The River in Film
LA24 - University of California, Berkeley (Fall 2009)
               Professor Matt Kondolf, with film consultant and discussants: Nick Edwards, Anna Ostow

Format: Lecture, film viewing, and seminar discussion.  Because of the time required to screen the films, the course meets for a longer time but less frequently than weekly. 

Course Requirements: Viewing films, readings, participating in discussion, and short (two-page) research paper requiring use of the PFA library.

Syllabus

Burden of Dreams, (Blank 1982)

Schedule Fall 2009: 

08/31  Class introduction: Why rivers?  Viewing of Mean Creek (Estes 2004).  Assignment (due next class): Short (2-pg) essay on your past experiences with rivers in life and pop culture.  Look at what people wrote!  Reading: chapter from Snyder (1968) Pare Lorentz and the documentary film (bSpace). 

09/14  Discussion of our experiences with rivers.  Watersheds and river mythology. The River (Pare Lorentz 1937)  American Nile (Else 1995), discussion.

09/21  Up the Yangtze (Chang 2007).

09/28  Meet promptly at 6pm at the PFA/Berkeley Art Museum, Durant St entrance.  Tour 6-6.30pm.  Assignment (due Oct 19th): How your film was received by critics and historians. 
(3-5pp, based on archival research)   Wild River (Kazan 1960).  Reading assigned (due next class): Williams (1994) "Blood Brothers".  Farber (1972) "'Deliverance', How it Delivers".

10/05  Deliverance (Boorman 1972), discussion: comparison with Wild River. 

10/19  Discussion: Werner Herzog, colonialism and the river.  Burden of Dreams (Blank 1983).  First draft of paper due.

10/26  History of LA water supply.  Chinatown (Polanski 1974).  Reading assigned (due next class): Walton (2001) "Film mystery as urban history: The case of Chinatown". Excerpt from Ondaatje (2002) The Conversations. Both readings to be posted on B-Space.  First drafts returned with comments.

11/09  Apocalypse Now (Coppola 1974) and dinner.

11/16  Discussion and turn in final papers at 6pm.  Then join us for Encounters at the End of the World (Herzog 2008) with the Townsend Center at 7pm in the Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall.

 

 Course Description: Rivers have always appealed to artists, inspired by the river's form, movement, and intimate relation with human settlement.  The river was a frequent subject of the landscape painters touring the American hinterland of the 19th century, whose art served as precursor to the art of film.  With the emergence of film in the early 20th century, filmmakers were quick to capture the river in its beauty and scale, as a scenic backdrop but often with additional symbolic importance.  This class will explore the great symbolic value of rivers by viewing classic (and not-so-classic) films dealing with rivers, floods, and dams.  Themes and topics involving rivers range from its transformative and cleansing properties, to possible roles as timekeeper, lifegiver, indicator of the authentic and "natural", to the spiritual, or its important role in often defying (or conforming to?) modernity. 

Readings: On bspace and embedded in schedule
 

On Watching Films: To appreciate a film and its craft, don't just passively watch it, view it critically. In addition to being carried along by the plot and the sequence of images, it's important to pay attention to the composition and lighting of the images, the music, and how these help to carry the plot, develop character, etc. Most films should be seen twice to really appreciate them on both of these planes.  Likewise, to understand a film and its importance, it's necessary to understand the historical context in which the film was made and received.  We address some important components of this background in readings and discussion. 
 

Get to know the class!