HMUS 526 - Museums, Cinema, and American Culture 1 s.h.

American cinema occupies a central place in American visual culture. Like painting and photography, film tells stories about who we are and to what we aspire. Unlike painting and photography film resides less in a formal museum setting but clearly in a virtual one. But, museums often use film as a method to interpret art, history, and science. Our access to the history of American cinema is as broadly democratic as our culture allows. And, like the visual arts some works of cinema may be regarded as masterpieces, the product of artistic creativity. This course will carefully view, read and then contextually interpret six classic American films made between 1940 and 1970 that altered forever the nature of that medium. We will draw from among the works of directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese, and John Ford in our class discussions and analysis. A-E Only. Offered annually.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor and the director is required for students not enrolled in CGP.