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. Introduction on course.

2. The language of film: general considerations. Vision and analysis of segments and an entire movie that represent a significant example of the specificity of film language.

3. The intersemiotic translation.

4. Examples of translation from literary language to the filmic language: Zazie dans le metro by Louis Malle; Medea by Lars von Trier; O Brother Where Art Thou? by Coen Bros.; Portrait of a Lady by Jane Campion.

5. Analysis of a movie significant for the interpretation of the cinematic language.

6. Cinema, a mythopoetic translation of reality

7. The 'Other' and the 'Different' in Cinema.

8. The Vampire: Werner Herzog, Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht 

9. The Freak: David Lynch, The Elephant Man.

10. The Mad: Andrej Tarkovskij, Nostalghia.

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.

Attendance

To be counted as “attending”, students must participate in at least 50% of teaching hours and/or, for example, have completed any classwork, exercises or other such activities organised by the lecturer during the course.

Attending and non-attending students will be able to take the exam with this syllabus by the extraordinary session of the a.y. 2024/2025; 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 lessons in correspondence with the viewing of the relevant films, are the following:

-Bram Stoker, Dracula.

-Paolo Lago, Il vampiro, il mostro, il folle. Tra incontri con l'altro in Herzog, Lynch, Tarkovskij, Firenze, Clinamen 2019.

For the basic rudiments of film language, students will have to study the whole:

-G. Rondolino-D. Tomasi, Manuale del film, Torino, UTET 2023

 
 
The following films will be shown in full during the course:

1. Werner Herzog, Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu, il principe della notte), 1979.

2. David Lynch, The Elephant Man, 1980.

3. Andrej Tarkovskij, Nostalghia, 1983.

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. 2024/2025; 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

In order to give non-attending students the opportunity to compensate for what is done during the lectures with independent study, the following materials are provided.
carried out during the lectures, the following materials referring to the same programme content are provided in order to promote full understanding:

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

-Bram Stoker, Dracula.

-Paolo Lago, Il vampiro, il mostro, il folle. Tra incontri con l'altro in Herzog, Lynch, Tarkovskij, Firenze, Clinamen 2019.

For the basic rudiments of film language, students will have to study the whole:

-G. Rondolino-D. Tomasi, Manuale del film, Torino, UTET 2023

 
 
The following films will be shown in full during the course:

1. Werner Herzog, Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu, il principe della notte), 1979.

2. David Lynch, The Elephant Man, 1980.

3. Andrej Tarkovskij, Nostalghia, 1983.

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).