Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE ATS5025

 
TITLE Image and Sound: An Introduction to Film Analysis

 
UM LEVEL 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course

 
MQF LEVEL 7

 
ECTS CREDITS 5

 
DEPARTMENT Faculty of Arts

 
DESCRIPTION The first part of the study-unit will focus on the history of the art of cinema. More specifically, it will chart a number of key innovative moments in the history of the medium and may include a discussion of the following, among others: the birth of moving images and film pioneers, the introduction of colour, the advent of sound, Soviet realism, German Expressionism, the French Surrealist School, Italian Neorealism, and the concept of authorship in cinema. Following the introductory part, the study-unit will then focus on the myriad ways in which film sound can actively shape the way in which audiences interpret the visual image by clarifying it, contradicting it, or rendering it ambivalent. Equally crucial is the soundtrack’s potential to render silence aesthetically dramatic, for as Robert Bresson claims: “The soundtrack invented silence.” With sound cinema, the visual image becomes acoustically expressive. Topics may include, among others: Sergei Eisenstein’s theory of the filmic synchronization of the senses; Christian Metz’s notion of the aural object; Michel Chion’s concept of the ‘acousmêtre’, or acoustical phantom; Mary Ann Doane’s patriarchal vision of film noir’s voice-over narration; and Theodor Adorno / Hanns Eisler’s film music aesthetics.

Study-unit Aims:

- To provide an overview of the history of cinematic art and its crucial innovative moments;
- To make students understand the intertwined function of image and the sound in cinema;
- To give students a comprehensive survey of the influence of image and sound on the audience and its reception;
- To equip students with a range of critical tools and methodologies to analyse and interpret the key roles of image and sound.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- apply the major theoretical approaches to image and sound within film criticism, in light of the views of some of the most influential directors, directors of photography, producers, soundtrack composers and sound engineers;
- appreciate the nuances, complexities, and also conflicting perspectives on image and sound in cinema;
- acquire a closely informed idea of the specific reach and range of image and sound on the public.

2. Skills:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- apply in full awareness specified critical approaches to any given film;
- compare and contrast in a scholarly fashion the different uses of image and sound in cinema;
- perceptively carry out academic research and write on the nature and value of filmic image and sound.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- Mark Cousins, The Story of Film, Pavillion, 2004
- Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction, McGraw Hill, 1994 or any other subsequent edition
- Michel Chion, The Voice in Cinema, edited by Claudia Gorbman, Columbia University Press, 1999
- David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill, 1997
- Rick Altman (ed.), Sound Theory / Sound Practice, Routledge, 1992
- Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematographer, Quartet Books, 1986
- Elisabeth Weis and John Belton (ed.), Film Sound: Theory and Practice, Columbia University Press, 1985
- Sergei M. Eisenstein, The Film Sense, edited by Jay Leyda, Faber and Faber, 1943

A coursepack with a selection of theoretical and critical readings will be made available.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Presentation (10 Minutes) SEM1 Yes 20%
Assignment SEM1 Yes 80%

 
LECTURER/S Glen Bonnici
Saviour Catania
Mario Cordina
Gloria Lauri Lucente (Co-ord.)

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit