This module is designed to introduce students to major developments in film outside the Hollywood tradition, by examining a number of cinemas from around the world. We will consider stylistic and thematic concerns shared by certain schools of filmmakers in a given nation/region; we will also be looking at the ways in which films represent national/regional histories and the factors that shape their reception as national, transnational or 'world' cinemas. Specifically, we will introduce the framework of genre as a way of approaching world cinema, focusing on popular genres – world cinema as local and/or global entertainment.
Module Supervisor's Research into Subject Area
World Cinema is a major area of Shohini Chaudhuri's research. She has published on various aspects of world cinema in her books Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia (2005), Cinema of the Dark Side: Atrocity and the Ethics of Film Spectatorship (2014), and Crisis Cinema in the Middle East: Creativity and Constraint in Iran and the Arab World (2022) and in numerous book chapters and articles
Films include:
Abu-Assad, Hany. (2005) Paradise Now.
Ade, Maren. (2016) Toni Erdmann.
Boyle, Danny and Loveleen Tandan. (2008) Slumdog Millionaire.
De Sica, Vittorio. (1948). Bicycle Thieves.
Gansel, Dennis. (2008) The Wave / Die Welle.
Khan, Farah. (2007) Om Shanti Om.
Labaki, Nadine. (2007) Caramel.
Lee, Ang. (2000) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Wong, Kar-wai. (1994) Chungking Express.
Primary reading includes:
Banaji, Shakuntala. (2013) ‘Seduced "Outsiders” versus Skeptical "Insiders”? Slumdog Millionaire through Its Re/Viewers’ in Crossover Cinema: Cross-Cultural Film from Production to Reception, ed. Sukharni Khorana. Routledge.
Chakravarty, Sumita. (2014) ‘Configurations: The Body as World in Bollywood Stardom’, in Figurations in Indian Film, ed. Meheli Sen and Anustap Basu. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dennison, Stephanie and Song Hwee Lim. (2006) ‘Introduction’, in Remapping World Cinema. London: Wallflower Press
Desser, David. (2016) ‘Chungking Express, Tarantino and the Making of a Reputation’ in A Companion to Wong Kar-wai, ed. Martha Nochimson, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Dickinson, Kay. (2010) ‘The Palestinian Road (Block) Movie: Everyday Geographies of Second Intifada Filmmaking’, in Cinema at the Periphery, ed. Dina Jordanova; David Martin-Jones and Belen Vidal. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Halle, Randall. (c2010) ‘Offering Tales They Want to Hear: Transnational European Film Funding as Neo-Orientalism’, Global Art Cinema, ed. Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
King, Geoff. (2002) Comedy. London: Wallflower Press.
Langford, Michelle. (2012) ‘From Rubble to Terror: German Cinema’s Coming to Terms with the Past’, The Directory of World Cinema: Germany, ed. Michelle Langford. Chicago, IL: Intellect.
Lionis, Chrisoula. (2016) ‘Occupied Laughter,’ in Laughter in Occupied Palestine: Comedy and Identity in Art and Film. London: I B Tauris.
Sengupta, Mitu. (2013) ‘A Million Dollar Exit from the Slum-World: Slumdog Millionaire's Troubling Formula for Social Justice’, in The Slumdog Phenomenon, ed. Ajay Gehlawat. Anthem Press.
Stafford, Roy. (2014) The global film book. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Steenberg, Lindsay. (2006) ‘A Dream of China: Translation and Hybridisation in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.’ EnterText 6.1: 159-81
Teo, Stephen. (c2009) Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
White, Patricia. (2015) ‘Nadine Labaki’s Celebrity’ in Women’s Cinema, World Cinema. Duke UP.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
- Module Supervisor: Shohini Chaudhuri