The module aims to familiarise students with a corpus of post-war European films, their shared thematic resonances and intrinsic stylistic qualities. The critical approach to individual and interrelated films will be facilitated by the introduction of key theoretical frameworks and analytical paradigms, which will enable students to situate film within broader social, political, and cultural contexts. The main theoretical apparatus will be derived from theoretical psychoanalysis, and will include the following key concepts: the gaze; the Other; the Symbolic, the Imaginary and the Real; desire and the drives. By focusing on the cinematic representation of questions concerning the self, the socio-historical context and the fictional dimension of reality, the course aims to provide students with the necessary critical tools for discussing and writing about European cinema in a creative and theoretically sound manner.

• Critically investigate a body of eminent European films by situating them in a historical, transnational and comparative context;
• Use a range of analytical approaches to think and write critically and creatively about film;
• Formulate and express ideas about the distinctive features of European cinema;
• Appreciate changing cultural and political conditions together with the impact these have upon film production and subject matter;
• Appreciate the interconnections between the fictional and the real;
• Analyze single films by making use of both standard and innovative techniques within the discipline, as well as of adequate film vocabulary;
• Demonstrate understanding of concepts related to cinematic authorship, genre and spectatorship;
• Examine and comment on particular aspects of research and scholarships in European cinema, e.g. the concepts of the national and the transnational in cinema; and
• Make informed and appropriate use of scholarly reviews and primary sources.

Teaching is carried out through lectures and seminars. Lectures focus on single films while also introducing theoretical tools and empirical approaches to film analysis. Substantial emphasis is placed on the use of brief film clips, which are intended as an illustrative source with a view to demonstrating how theories and critical methods can be applied to the study of the moving image. Seminar groups provide students with the opportunity to work in teams to develop and understand lecture material, to discuss and debate ideas, and to acquire the critical skills needed in essay writing. 

Intellectual Skills:

• Analyse films independently, using a range of theoretical and empirical frameworks.
• Engage critically with major intellectual debates within the field of film studies and put them to productive use.
• Understand European film cultures as they have emerged historically and appreciate the processes through which they have come into being, with reference to social, cultural and technological change.
• Demonstrate advanced and accurate skills in the close formal analysis of different types of films.
• Demonstrate advanced and autonomous skills in the research and evaluation of relevant critical materials for the close formal analysis of film.

Essay (2,000 words): 100%

European cinema encourages us to understand our reality as a medium whose symbolic configuration and hidden foundations we tend to overlook. By taking seriously recent developments in film theory, it will be shown the extent to which nothing gets more real than film: what European cinema allows us to appreciate is precisely that there is no reality for us except through complex networks of fictional representation. Through the analysis of a selection of classic as well as lesser known European films, the module will probe questions concerning the constitution and dissolution of subjective identities as well as social and symbolic settings. While the films studied in this course are embedded in specific historical contexts, which will be discussed in depth, they also transcend those contexts, opening up areas of investigation beyond what they explicitly connote. The module is based on in-depth study of 15 European films, while including references to other films from Europe and beyond. 

On National Cinemas and Directors     

• Acevedo-Muñoz, E. R. (2007). Pedro Almodovar. London: BFI.
• Allinson, M. (2001). A Spanish labyrinth: the films of Pedro Almodóvar. London: Tauris.
• Armes, R. (1985). French Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Austin, G. (1999). Claude Chabrol. Manchester: Manchester UP.
• Badley, L. (2011). Lars von Trier. Illinois UP.
• Bainbridge, C. (2008) The Cinema of Lars Von Trier: Authenticity and Artifice. Columbia UP.
• Barotsi, R. and Antonello, P. (2009). ‘The personal and the political: the cinema of Nanni Moretti’, in Postmodern impegno: ethics and commitment in contemporary Italian culture, edited by Pierpaolo Antonello and Florian Mussgnug. Oxford/New York: Peter Lang. 

• Bergfelder, T., Carter, E. and Göktürk D. (eds.) (2002). The German Cinema Book. London: British Film Institute.
• Bini, A. (2015) Male Anxiety and Psychopathology in Film: Comedy Italian Style. New York: Palgrave.

• Bondanella, P. (1990). Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. New York: Continuum.
• Bondanella, P. (2014). The Italian Cinema Book. BFI/Palgrave: London.
• Braad Thomsen, C. (1997). Fassbinder: the life and work of a provocative genius. Boston/London: Faber and Faber.
• Braucourt, G (1971). Claude Chabrol. Paris: Seghers.
• Cardullo, B. (2009). Committed Cinema: the Films of J.-P. and Luc Dardenne: Essays and Interviews. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Collins, R (1981). WDR and the Arbeiterfilm: Fassbinder, Ziewer and others.  London: BFI.
• Cooke, P. (2013) The Lives of Others and Contemporary German Cinema: a Companion. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Cooke, P. (2005) Representing East Germany since unification: from colonization to nostalgia. Oxford-Bern: Peter Lang.
• Cooke, P and Homewood, C. (2011). New Directions in German Cinema. London: Tauris.
• Cox, D and Levine, M (2012) ‘The Lives of Others: Moral Luck and Regret’, in Cox and Levine, Thinking through Film. Doing Philosophy, Watching Movies. Chichester; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
• D’Amico, Masolino (2008) La commedia all'italiana: il cinema comico in Italia dal 1945 al 1975. Milano: Il Saggiatore.
• Davies, A. (2007). Pedro Almodóvar. London: Grant & Cutler.

• Dalle Vacche, A. (1992). The body in the mirror: shapes of history in Italian cinema. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

• De Bernardinis, F. (1987). Nanni Moretti. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
• Delgado, M. and Fiddian, R. (2013) Spanish Cinema 1973-2010: Auterism, Politics, Landscape and Memory. Manchester: Manchester UP.
• Weiwei and Burial. New York: Rowan and Littlefield.
• Dyer, R. (2002). ‘Reading Fassbinder’s Sexual Politics’, in R. Dyer, The Culture of Queers. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 175-86.
• Elsaesser, T. (1996) Fassbinder's Germany: history, identity, subject. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP.
• Gott, M. and Schilt, T. (2013) Open Roads, Closed Borders: the Contemporary French Language Road Movie. Chicago UP.
• D’Lugo, M. (1991). The films of Carlos Saura: the practice of seeing. Oxford: Oxford UP.
• Douin, J.-L. (1985). La Nouvelle vague 25 ans après. Paris: Cerf.

• Edwards, G. (1995). Indecent Exposures: Buñuel, Saura, Erice and Almodóvar. London: Boyars.
• Elsaesser, T. and Wedel, M. (1999). The BFI Companion to German Cinema. London: British Film Institute.
• Ezra, E. and Harris S. (eds) (2000). France in Focus: Film and National Identity. Oxford: Berg.
• Fournier-Lanzoni, Remi (2002) French cinema: from its beginnings to the present. New York: Continuum.
• Fourneir-Lanzoni, Remi (2009) Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies. London and New York: Bloomsbury.
• Giacovelli, Enrico (1995) La commedia all'italiana. Roma: Gremese.
• Guy, Austin (1999) Claude Chabrol. Manchester: MUP.
• Hake, S. (2002). German National Cinema. London; New York: Routledge.
• Halle, R. and McCarthy M. (eds.) (2003). Light Motives: German Popular Cinema in Perspective. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
• Hayward, S. (1999). French National Cinema. London: Routledge.
• Higginbotham, V. (1988). Spanish Film under Franco. Austin: University of Texas Press.

• Hope, W. (ed.) (2005). Italian cinema: new directions. Oxford; Bern: Peter Lang.

• Hopewell, J. (1986). Out of the past: Spanish cinema after Franco. London: British Film Institute.
• Hughes, A. and Williams J. S. (eds.). Gender and French Cinema. Oxford: Berg.
• Jordan, B. and Tamosunas, M. (1998). Contemporary Spanish Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Kinder, M. (1993). Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of National Identity in Spain. Berkeley: University of California Press.

• Landy, M. (2000). Italian film. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Lazaro-Reboll, A. and Willis, A. (eds.) (2004). Spanish popular cinema. Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press.
• Liehm, M. (1984). Passion and defiance: film in Italy from 1942 to the present. Berkeley/London: University of California Press.
• Limmer, W. (1981). Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Filmemacher. Hamburg: Rowohlt.
• Mosley, P. (2013) The Cinema of the Dardenne Brothers: Responsible Realism. Columbia UP.
• Mai, J. (2010) Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Illinois UP.
• Magny, J. (1987). Claude Chabrol. Paris: Cahiers du Cinéma.

• Marcus, M. (1986). Italian film in the light of neorealism. Princeton-Guildford: Princeton University Press.
• Marcus, M. (2002). After Fellini. National Cinema in the Postmodern Age. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Mazierska, E., Rascaroli, L. (2004). The cinema of Nanni Moretti: dreams and diaries. London: Wallflower Press.
• Monaco, J. (1976). The French New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette. Oxford: Oxford UP.
• Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (1996). The companion to Italian cinema. London: BFI.

• Perriam, C. (2003). Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema: From Banderas to Bardem. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Powrie, P. and Reader, K. (2002). French Cinema: a Student's Guide. London: Arnold.
• Rayns, T. (ed.) (1979) Fassbinder. London: BFI.
• Reiter, G (2014) ‘The Lives of Others: the Others of Our Lives’, in G. Reiter The Shadow Self in Film. Projecting the Unconscious Other. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press.
• Richardson, N. E. (2002). Postmodern paletos: immigration, democracy, and globalization in Spanish narrative and film, 1950-2000. Lewisburg [Pa.]: Bucknell University Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses.
• Royo-Villanova, J. (2006). Almodóvar mon amour. Madrid: Temas de Hoy.
• Sánchez, A. (1991). Carlos Saura. Huesca: Diputación Provincial.
• Sánchez Vidal, A. (1988) El cine de Carlos Saura. Zaragoza: Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada de Aragón.
• Sargeant, J. and Watson, S. (eds.) (1999). Lost Highways: An Illustrated History of Road Movies. Creation Cinema Collection, vol. 15.
• Scott. E. C. and Taylor, F. (eds.) (2014) Totalitarianism on Screen: the Art and Politics of The Lives of Others. Lexington: Kentucky UP.

• Simons, J. (2014). Playing the Waves: Lars Von Trier’s Game Cinema. Amsterdam UP.
• Sorlin, Pierre (1996). Italian national cinema, 1986-1996. London-New York: Routledge.

• Temple, M. and Witt M. (eds.) (2004). The French Cinema Book. London: BFI.
• Töteberg, M. and Lensing L. A. (1992). The anarchy of the imagination: interviews, essays, notes / Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Vighi, F. (2006). Traumatic Encounters in Italian Film: Locating the Cinematic Unconscious (Bristol: Intellect).
• Vighi, F (2005) ‘Nanni Moretti: Trauma, Hysteria, and Freedom’ in William Hope (ed.) Italian Cinema: New Directions. Oxford-Bern: Peter Lang (79-106).
• Vighi, F. and Nouss, A. (eds.) (2010). Pasolini, Fassbinder and Europe: between utopia and nihilism. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

• Vincendeau, G. (1996). The Companion to French Cinema. London: BFI.

• Wood, M. P. (2005) Italian cinema. Oxford: Berg.
• Wood, R. and Walker, M (1970). Claude Chabrol. London Vista.

• Willem, L. M. (2003) (ed.). Carlos Saura: interviews. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

On European Cinema

• Aitken, I. (2002). European Film Theory and Cinema: a Critical Introduction. Indiana University Press.

• Dyer, R. and Vincendeau, G. (eds.) (1992). Popular European Cinema. London: Routledge.
• Elsaesser T. (2005). European cinema: face to face with Hollywood. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP.
• Ezra, E. (2003). European Cinema. Oxford: Oxford UP.

• Forbes, J. and Street, S. (2001). European Cinema: an Introduction. Palgrave Macmillan.

• Fowler, C. (2002). The European Cinema Reader. London: Routledge.

• Griffiths, Robin (2008) Queer cinema in Europe. Bristol; Chicago: Intellect.
• Holmes D. & Alison S. (eds.) (2000) 100 years of European cinema: entertainment or ideology? Manchester: Manchester UP.
• Maule, R. (2008). Beyond auteurism: new directions in authorial film practices in France, Italy and Spain since the 1980s. Bristol: Intellect.
• Mazierska, E. (2006) Crossing new Europe: postmodern travel and European cinema London: Wallflower Press.
• Petrie, Duncan (1992) Screening Europe: image and identity in contemporary European cinema. London: BFI publishing.

• Wayne, M. (2002).The politics of contemporary European cinema: histories, borders, diasporas. Bristol: Intellect.
• Vighi, F. (2009). Sexual Difference in European Cinema: the Curse of Enjoyment (London/New York: Palgrave).

• Wood, M. (2007) Contemporary European Cinema. London: Hodder Arnold.

On Film Theory

• Braudy, L. (1984). The World in a Frame: What We See in Films. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
• Braudy, L. and Cohen, M. (2004). Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Oxford: Oxford UP.
• Cohan S. and Hark, I. R. (eds.) (1997). The Road Movie Book. London – New York: Routledge.
• Corrigan, T. (2004). A short guide to writing about film. New York: Pearson/Longman.
• Easthope, A. (1993) (ed.). Contemporary film theory. London: Longman.

• Flisfeder, Matthew and Louis-Paul Willis (eds.) (2014) Žižek and media studies: a reader. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Fuery, P. (2000). New developments in film theory. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
• Grant, B. K. (1986). Film genre reader. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Hallam, J. and Marshment, M. (2000). Realism and Popular Cinema. Manchester: Manchester UP.

• Hayword, S. (2000). Cinema Studies: the Key Concepts (2^nd edition). Routledge.
• Holmes D. and Smith A. (eds.) (2000). 100 years of European cinema: entertainment or ideology? Manchester: MUP.
• Kaplan, A. E. (ed.). (1980). Women in film noir. London: BFI Publishing.

• Jagodzinski, Jan (2012) Psychoanalyzing cinema: a productive encounter with Lacan, Deleuze, and Žižek. New York, NY; Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Lapsley, R. and Westlake, M. (1988). Film theory: an introduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Lebeau, V. (2001). Psychoanalysis and cinema: the play of shadows. London: Wallflower.
• Mast, G., Cohen M. and Braudy, L. (1992). Film theory and criticism: introductory readings. New York: Oxford University Press.
• McGowan, Todd (2007) The real gaze: film theory after Lacan. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Miller, T. and Stam, R. (eds.) (1999). A companion to film theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Rodowick, D. N. (1991). The difficulty of difference: psychoanalysis, sexual difference & film theory. New York: Routledge.
• Sabbadini, A. (2014). Moving Images. Psychoanalytic Reflections on Film. London: Routledge.
• Silverman, K. (1992) Male Subjectivity at the Margins. New York: Routledge.

• Stam, R. (2000). Film Theory: an Introduction. Blackwell.

• Stam, R. (1992) (ed). New vocabularies in film semiotics: structuralism, post-structuralism and beyond. London: Routledge.
• Willemen, P. (1994). Looks and frictions: essays in cultural studies and film theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press / London: British Film Institute.
• Žižek, Slavoj (1991) Looking awry: an introduction to Jacques Lacan through popular culture. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
• Žižek, Slavoj (1992) Enjoy your symptom! Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and out.
• New York: Routledge.
• Žižek, Slavoj (2001) The fright of real tears: Krzysztof Kieslowski between theory and post-theory. London: British Film Institute.