Film Studies (FMS) College of Letters & Science

FMS 045 — Vampires & Other Horrors in Film & Media (4 units)

Course Description: History of representations of vampires and horror generally from the 19th-21st centuries. Emphasis on transnational history of the horror genre; psychologies of horror effects; issues of race, gender, and class; intersections with prejudice, medicine, modernity.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 2 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Cross Listing: GER 045.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); American Cultures, Governance, & History (ACGH); Domestic Diversity (DD); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 090X — Lower Division Seminar (4 units)

Course Description: Study of a special topic in Film Studies in a small class setting.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; lower division standing.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 4 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

FMS 120 — Italian-American Cinema (4 units)

Course Description: Exploration of representations of Italian-American identity in American (U.S.) cinema. Analysis of both Hollywood and independently produced films, especially as they represent ethnicity, gender, and social class of Italian Americans.

Prerequisite(s): FMS 001.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit to students who have taken HUM 120.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); American Cultures, Governance, & History (ACGH); Domestic Diversity (DD); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 121 — New Italian Cinema (4 units)

Course Description: Italian cinema of the 21st century in the context of profound cultural and social changes in Italy since World War II. Productions by representative directors such as Amelio, Giordana, Moretti, Muccino are included. Knowledge of Italian not required.

Prerequisite(s): FMS 001; and upper division standing, or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Cross Listing: ITA 121.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 121S — New Italian Cinema (4 units)

This version has ended; see updated course, below.
Course Description: Italian cinema of the 21st century in the context of profound cultural and social changes in Italy since World War II. Productions by representative directors such as Amelio, Giordana, Moretti, Muccino are included. Knowledge of Italian not required. May be taught abroad.

Prerequisite(s): FMS 001; and upper division standing, or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Cross Listing: ITA 121S.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).
  • FMS 121S — New Italian Cinema (4 units)
  • Course Description: Italian cinema of the 21st century in the context of profound cultural and social changes in Italy since World War II. Productions by representative directors such as Amelio, Giordana, Moretti, Muccino are included. Knowledge of Italian not required.
  • Prerequisite(s): FMS 001; and upper division standing, or consent of instructor.
  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Cross Listing: ITA 121S.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).
  • This course version is effective from, and including: Fall Quarter 2024.

FMS 127 — Film Theory (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of the conceptual frameworks used to study film (including semiotics, psychoanalysis, spectatorship, auteur, genre and narrative theories). Historical survey of major film theorists.

Prerequisite(s): FMS 001; or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 129 — Russian Film (4 units)

Course Description: History of Russian film; film & social revolution, the cult of Stalin, dissident visions; film & the collapse of the Soviet empire; gender and the nation in Russian film. Taught in English; Russian films with English subtitles.

Prerequisite(s): Completion of Subject A requirement.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Cross Listing: RUS 129.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 142 — New German Cinema (4 units)

Course Description: German filmmakers of the 1960s-1980s such as Fassbinder, Herzog, Syberberg, Brückner, Schlöndorf, Kluge, Wenders. Knowledge of German is not required.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated with consent of instructor.
  • Cross Listing: GER 142.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 176A — Classic Weimar Cinema (4 units)

Course Description: German Weimar (1919-1933) cinema. Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, and G.W. Pabst among others. Influence on world-wide (esp. Hollywood) film genres such as film noir, horror, science fiction, and melodrama.

Prerequisite(s): HUM 001.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit to students who have taken HUM 176.
  • Cross Listing: GER 176A.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 176B — Postwar German Cinema (4 units)

Course Description: Exploration of German cinema from 1945 to 1980, when the Nazi past was a central theme. Includes study of postwar "rubble films," escapist "homeland films," and New German Cinema of the 1970s (including films by Fassbinder, Kluge, Syberberg, and Herzog).

Prerequisite(s): FMS 001.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit to students who have taken HUM 177.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

FMS 190X — Upper Division Seminar (4 units)

Course Description: Study of a special topic in film studies in a small class setting.

Prerequisite(s): Upper division standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 4 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.