Course Catalogue

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Hollywood in the 1930s was a key period of development and transition for American cinema in terms of genre, aesthetics, technology and industry. The course will investigate these developments through a series of case studies, such as: the Warner Brothers gangster movie, the "fantastic" (e.g. horror and gothic melodrama), screwball comedy and the musical, the introduction of Technicolor, the rise of the star system (and the child star), the effect of the Hays Code, the influence of the émigré director in Hollywood.

10 x 1hr lecture

10 x 1hr seminar

10 x 2hr screening

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into Film and Television Studies, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation

None

None

Essay (2,000 words), or video essay (5 minutes) with optional 300 word written statement - 40%

Essay (3,000 words), or video essay (8 minutes) with optional 300 word written statement - 60%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The course aims to: 

■ introduce students to a variety of different films from a specific historical period;

■ establish a variety of different approaches in the critical exploration of these films;

■ explore how Hollywood films emerged with distinctive aesthetic, industrial and technological features;

■ engage students with deep textual analysis of individual films, and with wider ranging analyses linking a number of films through genre or other thematic and historical links.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ appraise a wide range of films produced in Hollywood in the 1930s;

■ apply a diverse range of critical approaches to one or more films;

■ critique Hollywood filmmaking in the 1930s with a knowledge of its historical and social context;

■ employ skills of critical review and film analysis through the completion of a range of writing and/or video essay assignments.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.