"This course will introduce the key and historically important aspects of the film image, its construction, and what makes it unique. We will study different film forms and styles with a particular focus on the mise-en-scène, camera work, editing techniques, and sound. The course emphasizes how each of these are used to create distinctive works of film art. The course will also examine how and where the film image connects to other art forms, such as painting, design, fashion, and architecture. We will consider the guiding principles of films from a range of countries, historical periods, national cinematic traditions, and modes of production. These will include, but are not limited to, films from the Classical Hollywood Studio era, the cinemas of Japan, India, Iran, Africa, post-revolutionary Russia, and avant-garde and experimental modes. The basis of the course will be learning skills for close looking and listening. Following identification of the sensuous aspects of the film image, we will move to analysis and argument, using description to support / corroborate. Thus, the course will give students a language with which to describe and analyze the film image as the first step to constructing a considered argument. These skills will be transferable to the study and discussion of images in general."