B029188 - CINEMA AND VISUAL CULTURE

Italian

Part 1. Cinema of the gaze: from Lumiere to The Matrix. Part 2. Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert: analysis of the film.

W. J. T. Mitchell, Pictorial turn. Saggi di cultura visuale, ed. by Michele Cometa and Valeria
Cammarata, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 2017.
Andrea Pinotti, Antonio Somaini, Cultura visuale. Immagini sguardi media dispositivi, Einaudi,
Torino, 2016.
Thomas Elsaesser, Malte Hagener, Teoria del film. Un'introduzione, Torino, Einaudi, 2009.
Federico Pierotti e Federico Vitella (eds.), Il cinema dello sguardo. Dai Lumière a Matrix,
Venezia, Marsilio, 2019.
Federico Pierotti, Diorama lusitano. Il cinema portoghese come archeologia dello sguardo,
Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2018.

Knowledge and understanding. Advanced knowledge of the history of cinema, from the beginning until today, with particular reference to the main periods (cinema of attractions, classical narrative cinema, post-classic cinema, digital cinema) and analytical categories (attraction/narration, analogic/digital, old and new media). Understanding of the major media practices, technologies and social uses of which cinema is part, as well as of their respective functions (entertainment, scientific research, technology).
Applying knowledge and understanding. Ability to put cinematic experience, language and apparatus into an historical perspective. To promote a discussion on the role that cinema played and plays in the development of Western modernity and postmodernity, as well as an understanding of parts of visual and material culture needed to a historical analysis of cinema
Making judgements. To encourage students to acquire a method of moving image analysis, with particular reference to capacity to think about production and reception background, social and historical uses, issues of authenticity and manipulation.
Communication. To use the appropriate terminology to the study of cinema and visual culture, as well as to communicate effectively knowledge related to the discipline.
Lifelong learning skills. Ability to think cinema within a historical epistemology, and acquisition of awareness about the history of cinema as cultural history. Ability to put into historical perspective the main features of modern and contemporary cinema.

Basic knowledge of film history, modern and contemporary history and art history.

Lessons with image, film and video analysis.

Mandatory course enrollment through e-learning website moodle.

Oral examination. Open questions about: a) the subjects discussed during the course; b) slides and films on MOODLE website; c) bibliography and filmography of the course program. The examination will last 30-40 min.
The modality will be the same for full-time and part-time students. The latter, however, must refer to a different bibliography and filmography. For further information, please consult the MOODLE website at e-l.unifi.it

PART 1
1. Cinema and visual culture: an introduction
2. Images, gazes, dispositifs. A genealogy of visual culture
3. Digital images: continuity and rupture
4. Point of view and regimes of gaze
5. The spectator's position
6. Contemplative gaze: Contemporary Contemplative Cinema
7. Analysis of Miguel Gomes' "Tabu" (2012)

PART 2
1. Michelangelo Antonioni's "Red Desert" (1964): analysis of the film. An introduction.
2. Italian visual culture: chromotechnics.
3. The psychological impact of color.
4. The aesthetic impact of color.
5. Characters and narration.
6. The cinematografic context: French new wave as an aesthetic revolution of the gaze.