Film Music, MUSI2044

(Music Department, School of Humanities, The University of Hong Kong, Autumn 2017)

Time and Place Lecture: M 330-520 pm, LG1 Rehearsal Room

Screenings: F 5:00 pm, LG1 Rehearsal Room
Tutorials: TBA

Instructor Giorgio Biancorosso, 11-20, 11/F Run Run Shaw Tower

3917-5209; rogopag@hku.hk

Teaching Assistants Phoebe Zhou (zhoumz@CONNECT.HKU.HK)

Elaine Ho (hohoiyin@CONNECT.HKU.HK)

Readings Materials will be distributed weekly (see schedule and Moodle)

Filmography See schedule below. All films are on reserve in the Music Library,
11/F Run Run Shaw Tower in Blu-Ray, Standard DVD or VHS
format.

Assignments Readings; two in-class quizzes; one final paper (2,000 words ca).

Grade Tests 50%, Paper 50%

For further bibliography and information on each film, please consult the Film Music
Course Guide on the Moodle, the items on reserve as well as the International Dictionary of
Films and Filmmakers, vol. 4 [also on reserve in the Music Library]

Class Meetings, Screenings and Readings

S4 Beginning Credits (and their music)

Reading: G. Biancorosso, Beginning Credits and Beyond: Music and the
Cinematic Imagination, in ECHO, 3-1, Spring 2001
(http://www.echo.ucla.edu/Volume3-Issue1/Table-of-Contents/Table-of-Contents.html)

S 8 Screening: NORTH BY NORTHWEST (dir. by A. Hitchcock, 1959)

S 11 Lecture on North by Northwest
Reading: C. Gorbman, Unheard Melodies, introd. and chapt. 1; Ouverture and
North by Northwest, in J. Sullivan, Hitchcocks Music

S 15 Screening: SINGIN IN THE RAIN (dir. S. Donen - G. Kelly)

S 18 Lecture on Singin in the Rain
Reading: Excerpts from P. Wollen, Singin in the Rain (London: BFI, 1992); R.
Altman, The American Film Musical (Indiana, 1989)
S 22 Screening: TOUCH OF EVIL (dir. by O. Welles, 1958)
S 25 Lecture on Touch of Evil
Reading: J. Leeper, Crossing Musical Borders: The Soundtrack for Touch for Evil,
in Soundtrack Available (Duke, 2001); J. Rosenbaum, Andr Bazin and the Politics
of Sound in Touch of Evil; Touch of Evil Retouched, in Discovering Orson Welles

O6 Screening: HIGH AND LOW (dir. by A. Kurosawa, 1963)

O9 Lecture on High and Low
Reading: excerpts from N. Burch, To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in
the Japanese Cinema; D. Richie, The Films of Akura Kurosawa; and G. Biancorosso,
The Radio Broadcast as Anamorphic Spot (from Situated Listening, New York,
2016)

O 13 Screening: AMERICAN GRAFFITI (dir. G. Lucas, 1973)

O 23 Lecture on American Graffiti
Reading: J. Smith, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, in The Sounds of Commerce
(New York, 1999)

O 27 Screening: AMARCORD (dir. by F. Fellini, 1973)

O 30 Lecture on Amarcord
Reading: P. Bondanella, The Cinema of Federico Fellini; R. Dyer, The Talented Mr.
Rota, in Sight & Sound, 14-9 (2004); and Nino Rota: Music, Film, and Feeling

N 3 Screening: THE GODFATHER I (dir. by F.F. Coppola, 1972)

N 6 Lecture on The Godfather
Reading: M. Citron, Operatic Style and Structure in Coppolas Godfather Trilogy,
in The Musical Quarterly, 87 (2005)

N 10 Screening: EYES WIDE SHUT (dir. by S. Kubrick, 1999)

N 13 Lecture on Eyes Wide Shut
C. Gorbman, Ears Wide Open: Kubricks Music, in Changing Tunes: The Use of
Pre-Existing Music in Film, ed. by P. Powrie-R. Stilwell

N 17 Screening: IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (dir. by Wong Kar-wai, 2001)

N 20 Lecture on In the Mood for Love
Reading: Chen, C-T., Sonic Secrets as Counter-Surveillance in Wong Kar-wais In
the Mood for Love, in Surveillance in Asian Cinema (New York, 2017).

N 27 How to Analyse a Film Scene; Final Quiz

D 11 PAPER DUE