One sings, the other doesn't) (Varda, 1977; 120 min.)
  Ulysse (Varda, 1982; 22 min.)
  Sans toit ni loi (Vagabonde) (Varda, 1985; 100 min.)
  Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners and I) (Varda, 2000; 82 min.)

 

Section 4: New Wave Now

Week 13       Sex, Politics, & Revolution in May '68

November 14-16

Reading: Alan Williams, "Winds of Change" (386-391)
  CDC2: "The Langlois Affair April-May 1968" (307)
  CDC2: "The Estates General of the French Cinema" (309)
T in-class screening "Events of May '68" (22 min.)
Screening: The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003; 115 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday
  Course Evaluations this week online

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  Loin du Viet Nam (Far from Vietnam) (Marker, Godard, Resnais, Varda..., 1967; 115 min.)
  À bientôt, j'espère (See you soon, I hope) (Marker, 1968; 55 min.)
  Le Fond de l'air est rouge (Grin without a Cat) (Marker, 1977; 240 min.)
  Lion's Love (Varda, 1969; 110 min.)
  Weekend (Godard, 1967; 105 min.)
  La Chinoise (Godard, 1967; 96 min.)
  2 o 3 choses que je sais d'elle (2 or 3 things I know about her) (Godard, 1967; 90 min.)
  Tout va bien (All's Well) (Godard, 1972; 165 min.)

 

Week 14       Class & Race: Matthieu Kassovitz

November 21-24

Reading: FF, Ch. 22: Vincendeau, “Designs on the banlieue…”
Screening: La Haine (Hate) (Kassovitz, 1995; 96 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday
  Course Evaluations this week online BRING YOUR LAPTOP TO CLASS
No class on Thursday for Thanksgiving Holiday

 

Week 15       New Wave International: Ming-liang Tsai, Assayas, Tarantino...

November 28-30

Reading: FNW, CH. 6: “The New Wave’s International Influence…”
T in-class screening What Time is it There? (Ming-liang Tsai, 2003, Taiwan/France; 116 min.)
Screening: Irma Vep (Assayas, 1996; 97 min.) or Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992; 99 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday;
  Course Evaluations this week online end Tuesday

 

Recommended additional screenings this week:
  Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959 US; 87 min.)
  Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski, 1962 Poland; 94 min.) & Rosemary's Baby (1968, 136 min.)
  Bonnie & Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967 US; 111 min.)
  Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene 1966, Senegal; 65 min.)
  Aguirre, Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972 Germany; 100 min.)
  The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972 Germany; 92 min.)
  Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973) and Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)
  Mi vida loca (Alison Anders, 1993 US; 92 min.)
  Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994 US; 92 min.)
  Kids (Larry Clark, 1995 US; 91 min.)
  Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994 Hong Kong; 102 min.)
  Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996 UK; 94 min.)
  Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996 US; 92 min.)
  Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999 US; 86 min.)
  Y tu mamá también (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001 Mexico; 105 min.)

 

Week 16       Review

December 5-7

Reading: HFNW: Conclusion (299-306)
Screening: La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game) (Jean Renoir, 1939; 106 min.)
Assignment: Quiz on Tuesday
In-class writing assignment # 2 Thursday & Review (bring your questions!)
Class party potluck on Thursday: Bring breakfast food!

 

Final Exam

REVIEW: Thursday, December 7 in class. Bring your questions.
EXAM: Tuesday, December 12th, 10:00am-12:00pm. Bring only 2 pens.