SCHOOL OF CREATIVE ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF FILM

MODULE TITLE AND CODE: Film Writing (FSU44022)

LECTURER: Tara Brady

CONTACT HOURS: 22 lecture/seminar hours
SEMESTER: Semester 2 (Hilary Term)
ECTS value: 10
Lecture & Seminar: Fridays 4pm-6pm, 1st Floor Screening Room, 192 Pearse
Street
n.b. Entry from inside the college at 192 Pearse Street Door Keycode CX2749

Rationale and aims -

This module explores and engages in varied practices of Film Writing. In this case Film
Writing is given a broad definition to cover a wide range of filmic / textual outputs.
Acknowledging our deeply networked present, the module will examine how the traditional
media channels and critical practices of historical analysis, auteur and star interview and film
reviewing have been supplemented by the youtube channel, video essay, the fanfic, the wiki
and the podcast. This module will explore film writing in the traditional mediums of print,
television and radio and examining commercial writing, art practices, writing through film
and the effect of the web and social media on film writing practices. The format of the
modules lectures and seminars will be structured around a roster of speakers who will explain
their own approach to writing through or about film. Featuring curators, academics,
biographers, filmmakers and critics, the lectures will focus on the forms, processes, outlets
and audiences for writing on film. Each lecture and seminar will offer an opportunity for
writing practice and exercises which will form part of the module assessment.

Course Texts -

Suggested Reading -

Phillip Laporte (editor). American Movie Critics: An Anthology From The Silents Until
Now. The Library of America; Expanded ed. edition (2008)
Pauline Kael - I Lost It At the Movies. Jonathan Cape UK (1965)
bell hooks - Reel to Real: Race, class and sex at the movies, Routledge (1996)
Anthony Lane - Nobody’s Perfect (2001)
Vito Russo. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. Harper & Row. (1981)
Mark Fisher. k-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher, 2018
Jonathan Rosenbaum. Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons. Johns Hopkins
University Press (2008)
Mark Fisher. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Winchester: Zero Books, 2009
Mark Fisher. Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures.
Winchester: Zero Books, 2014
Anna Bogutskaya, Unlikeable Female Characters, Sourcebooks, 2023

Suggested Viewing –
Note that links to these films are made available through blackboard.
As provided by the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019 we
provide films for educational purposes for you to view at a convenient time. No rights of the
authors are affected.

N.B Films with subtitles will not work in your browser – DOWNLOAD THE FILMS

Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power, d. Nina Menkes, 2022

Beyond Clueless, d. Charlie Shackleton, 2014
Lynch/Oz, d. Alexandre O. Philippe, 2022
Room 237, d. Rodney Ascher, 2012
My Best Fiend, d. Werner Herzog, 1999
The Celluloid Closet. Lecture. Vitto Russo, 1990 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsRUroK6OjE
The Kid Stays in the Picture, Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen, 2004
The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, Sophie Fiennes, 2012
The Ghost Dance, Ken McMullen, 1983 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwkjAuN-_-k
Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley, 2019
Edward II, Derek Jarman, 1991
The Living End, d Gregg Araki, 1992
The Blood of a Poet, Jean Cocteau, 1932
To the Moon, d Tadgh O Sullivan, 2020
L’Atalanta, Jean Vigo, 1934 https://archive.org/details/JeanVigoLAtalante19342
Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St Matthew, 1964
The Player, d Robert Altman, 1992
Hail, Caesar, Coen Brothers, 2016
The Bad and the Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli, 1952
Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder, 1955
Star 80, d Bob Fosse, 1983
A Glitch in the Matrix, d. Rodney Ascher, 2021
Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin, 1936
Evolution, Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015

Learning Outcomes -

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Express knowledge, understanding and critical appreciation of the practice of Film

Writing.

2. Describe different approaches to writing about film and the respective purpose, audiences
and outlets for them.
3. Produce short and long pieces of critique. Produce writing that reflects the syllabus and
shows the development of original thought.

4. Demonstrate independence of thought and creative expression in the synthesis of research

and ideas in seminar debates and through assessments.

5. Know how to use critical thinking to produce a piece of film writing that investigates or
reflects contemporary culture.

6. Work responsibly and effectively within a group.

Methods of Teaching and Student Learning -

Teaching methods include lectures and seminar discussions. Students will be expected to
attend all classes and screenings; read from primary as well as secondary sources and
comment upon these readings; participate in class discussion; perform the required
assessments. Students will be required to discuss their own work with students, lecturers and
visiting speakers.

Assessment –

Essay submission is by blackboard, submissions after the deadline will not be accepted. Host
your video on media.heanet.ie and submit your video essay url in a word document and make
sure it is accessible by the lecturer e.g. use the shared link tool do not simply cut and paste
the url from your browser.

1. Week 4, Thursday 15th February, 5pm. Produce a first draft critical Film Writing Video
Essay plan. (10%). Submit via blackboard.

2. Week 7, Thusday 7th March, 5pm. Final Draft Film Writing Video Essay plan (10%).
Submit via blackboard.

3. Week 13, Thursday 18th April, 5pm Produce a 6-8 minute Film Writing Final Video Essay
that reflects and engages with the course content (50%). Submit via blackboard.

4. Participation and production of questions and engagement with visiting speakers work –
blog submission (weekly) (30%). Submit approx. 250 words on a weekly basis via blog in
blackboard.

The final vdeo essay must be uploaded to heanet (https://media.heanet.ie/) and a

working link provided in a word document in turnitin / blackboard.

Module Evaluation:
Course and Teaching Surveys will be circulated to students at the end of the module.
Feedback will be used to reflect on course development.
Content Warning:
Many of the films on this course include challenging and upsetting material. If you have
concerns about content you are advised to research the films before viewing. Please see the
department handbook for further advice.
Week 1 - January 26, 2024
A BRIEF HISTORY OF FILM CRITICISM
From early responses to aggregate sites.

Tutorial: Film on Film introduction, featuring Lynch/Oz.

References -
Lotte Eisner - The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt
https://monoskop.org/images/f/fd/Eisner_Lotte_H_The_Haunted_Screen.pdf
James Baldwin - The Devil Finds Work. Vintage International Edition (2011)

Further Viewing -

Siskel and Ebert at the Movies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7320I4Br7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNY1N-dAT9M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYxhPqEPNCg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szj9EEgH6W4

Week 2 - February 2 2024

NEW QUEER CINEMA: WRITING MEETS PRAXIS

The Celluloid Closet and Hollywood History. The AIDS crisis and Sundance.

References -

Vito Russo. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. (Harper & Row) 1981
B Ruby Rich. New Queer Cinema. (Duke University Press) 2013
Robin Wood. “Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic”, Film Comment. 1978

Further Viewing -

BPM, d Robin Campillo, 2017

Edward II, Derek Jarman, 1991
The Living End, d Gregg Araki, 1992

Tutorial: Deconstructing the Film Review

Week 3 - February 9 2024

WRITING ON FILM

Writing as Practice: With guests: Victor Morozov, John Maguire

Introduction to writing as practice.: What is the purpose of a film review?

References-
Circles and Squares, Pauline Kael, Film Quarterly Vol. 16, No. 3 (Spring, 1963), pp. 12-26 (15 pages) Published
By: University of California Press

Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures in Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag, 1966 pp 245 - 260. Published By:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Week 4 February 16 2024

MARK FISHER ON CINEMA

Mark Fisher’s Hauntology. Capitalist Realism. Post-post Hollywood, and Star Wars. The Cancellation of Future
Cinema
References -
Mark Fisher. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Winchester: Zero Books, 2009
Mark Fisher. Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Winchester: Zero
Books, 2014

Further Viewing -
Ghost Dance, Ken McMullen (1983)
Sorry to Bother You, d. Boots Riley (2018)

Tutorial: Film on film: The Making of Doc. Werner Herzog’s My Best Fiend

Week 5 February 23 2024

Guest Speaker: Ruth Barton on How to Write a Biography

FILM BIOGRAPHY
Hollywood history and the tabloids. introduction to the classic scuttlebutt biography.

References -
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster) 1998
Final Cut: Art, Money and EGO in the Making of "Heaven's Gate", the Film That Sank United Artists, Steven
Back (Newmarket Press) 1999

Further Viewing -
The Kid Stays in the Picture, Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen, 2004
Week 6 March 1 2024
THE FAN AS THE AUTHOR OF THE FILM
The Fan as the Author of the Film. During the 20th century, rival film theories posited the director, studio, and
even star as the fulcrum of the movie. In the 21st century, the fan is the architect of the movieverse

Tutorial: Film on Film: The Shining and Room 237

References -
Steven Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era,(University of Minnesota)
2010
Richard Dyer. Stars. BFI, 1979
Mark Fisher. k-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher, 2018

Week 8 March 15 2024

Guest Speakers, Ronan O’Toole, Alice Black

CURATION AND CANON

The Importance of Canon. Curation and programming as creative practice. The role of festivals in canon
creation and auteur elevation. Issues in contemporary programming.

References –
Jonathan Rosenbaum. Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons. Johns Hopkins University Press
(2008)
https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time

Further Viewing -
Citizen Kane, d. Orson Welles, 1943
https://archive.org/details/JeanVigoLAtalante19342
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman, 1975
https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/the-video-essay-sound-sight-time

Tutorial: L'Atalante and Zero for Conduct, Canon, and the Retrospective Masterpiece
Week 9 March 22 2024
Guest Speaker: Tadgh O Sullivan

RESPONSES TO FILM: STENDHAL SYNDROME AND ALTERNATIVE PRACTICES

Avant-garde and conceptual cinema. Film as art. Art, poetry, and music inspired by cinema.

Viewing -
Man With a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, 1929
The Blood of a Poet, Jean Cocteau, 1932
To the Moon, d Tadgh O Sullivan, 2020

Week 10 March 29 2024

Guest Speaker: David Turpin

FEMINIST FILM THEORY: FROM THEORY TO PODCASTS

The evolution of Laura Mulvey’s ideas to winning hags and bitches.

References –
Anna Bogutskaya, Unlikeable Female Characters, Sourcebooks, 2023
Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, 1975
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. BFI, 1992
Molly Haskell, Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, 1974

Further Viewing -
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power, d. Nina Menkes, 2022
Born in Flames, d Lizzie Borden, 1983
Trenque Lauquen, d Laura Citarella, 2022

Holiday-themed Tutorial: Compare and Contrast writings on Pasolini’s The Gospel of St Matthew

Week 11 April 12 2024

AFTER “AFTER”
How technology impacts film viewing. The consumption of film through second-hand sources and parody.

Tutorial: Writing with Theory

References -
Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, 1919
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, 1929
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844

Further Viewing -
A Glitch in the Matrix, d. Rodney Ascher, 2021
The Simpsons “Rosebud”, 1993
Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin, 1936
Evolution, Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015

Week 12 April 19 2024

FILM WRITING AS ENTERTAINMENT; ENTERTAINMENT AS FILM WRITING
Part !: The film-themed film. The critic as entertainer. Part 2. How Hollywood writes itself. From Golden Era to
Hollywood sleaze.
Further Viewing -
The Bad and the Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli, 1952
Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder, 1955
Star 80, d Bob Fosse, 1983
The Player, d Robert Altman, 1992
Hail, Caesar, Coen Brothers, 2016

Tutorial: Final Projects Proofing.