In an era in which the narrative and poetic languages are increasingly tense to intermediality, with a strong directionality towards the audiovisual narration, it is important to prepare students to decode the rhetoric by which he film diegesis is built. This rethoric is the basis of languages of all forms of audiovisual narrative, the film, to the drama, to documentaries, to television service, to video games.It is therefore necessary to study the specificity of film language compared to literary. At the end of the study program the student is expected to master the basic elements of film language, with the ability to read the expressive specificity of a film and the differences generated by the translation process, compared to the development of style of a literary text.

1. Film language: general considerations. Viewing and analysis of clips and an entire film that represents a significant example of the specificity of film language.

2. Specificity of film language compared to other narrative languages;

3. The concept of intersemiotic translation;

4. Examples of translation from literary to filmic: Louis Malle's Zazie dans le metro; Lars von Trier's Medea; the Coens' O Brother Where Art Thou?; the gap between literary and filmic. Cinema as an autonomous language capable of reshaping forms and content of its 'source texts'; Portrait of a Lady between Henry James and Jane Campion. Analysis of the opening scene and the final scene of the film. The theme of light and dark: how to translate an idea into an image.

5. Vision of a film significant for reading film language.

6. Cinema as a mythopoetic mirror of reality.

7. The myth of the afterlife from antiquity to the present.

8. Lars von Trier, The House That Jack Built.

9. Andrei Tarkovsky, Ivanovo detstvo (Ivan's Childhood). 

10. Emidio Greco, L'invenzione di Morel

knowledge and ability to understand: Students will have to get to know the basics of narratology and intersemiotic translation, as well as the functioning of cinematographic language and, more generally, the functioning of visual languages, in the perspective of reading and interpreting narratives that are also heterogeneous with respect to cinema, but play on the hybridization of styles and genres.

Applied knowledge and comprehension skills: On the basis of the comparison between literary text and filmic text, students will have to acquire the ability to detect the different communicative potentialities of the filmic text with respect to the scriptural text, together with the possibility of analyzing with awareness the expressive design systems in the film both at the level of direction and at the level of script and technical realization (photography, editing, music, camera movements etc.).

Autonomy of judgement: At an applied level, the student will have to acquire the ability to evaluate the aesthetic and rhetorical characteristics of a literary text with respect to a filmic text, to judge the formal peculiarities of the filmic text, to critically examine the communicative policies of cultural systems in the use of audiovisual narratives (commercials, news, documentaries, television series etc.).

Communication skills: the tools acquired by the student at the end of the course should allow him to approach the film product with the ability of critical judgment and to be able to produce texts of analysis and dissemination of the cultural product (reviews, essays, files). The written test integrated with the oral test aims to teach the student to use written communication in a correct way in terms of adequate transmission of the ideas developed and, above all, functional synthesis of content: from this point of view, the characteristics of the written test are essential, i.e. a series of open questions, with a predetermined answer space. In this way the student is guided to develop a short text in which he/she synthesizes only the information necessary to answer the question. The oral test, consisting of in-depth analysis of the results of the written test, must demonstrate that the student is able to consciously discuss problems related to the forms of artistic communication covered in the course.

ability to learn: The student will have to acquire the ability to move autonomously in the research of bibliographies and filmographies, using the main instruments of investigation, specifically dedicated to cinema and its relationship with literature. In particular, the student must be able to consult filmographic databases and manage the basic tools for the analysis of audiovisual files, as well as compile filmographic files.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Supplementary lectures given by Dr. Cristina Matteucci

Teaching

Frontal lessons, seminars and tutorials.

Innovative teaching methods

Debate.

Problems highlighted in the course of lectures are regularly discussed in class by comparing the students' opinions, appropriately prepared with suggestions on the timing of the lecturer's reading of the texts on the syllabus.
 

Attendance

Attending and non-attending students will be able to take the exam with this syllabus by the extraordinary session of the a.y. 2022/2023; if they intend to take the exam later, they must follow the course syllabus established for the a.y. in which they will take the test.

Course books

The literary reference texts, the reading of which will be prescribed by the lecturer in the course of the lectures in correspondence with the viewing of the relevant films are:

-Homer, Odyssey, Book XI (in any translation or in the original Greek)

-Virgil, Aeneid, book VI (in any translation or in the original Latin)

-Vladimir Bogomolov, The Childhood of Ivan, Milan, Il Saggiatore 1997 (the text will be available in italian on the Moodle platform)

-Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel (any edition)

For the basic rudiments on film language, students will need to study in full:

-G. Rondolino-D. Tomasi, Manuale del film, Turin, UTET 2006 (and later editions).

The following films will be watched in their entirety during the course (non-Italian films will be studied in their original language versions with subtitles):

-The House That Jack Built by L. von Trier (2018)

-Ivanovo detstvo (Ivan's Childhood) by A. Tarkovsky (1962)

-L’invenzione di Morel by E. Greco (1974)

Assessment

Oral test: the test will serve to ascertain the student's ability to argue hic et nunc on the themes proposed by the examination program, also showing the ability to formulate autonomous critical judgments on works and themes for which, based on the expected learning outcomes, a firm acquisition is assumed. The evaluation, expressed in thirtieths, will therefore take into account both the degree of acquisition of knowledge about the expressive techniques of cinema and the dynamics of intersemiotic translation between literature and cinema and the ability to apply the same to the production of personal judgments and texts inherent in the relationship between literature and cinema.

The final grade, expressed in thirtieths, and will be based on the following criteria:

(a) punctuality and active class attendance: 30 percent (less than 24 hours = 5 points; between 24 and 32 = 6-8 points; between 32 and 36 = 9-10 points)

b) ability to argue with correct use of language: 30% (insufficient = 5 points; sufficient = 6-8 points; good or excellent = 9-10 points)

(c) knowledge and mastery of the topics in the syllabus 40% (insufficient = 5 points; sufficient = 6-8 points; good or excellent = 9-10 points).

The sum of the scores obtained based on the three criteria (a-b-c) returns the grade in thirtieths. Since (c) weighs more, this will determine any rounding up and/or honors.

 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

The student, through individual study, will have to learn the fundamentals of cinematographic language, be aware of the main historical references to the films in the program and be able to evaluate the process of intersemiotic translation between literary text and filmic text. The main topics of the course, developed during the lessons according to a didactic methodology, also of a laboratory type, cannot correspond in their entirety to the basic bibliographical titles indicated in the program for students nor, even less so, to the filmological analyses proposed during the lessons. Therefore, they will have to be integrated with in-depth readings that, in some way, provide the theoretical and methodological basis to proceed autonomously to the analysis and comprehension of the texts and themes in the program, as well as with the integral vision, possibly in the original language, of the films in the program.

In order to pass the exam, a complete and in-depth knowledge of the topics listed under Program Information is required.

The teacher is available for any clarification of a didactic nature and for any proposals for alternative programs.

Attendance

Attending and non-attending students will be able to take the exam with this syllabus by the extraordinary session of the a.y. 2022/2023; if they intend to take the exam later, they must follow the course syllabus established for the a.y. in which they will take the test.

Course books

The literary reference texts, the reading of which will be prescribed by the lecturer in the course of the lectures in correspondence with the viewing of the relevant films are:

-Homer, Odyssey, Book XI (in any translation or in the original Greek)

-Virgil, Aeneid, book VI (in any translation or in the original Latin)

-Vladimir Bogomolov, The Childhood of Ivan, Milan, Il Saggiatore 1997 (the text will be available in italian on the Moodle platform)

-Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel (any edition)

For the basic rudiments on film language, students will need to study in full:

-G. Rondolino-D. Tomasi, Manuale del film, Turin, UTET 2006 (and later editions).

The following films will be watched in their entirety during the course (non-Italian films will be studied in their original language versions with subtitles):

-The House That Jack Built by L. von Trier (2018)

-Ivanovo detstvo (Ivan's Childhood) by A. Tarkovsky (1962)

-L’invenzione di Morel by E. Greco (1974)

Assessment

Oral test: the test will serve to ascertain the student's ability to argue hic et nunc on the themes proposed by the examination program, also showing the ability to formulate autonomous critical judgments on works and themes for which, based on the expected learning outcomes, a firm acquisition is assumed. The evaluation, expressed in thirtieths, will therefore take into account both the degree of acquisition of knowledge about the expressive techniques of cinema and the dynamics of intersemiotic translation between literature and cinema and the ability to apply the same to the production of personal judgments and texts inherent in the relationship between literature and cinema.

The final grade, expressed in thirtieths, and will be based on the following criteria:

(a) punctuality and active class attendance: 30 percent (less than 24 hours = 5 points; between 24 and 32 = 6-8 points; between 32 and 36 = 9-10 points)

b) ability to argue with correct use of language: 30% (insufficient = 5 points; sufficient = 6-8 points; good or excellent = 9-10 points)

(c) knowledge and mastery of the topics in the syllabus 40% (insufficient = 5 points; sufficient = 6-8 points; good or excellent = 9-10 points).

The sum of the scores obtained based on the three criteria (a-b-c) returns the grade in thirtieths. Since (c) weighs more, this will determine any rounding up and/or honors.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

The course is mainly held in Italian. 

Important. Both attending and non-attending students will have to register on time on the Blended Learning platform for this course. In this way they will be able to access the loaded teaching materials, the notifications and the Forum dedicated to them. Please note that all notices sent by the teacher on the Blended Learning platform will be sent only to the students' institutional addresses (nomeutente@campus.uniurb.it).

-Degree Theses. Students who intend to carry out or are carrying out thesis work in this discipline will be called to collective meetings, during which the topics, times and ways of preparing the thesis will be agreed upon and managed. Appointments can be agreed upon during the course and will be communicated through Blended Learning (Moodle).