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Dr. Louis N. Sandowsky
Philosophy, Fantasy and Film
(Formerly entitled – “Cinema: Philosophy and the Moving
Image”)
Course Outline
This course examines the treatment of philosophical
issues such as the Self and existential alienation, alterity and the ethics of
difference, gender perception, the asymmetry of the relations between
individual and collective, metaphysics, and the margins between reality and the
imaginary in the medium of the moving image. It is not so much a class on the
philosophy of cinema as an exploration of philosophy through the
lenspiece of cinema.
The course also explores the ways in which certain
forms of cinematic grammar have been introjected into
other types of media, particularly first-person and third-person cyberspatial (computer generated) environments – immersive
dimensions of the moving image that are progressively smudging the boundaries
between the virtual and the real.
The classes will consist in audio-visual lectures and
seminars.
The core films are:
Alien and Blade
Runner (Dir. Ridley Scott)
Apocalypse Now
(Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Bitter Moon
(Dir. Roman Polanski)
A Clockwork
Dark Star (Dir. John Carpenter)
Equus (Dir. Sidney Lumet)
eXistenZ (Dir. David Cronenberg)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
The Matrix (Wachowski
Brothers)
Metropolis
(Dir. Fritz Lang)
Monty Python’s Life of
Brian
(Dir. Terry Jones)
The Seventh Seal (Dir. Ingmar Bergman)
Solaris (Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky’s adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s
story)
The Truman Show (Dir. Peter Weir)
Course Requirements:
1. Continuous Assessment.
2. One
research paper (in English) – approximately ten pages in length. This may take
the form of an analytical essay or a screenplay and may utilize material from
the first two assignments.
3. An
alternative to presenting a final research paper would be to produce a short
film (in video format), based on your own screenplay.
I will provide relevant reading and video viewing
lists as the course progresses.
Please address all questions about my courses to: cafedifferance@yahoo.com
Video List:
2001: A Space Odyssey – VCV 402 (Dir. Stanley Kubrick).
Alien – VCV 1993 (Dir. Ridley Scott).
Apocalypse Now – VCV 585 (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola).
+
the novel, Heart of Darkness (by Joseph Conrad)
Being John Malkovich – VCV-6435 (Dir. Spike Jonze).
Bitter Moon – VCV 3095 (Dir. Roman Polanski).
Blade Runner – VCV 854 (Dir. Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s
novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?).
Un Chien Andalou – VCV 835 (Luis Bunuel &
Citizen Kane – VCV 867 (Dir. Orson Welles).
A Clockwork
+
final chapter of text (by Anthony Burgess) – PR6052.U38C4.
Dark Star – VCV 6158 (Dir. John Carpenter).
Deconstructing Harry – VCV 5536 (Dir. Woody Allen).
Doctor Strangelove – VCV 1414 and VCV 2074 (Dir. Stanley Kubrick. With Peter Sellars,
George C. Scott).
Existenz – VCV-6377 (Dir. David Cronenberg).
Eyes Wide Shut – VCV-6594 (Dir. Stanley Kubrick).
Documentary
on Stanley Kubrick’s final film [Eyes Wide Shut]
– VCV 5578.
Equus – VCV-3147 (Dir. Sidney
Lumet’s film adaptation of the play by Peter
Shaffer).
The Fly – VCV-5609 (Dir. David Cronenberg).
La Grande Bouffe – VCV 3090
The Last Temptation of Christ – VCV 1383 (Dir. Martin Scorsese.
Based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis).
The Matrix – VCV-6373 (Directed and written by the Wachowski
brothers).
Metropolis – VCV 649 (Dir. Fritz Lang).
Monty Python’s Life of Brian – VCV 683 (Dir. Terry Jones).
The Name of the Rose – VCV 1163 & VCV 559 (Dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud. 1986. A palimpsest of the novel by Umberto Eco).
Nineteen Eighty Four – VCV 1769 (Dir. Michael Radford).
Rear Window – VCV 867 (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock).
The Seventh Seal – VCV 774 (Dir. Ingmar Bergman).
Solaris – VCV 1778 (Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky’s
adaptation of the novel by Stanislaw Lem).
The Thing – VCV-6375 (Dir. John Carpenter).
The Truman Show (on order).
The Wall – VCV 987 (Dir. Alan Parker’s film adaptation of Pink Floyd’s album, The
Wall. With Bob Geldof).
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – VCV 1771 (film
adaptation of the play by Edward Albee).
Wittgenstein – VCV 3255 (Dir. Derek Jarman).
Zelig – VCV 650 (Dir. Woody Allen).
Animation:
Jan Svankmajer:
Collection
(including “Dimensions of Dialogue”) – VCV 2056. Two videos V1 & V2
Alice – VCV 2726
Faust – VCV 4608
Walt Disney:
Fantasia – VCV 1677
Oscar
cartoons – VCV 971 & 972
Pinocchio – VCV 458, VCV 258
Various:
Allegro non Troppo (Bruno Bozzetto)
– VCV 904
Animal Farm – VCV 437
Changes, Changes – VCV 168
Computer Graphics – VCV 5310
The First Animated Step – VCV 1178
Fourmations – VCV 2057 & VCV 2058
(includes Black Dog and Deadtime
Stories for Old Folk)
Masters of Animation – VCV 1450
The Yellow Submarine – VCV 839