Vertiefungsseminar The Real and the Reel Film and Reality Blockseminar

Please note that the first session is already on Oct 9. Do not apply for this seminar if you cannot attend classes in the first few weeks of October. For more information, please feel free to send me an email. -Its funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen.- -- Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange Paradoxical as it may seem, the deepest sense of reality often comes from a strong confrontation with unreality, that is, with fiction. What in the end is reality but a contruct of our minds dealing with the -true-, but ultimately inaccessible nature of the world? What we naively like to call -reality- is always filtered through our part-individual, part-collective perception and must therefore always remain an idea, a shadow on the wall of Platos cave. In this sense, fiction has always been a playground for artists to share their particular views of reality, to engage audiences in new ways of seeing the world. And films in particular seem to have come closest at immersing people in a world that offers them a heightened sense of reality. But even the most realistic films are bound to certain structures, rules and conventions, inherent to the artificial nature of the medium. Film has developed its own habits, its own codes of depicting realities of various shapes and forms. And more often than not, those realities are a far cry indeed from any realist notion of reality. A Cock and Bull Story, Michael Winterbottoms multilayered pseudo-adaptation of Tristram Shandy, Denis Villeneuves surrealist mystery thriller Enemy, Alejandro González Iñárittus Oscar-winning character study Birdman, Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), and Joshua Oppenheimers ground-breaking and deeply confrontational documentary The Act of Killing all actively address different aspects of dealing with reality, or realities - often in surprising and unconventional ways, sometimes questioning the very concept in the progress. Over the course of five days, we will examine and discuss all these films along with further excerpts from thematically related movies (e.g. Holy Motors, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Paprika, Lost Highway, etc.). In addition, the first session will provide a general introduction into film analysis covering such aspects as cinematography, mise-en-scène and editing. All films will be screened in class at the beginning of each day. Further material, such as all secondary literature listed below, will be provided online. Literatur Tim Cresswell and Deborah Dixon, Engaging Film: Geographies of Mobility and Identity, Introduction, pp. 1-4 Etienne Souriau, -Die Struktur des filmischen Universums und das Vokabular der Filmologie- Henriette Heidbrink, -Das Summen der Teile. Über die Fragmentierung von Film und Figur- Ute Berns, -Solo Performances - An Introduction- Sigrid Merx, -Staging, Performativity and Theatricality in Contemporary Media Culture- Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, chapter 1 Tim Cresswell and Deborah Dixon, Engaging Film: Geographies of Mobility and Identity, Introduction, pp. 1-4 Etienne Souriau, -Die Struktur des filmischen Universums und das Vokabular der Filmologie- Henriette Heidbrink, -Das Summen der Teile. Über die Fragmentierung von Film und Figur- Ute Berns, -Solo Performances - An Introduction- Sigrid Merx, -Staging, Performativity and Theatricality in Contemporary Media Culture- Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, chapter 1 Voraussetzungen The seminar is open to BA students who have completed Basic Module III (Literary Studies) as well as to media and culture students. Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik The seminar is open to BA students who have completed Basic Module III (Literary Studies) as well as to media and culture students. Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2015/16 Ondrazek Sven