Saturdays, September 19, 26, October 3, 10, 17 – 3pm to 5 pm
The mid-twentieth century is considered a major turning point for independent filmmaking when young directors with small budgets flourished. This course, New Waves: an International Study of Modern Cinema, takes a world tour to explore some of the most famous 1950s and1960s national film movements from France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, India, and Brazil. We will examine films from master directors such as: Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Glauber Rocha, Satyajit Ray, and Věra Chytilová in terms of their historical context and innovations in film style. We will pay special attention to how this new generation of directors used their cameras as a tool to tackle contemporary social and political problems. Our guiding questions will be: how did these filmmakers collaborate to form common goals for their work? How can we understand their commitment to realism through their films? A seminal period in film culture, the course will also consider how they established an international dialogue through both the printed press and festival circuit that would forever change the course of film history. We will screen the following films in their entirety: Germany Year Zero (1948), The World of Apu (1959), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Daisies (1966), and Entranced Earth (1967). —Maya Sidhu
Maya Sidhu, who will teach the course, is a PhD Candidate in French/Francophone Studies at Northwestern University. She received her MA in French Language and Civilization from New York University in Paris in 2009.
