Understanding Cinema: A Film Appreciation Course for Contemporary Living

COURSE OVERVIEW:

Though certain kinds of cinemas have greater visibility than others, there is a vast diversity in the films made around the world. The general character of Hollywood cinema, ‘Bollywood’ and its relationship with ‘Indian Cinema’, and concepts such as ‘independent’, ‘parallel’, ‘regional’ and ‘world’ cinemas would be understood as stepping-stones for celebrating cinema in relation to the cultures and contexts from which they emerge. The course will deepen one’s understanding of cinema and provide a richconceptual base that would enable the assimilation of all kinds of cinemas into one’s own life. 

INDRANIL CHAKRAVARTY was Professor of Film Appreciation & Screenplaywriting at Whistling Woods & Film & TV Institute of India. He graduated in Film Direction from International School of Film & TV in Havana. He has lectured at several universities in India and abroad. His book, The New Latin American Cinema is a reference text at several universities as also his latest publication which is a book in Spanish, Rediscovering Tagore. He has been on the jury of film festivals in Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Spain and is currently the Director of the recently launched 2-year PG programme, ‘Film & New Media Production’, at Wilson College’s Mackichan Hall campus. Indranil has directed film projects for European Union and UNESCO and is currently developing the audiovisual curriculum for American high school students. He was also corporate trainer for UTV's World Movies channel. 

Dates:        

     

Aug 7, Friday, 5.30pm – 8.30pm: The Cinematic Form

Aug 8, Saturday, 11.00am – 4.30pm: Time & Space in Cinema

Aug 9, Friday, 11.00am – 4.30pm: Methods of Film Analysis

Course Fees: 

Rs.3500/- (incl taxes)

For Whom: 

Meant for anyone who is interested in understanding cinema deeply in order to enrich his/her life, irrespective of one's core discipline. And of course, it is meant for film & media students and industry professionals. 

Please register by 4^th August at: 

Somaiya Centre for Lifelong Learning,

2^nd Floor, Above Kitab Khana,

Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai - 400001

PLEASE REFER TO THE POSTER AND KINDLY FORWARD IT TO ANYONE YOU THINK WOULD BE INTERESTED. 

For admission please write to us at learn@somaiya.com or call  61702270

Listamania: 30 Great Film Books

In the year 2000, Sight & Sound magazine asked 51 leading critics and writers which are the most inspirational five books about film ever written. The choices threw more light on the writers who made the selections rather than on the content or quality of the books they mentioned. It only intrigued me enough to come up with my own list, though not restricted to a list of five. These may not be the 'greatest' books on cinema (if any such judgement was possible) but they are the ones closest to my heart.

30 Best books on Cinema (not in order of excellence)

1.      Signs & Meaning in the Cinema by Peter Wollen (Secker & Warburg, 1969)

2.      Hitchcock by Francoise Truffaut (Paladin, 1967)

3.      The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of the Film  by Stanley Cavell (Viking, 1971)

4.      What is Cinema? Volumes I & II by Andre Bazin (University of California Press, 1967, 1971)

5.      Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson (Editions Gallimard, 1975)

6.      Currents in Japanese Cinema by Tadao Sato (Kodansha International, 1982)

7.      Film as a Subversive Art by Amos Vogel (Random House, 1974)

8.      Sculpting in Time by Andrei Tarkovsky (Bodley Head, 1986)

9.      The Cinema Book by Pam Cook (BFI, 1985)

10.   The Altering Eye: Contemporary International Cinema by Robert Phillip Kolker (OUP, 1983)

11.   Film Form by Sergei Eisenstein (Harcourt Brace, 1949)

12.   Film Sense by Sergei Eisenstein (Faber & Faber, 1943)

13.   A History of the Cinema: From its Origins to 1970 by Eric Rhode (Allen Lane, 1976)

14.   Bergman on Bergman ed. Stig Bjorkman, et al (Touchstone, 1973)

15.   Godard on Godard ed. by Tom Milne (De Capo Press, 1986)

16.   To the Distant Observer: Form & Meaning in Japanese Cinema by Noel Burch (University of California Press, 1979)

17.   Ozu by Donald Richie (University of California Press, 1974)

18.   The Japanese Film: Art & Industry by Donald Richie & Joseph L Anderson (Princeton University Press, 1982)

19.   Movies & Methods, Volume I and II ed. Bill Nichols (University of California Press, 1976 ; reprinted by Seagull Books, Calcutta, 1993)

20.   Film Theory & Criticism ed. Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen (OUP, 1985)

21.   Ingmar Bergman: Essays in Criticism ed. Stuart Kaminsky (OUP, 1975)

22.   Federico Fellini: Essays in Criticism ed. Peter Bondanella (OUP, 1978)

23.   Concepts in Film Theory by Dudley Andrew (OUP, 1984)

24.   My Autobiography by Charles Chaplin (Penguin, 1964)

25.   Jump-Cut: Hollywood, Politics and Counter-Cinema ed. Peter Steven (Between the Lines, 1985)

26.   New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Post-Structuralism & Beyond ed. Robert Stam, Robert Burgoyne & Sandy Flitterman-Lewis (Routledge, 1992)

27.   Brazilian Cinema ed. Randal Johnson & Robert Stam (Columbia University Press, 1995)

28.   Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America by John King (Verso, 2000)

29.   The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie (University of California Press, 1998)

30.   Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave by David Desser (Indiana University Press, 1988)