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Distinctions between a supposedly American Hollywood and a supposedly separate "European cinema" represent something of a founding myth of Film Studies and myriad film cultures around the world. However, such a distinction masks the degree to which transatlantic flows of capital, people, ideas, and products have generated myriad interconnections between the two. Accordingly, this course offers insights into the relations between Hollywood and Europe, by seeking to complicate three discourses underpinning discussions of this topic. First, that Hollywood is an American institution, and as such is separate from Europe. Second, that Hollywood cinema and European cinema are fundamentally different - even binarily opposed - entities. Third, that the dissemination of Hollywood cinema in Europe represents an effort both to impose a "foreign" culture onto an overseas territory. Students will therefore consider the extent to which Europeans have been a part of the structures of Hollywood, the stylistic exchanges linking "Hollywood" and "European" films, and the ways Hollywood has geared images of Europe and Europeans to targeted audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. In so doing, students are invited to develop their critical understandings of issues pertaining to cultural imperialism, Americanization, globalization, and the national. Poslední úprava: Tomečková Jiřina, Mgr. (26.09.2023)
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Hollywood/Europe: A Transnational Film Culture aims to facilitate students’ deeper understanding of the dynamic relationships that have existed between Hollywood and Europe. It aims to do so be shedding light on the various contexts in which the interaction of Hollywood and Europe has taken place - from strategy, production, and film content to distribution, exhibition/delivery, and reception. By the end of the course, students will be expected to posses: the critical abilities to produce insightful analysis of film texts, and to explain how these films are shaped by the complex social, historical, political, and industrial relationships that have existed between Hollywood and Europe at certain historical junctures. For the targeted learning outcomes of each session, please refer to Moodle or SIS. Poslední úprava: Tomečková Jiřina, Mgr. (26.09.2023)
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This course is graded on the submission of three short essays. Each paper is equally weighted, and the overall grade for this course is the average thereof.
Paper I Students are to submit a circa. 1,500 word essay in response to the following prompt derived from sessions 1 and 2:
Prompt Hollywood is typically assumed to be American. However, the work of Higson, Behlil, and Meers show us how transatlantic flows of people, capital, ideas, and products all complicate the notion that Hollywood is in fact an American institution, and thus distinct from Europe. With these points in mind, consider the extent to which production, content, and circulation of ONE Hollywood film not screened on this course illustrate this phenomenon. Due Date: 12:00 Noon CET Friday 1 November 2024
Paper II Students are to submit a circa. 1,500 word essay in response to the following prompt derived from sessions 3 and 4.
Prompt: Hollywood cinema and European cinema are often considered to be binarily opposed, based on oppositions related to escapist entertainment and cerebral art. However, this notion is complicated by European-based producers supplying Hollywood with examples of “Mid-Atlantic Cinema” and “Imperso-Nation”, and Hollywood’s handling of films using the art cinema model typically associated with Europe. With this point in mind, use an example of ONE of these approaches to illustrate this phenomenon.
Due Date: 12:00 Noon CET Friday 29 November 2024
Final Paper Students are to submit a circa. 1,500 word essay in response to a prompt derived from sessions 5 and 6.
Prompts: Central to the discussion of Americanization has been the notion that Hollywood promotes American values to international audiences such as those in Europe. However, some scholars have shown that Hollywood sometimes uses images of Europe and Europeans primarily to invite Americans to think critically about themselves and their nation. With these points in mind, show how one of Hollywood’s European-centered tourist films uses images of Europe to invite American audiences to weigh up the relative merits of life stateside versus that in Europe. OR Hollywood’s relationships to Europe as a market and as subject matter have usually been understood in terms of Americanization – as a powerful overseas US institution imposing an outside culture onto a sovereign territory. However, some scholars have suggested that the voluntary nature of movie-going and the reliance on international revenue has demanded Hollywood make concessions to the perceived tastes of audiences in Europe. With this point in mind, show how a Euro-tailored Hollywood film has been tailored to be marketable and appealing to European audiences.
Due Date: 12:00 CET Noon Friday 10 January 2025
All Essays are to be submitted in PDF or word format to the corresponding Turnitin submission portal on the course Moodle site.
Penalties for Late Submission of Work
Students should be aware that the following penalties may be imposed for late submission, unless their are grounds for medical or compassionate exceptions.
On the day following the due date - 5 marks out of 100 deducted On the 2nd day following the due to date - 10 marks out of 100 deducted On the 3rd day following the due date - 15 marks out of 100 deducted On the 4th day following the due date - 20 marks out of 100 deducted After the 4th day following the due date - all marks deducted
Tutorials All students are invited to arrange one-on-one meetings to discuss assignments and/or any issues arising from the course. Meetings can be arranged by email and will take place over zoom. Naturally, if students feel matters can be handled by email, they should be aware of the fact that a response is guaranteed within twenty-four hours of receipt.
Feedback Each student will be emailed individually with detailed personal feedback on each of their paper. This feedback is designed to be constructive so will spotlight strengths, shortcomings, and potential alternative approaches.
Plagiarism Information
It is the duty of every student to ensure that s/he has familiarized him- or herself with the following details pertaining to plagiarism. They are included in English and Czech.
(A) Any use of quoted texts in seminar papers and theses must be acknowledged. Such use must meet the following conditions: (1) the beginning and end of the quoted passage must be shown with quotation marks; (2) when quoting from periodicals or books, the name(s) of author(s), book or article titles, the year of publication, and page from which the passage is quoted must all be stated in footnotes or endnotes; (3) internet sourcing must include a full web address where the text can be found as well as the date the web page was visited by the author.
(B) In case the use of any texts other than those written by the author is established without proper acknowledgement as defined in (A), the paper or thesis will be deemed plagiarized and handed over to the Disciplinary Commission of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
(A) Použití veškerých citovaných textů v seminárních a kvalifikačních pracích musí splňovat tyto podmínky: (1) začátek a konec citované pasáže musí být opatřeny uvozovkami; (2) citujeme-li z periodik či knih, je nutno uvést - zpravidla v poznámce pod čarou nebo vysvětlivce - autora, název díla, rok vydání a stránku, z níž je citováno; (3) v případě citací z internetových zdrojů je nutno uvést full internetovou adresu, na níž lze citovaný text dohledat, a datum návštěvy internetové stránky.
(B) Pokud budou v uvedených pracích zjištěny přejaté texty bez výše uvedených náležitostí, bude práce považována za plagiát a předána Disciplinární komisi FSV UK.
Grading/Evaluation: Grades from A-4 F will be awarded based on the following criteria.
Poslední úprava: Nowell Richard Andrew, Ph.D. (09.10.2024)
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Readings: Behlil, Meliz. Hollywood is Everywhere: Global Directors in the Blockbuster Era. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016. Print. Bordwell, David. “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice.” The European Cinema Reader. Ed. Catherine Fowler. London: Routledge, 2002: 94–102. Print. Higson, Andrew. “The Concept of National Cinema.” Screen 30. 1 (1989): 36–46. Print. Hochsherf, Tobias, and James Ligott. “Working Title Films: From Mid-Atlantic to the Heart of Europe.” Film International 8. 6 (2010): 8–20. Print. Kramer, Peter. “Hollywood and its Global Audiences: A Comparative Study of the Biggest Box Office Hits in the United States and Outside the Unites States since the 1970s.” Explorations in New Cinema History: Approaches and Case Studies. Eds. Richard Maltby, Daniel Biltereyst, and Philippe Meers. Oxford: Whiley-Blackwell, 2011: 171–184. Print. Maltby, Richard. Hollywood Cinema: Second edition. London: Blackwell, 2003. Print. Meers, Philippe. “‘It’s the Language of Film!’ Young Film Audiences on Hollywood and Europe.” Hollywood Abroad: Audiences and Cultural Exchange. Eds. Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby. London: BFI, 2004: 158–174. Print. Negra, Diane, “Romance and/As Tourism: Heritage Whiteness and the (Inter)National Imaginary in the New Woman’s Film.” Keyframes: Popular Cinema and Cultural Studies. Eds. Matthew Tinckom and Amy Villarejo. London: Routledge, 2002: 82–97. Print. Vanderschelden, Isabelle. “Luc Besson’s Ambition: EuropaCorp as a European Major for the 21st Century.” Studies in European Cinema 5.2 (2008): 91–104. Print. Films: Artist, The (2011) Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Midnight in Paris (2011) Leap Year (2010) Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012) Paul (2010) Taken (2008) Poslední úprava: Tomečková Jiřina, Mgr. (26.09.2023)
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This course is scheduled to run as a series of fortnightly lecture/seminars run in-person. These sessions will run from 17:00-20:00, and will include a film screening and a short break. During the sessions, micro-lectures will be delivered on, and students will be invited to engage actively in discussions about, the topics, the films, and the set readings. Preparatory questions are included on all of the readings, to which students are expected to formulate their answers - which we will in turn dicuss during the seminar. These activities are geared to a) facilitating students understandings of the targeted learning outcomes (highlighted in SIS) and b) preparing students for the corresponding assessments. Poslední úprava: Nowell Richard Andrew, Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
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Title: HOLLYWOOD/EUROPE: A TRANSNATIONAL FILM CULTURE [updated for the academic year 2024/2025] Coordinator: DR. RICHARD NOWELL Contact: richard_nowell@hotmail.com Time: Every Second Wednesday 17:00 - 20:00 Central European Time [9 October; 23 October; 6 November; 20 November; 4 December; 18 December] - a ten-minute break will be built into this session. Location: Room C 322, Jinonice Consultation Hours: I am available to talk about anything related to this course following the conclusion of each seminar. I am also available to discuss points at any time by email or on Zoom, with a swift response ensured.
COURSE OUTLINE
Part 1: Hollywood ≠ Europe (?) The first two sessions will challenge the notion that Hollywood is a solely American institution, and thus distinct from Europe.
Session 1 (9 October) Hollywood ≠ Europe I: Nation & Culture - or why Hollywood is seen as American
This session starts to lay a foundation for the remainder of the course, by considering how people have assigned national status tends to cultural artifacts like films. While respecting that this multifaceted phenomena is an important part of film culture, students will be invited to question the various forms of logic that have underpinned it. In so doing, we can begin to move on from asking whether or not certain films are "American" or "Czech", and instead ask how various cultural stake-holders such as filmmakers, marketers, critics, and audiences make use of the notion of such a thing as an "American film" or a "European film". This session will enable us better to understand why Hollywood is - somewhat reductively - considered to be simply an American institution.
Session 2 (23 October) Hollywood ≠ Europe II: Transatlantic Hollywood - or why Hollywood is more than American
Because the study of Hollywood and Europe involves consideration of cross-border flows, it requires an appreciation of the concept of transnational cinema - a multifaceted notion that relates to who makes movies, what those movies are about, who they address, where they circulate, who actually watches them, and how they are watched. Accordingly, this session considers the ways in which border-crossings expose the limitations of the concept of the national, and how in turn the concept of the transnational opens up new ways of seeing cultural production, cultural products, and reception cultures. In doing so, we will confront a key issue underwriting the course as a whole: Hollywood and Europe are more deeply intertwined than often thought.
Part II: Hollywood Cinema vs. European Cinema Sessions 3 and 4 will challenge the notion that Hollywood's output and that associated with European nations is profoundly different; a notion that rests on the invocation on the one hand of mindless entertainment, and on the other enlightening art.
Session 3 (6 November) Hollywood vs. European Cinema I: Hollywood’s Art Cinema
This and the following session challenge a deeply rooted distinction that continues to be drawn across Film Studies and Western film cultures: that Hollywood and European Cinema are not just separate but binarily opposed entities. Thus, where Hollywood tends to be characterized as a purveyor formulaic, stupefying trash, European cinema is usually elevated to the status of sophisticated and enlightening Art Cinema. This session does so by considering the institutionalization within Hollywood of Art(y) cinema. By this is meant output that is heavily indebted to celebrated European productions that came to be seen in and beyond American film culture as "European Art Cinema". Students will also focus primarily on the historical dimensions of this part of Hollywood’s repertoire, from the emergence of the post-war Art Cinema and foreign-language market, to the establishment in the early 1980s of Hollywood "classics divisions", through to the institutionalization in Hollywood of boutique or specialty films aimed at an internationally scattered cultural bourgeoisie.
Session 4 (20 November) Mid-Atlanticism and Imperso-Nation
This session tackles the Hollywood vs. European cinema problematic from a different angle than that taken in the previous session. It challenges this dubious distinction by considering those European-based companies that have specialized in the production of commercially viable fare that is intended as much for Hollywood distributors and US theaters as it is for European eyes. While acknowledging the historical dimensions of such practice, the session focuses on two European firms that are behind some of the most talismanic Hollywood fare of the last decade and a half: the French-based firm EuropaCorp and the UK-based outfit Working Title Pictures. In particular, students will consider the two strategies distinguishing these companies' output, and thus problematizing the Hollywood vs. European cinema divide: "Trans-Atlanticism" and "Imperso-Nation".
Part III: Americanization (?) Sessions 5 and 6 will challenge the notion that Hollywood imposes onto European nations "outside" cultural products which promote the superiority of "American culture"
Session 5 (4 December) Americanization I: US Introspection: Tourist Films Central to discussions of Hollywood’s relationships to Europe has been the notion that an American Hollywood uses images of Europe and Europeans to promote the superiority of what are framed as American values, systems, and lifestyles. However, in this session we will complicate such claims by considering the extent to which Hollywood has commodified Europe as a fantasy space capable of enriching or liberating Americans. This tendency is centralized in the Tourist Film, and especially in a production trend that unfolded in the second half of the 1990s (and beyond). This session will look closely at this type of film, and consider whether its images of a pastoral Europe were always used to offer American women fantasies of community, rootedness, and romance, or whether this format was also used to think critically about this very idea.
Session 6 (18 December) Americanization II Concession-Making: Euro-Friendly Blockbusters
Whether discussed in relation to "Americanization", "Cultural imperialism" or "Globalization", Hollywood’s relationships to Europe often turn on the notion that this supposedly piratical American institution is imposing a uniquely "American culture" onto vulnerable overseas cultural formations, with a view to becoming ever-more powerful economically. However, we will complicate this view by considering the extent to which, at specific historical junctures, Hollywood’s very survival has hinged on its making concessions to certain European markets. Accordingly, this session considers why at certain historical junctures Hollywood places an emphasis on reaching out to major European markets and how this objective shapes the content of some of its output. Heping us to do so, will be tHollywood's twenty-first-century blockbusters; a series of surprisingly political films, many of which were crafted to be specifically marketable and appealing to certain European audiences but in a manner that carefully framed their assumed American credentials.
Poslední úprava: Nowell Richard Andrew, Ph.D. (18.11.2024)
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