Film

Teaching and assessment

Assessment is by coursework and the dissertation.

Programme aims

This programme aims to:

• provide a substantial analytic and critical understanding of film and film studies
• develop students' understanding and skills to the level necessary for entry on to a research degree in film studies
• develop the ability of students to think independently, argue with clarity and force, to discern areas of research interest within the field and be able to frame viable research questions
• allow students studying in Paris to develop their interest in cinema within the context of a city often seen to be central to the aesthetic developments of filmmaking and critical approaches central to the history of the discipline
• consider the impact of French critics and filmmakers on the wider discipline of Film
• provoke reflection on areas of critical and theoretical approaches to cinema and its context, with a special focus on French cinema
• nurture intellectual skills in the context of written work (essays and dissertations) as well as in the context of interpersonal interaction (seminars, research papers, supervision)
•  provide access to enhanced intercultural awareness and understanding through the opportunity to study in Paris
• provide opportunities for the development of personal, communication and research skills and other key skills appropriate for graduate employment both in industry and in the public sector
• provide learning opportunities informed by research and scholarship and building on the close ties within Europe.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

You gain knowledge and understanding of:

• the techniques which comprise film and related moving audio-visual media, and the ways in which they are used to create meaning and experience
• concepts and practices integral to the production and reception of films, including authorship, genre, stardom, style, modernity, nationalism and transnationalism, with an emphasis on the French context
• conceptualisations of audience engagement with film, including the cultural, aesthetic, industrial and economic contexts in which viewing and exhibition occurs
• critical approaches to film, including an understanding of the historical and contemporary debates within film theory
• knowledge and understanding of film histories and historiography
• Modernism as an international movement in film and art and the role of Paris as a site of modernist experimentation
• the cultural history of modern Paris, as reflected in film and art. 

Intellectual skills

You develop intellectual skills in:

• the ability to construct arguments and produce evidence appropriate for research at Master's level
• the ability to reflect critically on debates within the conceptual practices of the discipline; 
• the ability to design and implement research.

Subject-specific skills

You gain subject-specific skills in:

• the ability to articulate, in written and oral contexts, an understanding of film commensurate with points above;
• the ability to analyse narrative and other forms and structures shaping films;
• the ability to draw on interdisciplinary intellectual knowledge, methods and techniques drawn from other disciplines (such as psychoanalysis, philosophy, and literary theory) in the study of film;
• mastery of the vocabularies developed to enhance the analysis and understanding of film and related media;
• the ability to analyse with precision the images and sounds which comprise films;
• develop a comprehensive knowledge of the cultural development of modern Paris, as expressed in film and art.

Transferable skills

You will gain the following transferable skills:

• The ability to communicate effectively in both oral and written contexts, at a level appropriate for the conduct of original research;
• The ability to create, manage and self-direct essays and research projects, with the advice and supervision of teaching staff;
• The ability to integrate skills of argument and reasoning with those of empirical observation;
• The ability to contribute effectively to the exploration of a question or problem in the context of group discussion and analysis, through a combination of intervention, leading of discussion, and focussed attention to others;
• The ability to deploy the subject-specific understanding of the nature of film and related media – in relation to, for example, social and ethical questions – in the context of participation in society as workers and citizens;
• The ability to use various IT skills, ranging from word-processing and audio-visual presentation to research through web-based sources, at a level of sophistication commensurate with the production of original research;
• Living and working in diverse cultural environments: students will participate and work in the academic community of a British university but be based in one of the major cultural cities in Europe. They will thus develop cultural knowledge and understanding, flexibility, imagination, resourcefulness and tolerance and gain direct knowledge of the major cultural institutions in Paris.

Study support

Postgraduate resources

In Paris, you are encouraged to make full use of the city's cultural resources and to integrate that experience into your studies. The Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Orsay, Musée d’Arte Moderne, Grand Palais and other world-class museums and exhibition spaces are on your doorstep.

You have access to screenings of modern and classic films and to the research facilities at the National Cinémathèque and Museum of Cinema and at the Forum des Images, an extensive videothèque and film library in the centre of the city. You also have access to the libraries of University of Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), which has the largest Film department in France.

In addition, you benefit from borrowing rights at the libraries of the University of Paris VII, which have viewing facilities and holdings of films, books and periodicals in English. Other Paris libraries with extensive relevant holdings include the French National Library, the Centre Georges Pompidou Public Library and the American Library in Paris, to which you are given access and a guided visit.

Internationally recognised research

Our staff produce internationally recognised research at the intersection of film theory, history, practice, and the conceptual and stylistic analysis of moving image media. Based on this expertise, we are able to support research across a wide range of topics, including: moving image theory, history and criticism; American, European and Latin American cinemas; British Cinema; the avant-garde; digital media and animation. 

Dynamic publishing culture

Academic staff have authored books, journal articles and conference papers. Among others, they have recently contributed to the journals: Screen; Cinema Journal; October; The Moving Image; Animation; Games and Culture; Journal of Film and Video; Film History, Film Criticism and Early Popular Visual Culture.
Single-authored books published by Film academic staff include:

• Cinquegrani, Maurizio (2014). Of Empire and the City: Remapping Early British Cinema, Bern: Peter Lang..
• Cowie, Elizabeth (2011). Recording Reality, Desiring the Real, Minneapolis: University of Minnestoa Press.
• Cowie, Elizabeth (1997). Representing the Woman: Psychoanalysis and Cinema, London: Macmillan, and Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota  Press.
• Frey, Mattias (2014). The Permanent Crisis of Film Criticism: The Anxiety of Authority. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• Frey, Mattias (2013), Postwall German Cinema: History, Film History, and Cinephilia. New York/Oxford: Berghahn.
• Grant, Michael (1997). Dead Ringers. Trowbridge: Flicks Books.
• Guerin, Frances (2011). Through Amateur Eyes: Film and Photography in Nazi Germany, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
• Guerin, Frances (2005). A Culture of Light: Cinema and Technology in 1920s Germany, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 
• Jeffers McDonald, Tamar (2013). Doris Day Confidential: Hollywood, Sex and Stardom. London: I B Tauris.
• Jeffers McDonald, Tamar (2010). Hollywood Catwalk: Reading Costume and Transformation in American Film. London: I B Tauris.
• Jeffers McDonald, Tamar (2007). Romantic Comedy: Boy meets Girl meets Genre. London: Wallflower Press.
• Mather, Nigel (2006). Tears of Laughter: Comedy-drama in 1990s British Cinema. Manchester University Press.
• Sayad, Cecilia (2013). Performing Authorship: Self-Inscription and Corporeality in the Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris.
• Sayad, Cecilia (2008). O jogo da reinvenção: Charlie Kaufman e o lugar do autor no cinema. São Paulo: Alameda.
• Smith, Murray. Trainspotting (2002). London: BFI Modern Classics.
• Smith, Murray (1995). Engaging Characters: Fiction, Emotion, and the Cinema. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Stanfield, Peter (2011). Maximum Movies – Pulp Fiction: Film Culture and the Worlds of Mickey Spillane, Samuel Fuller, and Jim Thompson. Rutgers University Press.
• Stanfield, Peter (2005). Body & Soul: Jazz and Blues in American Film, 1927-63. University of Illinois Press.. 
• Stanfield, Peter (2002) Horse Opera: The Strange History of the Singing Cowboy. University of Illinois Press.
• Stanfield, Peter (2001). Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail. University of Exeter Press.
• Wood, Aylish (2014). Software, Animation and the Moving Image: What’s in the Box?. Palgrave-Pivot.
• Wood, Aylish (2007). Digital Encounters. Routledge.
• Wood, Aylish (2002). Technoscience in Contemporary American Films: Beyond Science Fiction, Manchester University Press.

Film academics have also co-edited and contributed chapters to dozens of books.

Filmmaking

The Department embraces filmmaking and practice-based research in film and media. Clio Barnard’s The Arbor was nominated for a BAFTA and Clio received the best newcomer and original debut feature awards at the London Film Festival and best new documentary filmmaker award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Her most recent work, The Selfish Giant, was chosen as one of only two films to represent the UK in the Directors’ Fortnight line-up at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Richard Misek is a leading video essayist. His feature-length documentary Rohmer in Paris (2013) has been screened at over twenty film festivals on five continents, and exhibited at venues including the British Film Institute, The Barbican Centre, the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), the Museum of Moving Image (New York), Forum des Images (Paris), and the Louisiana Museum (Denmark). He has been Primary Investigator on two Arts and Humanities Research Council projects exploring audiovisual film and media studies (2016-18), and has recently produced a series of virtual reality video essays in collaboration with world-leading Melbourne-based VR studio Vrtov and the British Film Institute.

Lawrence Jackson worked in various crew capacities in the UK film industry for three years before working in-house, then freelance as a Bi-Media Producer for BBC Northern Ireland Drama. He wrote and directed five short films and has produced and directed around 50 hours of radio drama. The shorts, shot in locations from Margate to Northern Ireland, and from Prague to Newcastle, have been shown at the Munich Film Festival, London’s ICA Cinema, and on BBC2.

Global Skills Award

All students registered for a taught Master's programme are eligible to apply for a place on our Global Skills Award Programme. The programme is designed to broaden your understanding of global issues and current affairs as well as to develop personal skills which will enhance your employability.