HU Credits: 4

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: theatre studies

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Jeanette Malkin

Coordinator Email: jmalkin@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Wed 14:15-15:00

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Jeanette Malkin

Course/Module description:
This seminar will study the stylistic and thematic connections between Expressionist theatre – mainly German – and the cinematic genre known as “Film Noir.” This genre developed mainly in the ‘40s and the ‘50s of the 20th century in the US, on which we’ll concentrate, as well as in France. Some of the more important directors of these films were exiles from Germany and Austria, some of whom had also worked in the theatre (Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Robert Siodmak, Michael Curtiz, Otto Preminger). These directors often succeeded in combining a European “gaze” with an American “voice.” Students will watch a range of Noir films (on their own, in the Media library), and through them we’ll analyze the transformation of Expressionistic subjects and topoi such as: the anti-hero, the utopian dream, the threatening metropolis, identity and society, crime and nihilism. In the Film Noir these subjects take on an aspect of moral decay, evil and paranoia; and Expressionist stage designs are transformed into light and shadow, extreme close-up and nightmarish visions.

Course/Module aims:
To understand the principle characteristics of the German Expressionistic theatre and its influence on the important film genre, "film noir".

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
An understanding of the history and aesthetics of the two media, theatre and cinema which, in this case, share a world view, and an understanding of the connection between them.

To understand how Film Noir 'translated' the stylistic elements of German Expressionist theatre

Attendance requirements(%):
80%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Class discussions and class reports on required articles.

Course/Module Content:
Changes possible

-Principles of Expressionism and Film Noir

- Espressionist plays to be read:
Oskar Kokoschka: Murderer
the Woman’s Hope
Georg Kaiser: From Morn to Midnight
Ernst Toller: Transformation

- Expressionist Films:
From Morn to Midnight. Karl-Heinz Martin
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Robert Wiene
M. Fritz Lang
Metropolis. Fritz Lang

- The move from Germany to the USA: major figures

- Film Noir:
The Third Man. Carol Reed
Detour. Edgar G. Ulmer
The Killers. Robert Siodmak
Scarlet Street. Fritz Lang
The Big Sleep. Howard Hawks
Double Indemnity. Billy Wilder
Sunset Boulevard. Billy Wilder

-Post-noir films:
Chinatown. Roman Polanski
Blade Runner. Ridley Scott

Required Reading:
[ניתן לשינוים]

Andrew Spicer. Film Noir. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd, 2002.
Chapter 1: “The Background to Film Noir,” pp. 1-26. Moodle

J. L. Styan. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1981. Chapters 1 “Expressionism in the Theatre,”
and 5 “Early Expressionism in Germany” Murderer, The Hope of Women. E-Reserve

Renate Benson. German Expressionist Drama: Georg Kaiser: 92-116. Moodle

Juliet Jacques. “From Morning to Midnight” (Web Exclusive) in Cineaste,Vol.XXXVI No.2 (2011). http://www.cineaste.com/articles/emfrom-morning-to-midnightem-web-exclusive

Siegfried Kracauer. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1947. Chapters: Introduction 3-11; 5: Caligari 61-76. Moodle


Renate Benson. German Expressionist Drama: Ernst Toller: 10-38. Moodle

Kellner, Douglas. “Expressionist Literature and the Dream of the ‘New Man’,” in Bronner, S.E. &D. Kellner (eds). Passion and Rebellion: The Expressionist Heritage. New York, 1983:
166-181 + 189-193. PT 405 P38. Moodle

Todd Herzog. “Fritz Lang’s M (1931): An Open Case,” in Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era. Noah Isenberg (ed). New York: Columbia U. Press, 2009: 291-309. Moodle

Andrew Spicer. Film Noir. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd, 2002. Chapter 4: “Themes and Narrative
Strategies,” pp. 64-83 (excerpts); and Chapter 5: “Gender in Film Noir,” pp. 84-93. [also, review: Chapter 1: “The Background to Film Noir,” pp. 1-26] Moodle

Marc Svetov. “Emigres, Expressionism, and Film Noir.”
http://www.transatlantichabit.com/noir/Expressionism-and-the-Dispossessed.pdf

Cantor, Paul A. “Film Noir and the Frankfurt School: America as Wasteland in Edgar Ulmer’s
Detour,” in The Philosophy of Film Noir. Mark T. Conard (ed). University Press of Kentucky, 2006: 139-161. Moodle

Isenberg, Noah. “Perennial Detour: The Cinema of Edgar G. Ulmer and the Experience of Exile.”
Cinema Journal 43.2 (2004): 3-25. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v043/43.2isenberg.html

Erickson, Glenn. “Fate Seeks the Loser: Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour (1945),” in Film Noir: Reader 4:
The Crucial Films and Themes. Alain Silver and James Ursini (eds). New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 2004: 25-31. Moodle

Selby, Spencer. “The Killers (1946),” in his Dark City: The Film Noir. Chicago: St. James
Press, 1984: 39-44. Moodle

Marc Svetov. “Directed by Robert Siodmak”
http://www.transatlantichabit.com/noir/Robert-Siodmak.pdf

Bernstein, Matthew. “A Tale of Three Cities: The Banning of Scarlet Street.” Cinema Journal, 35/1 (1995): 27-52.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1225806

“Film Noir Conventions in The Big Sleep.” In the online journal: Bear’s Film Journal.
http://monoursblanc.com/2008/07/14/film-noir-conventions-in-the-big-sleep/

Manon, Hugh S. “Some Like It Cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity.”
Cinema Journal 44/4 (2005): 18-43.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v044/44.4manon.html

Bronfen, Elisabeth. “Femme Fatale—Negotiations of Tragic Desire.” New Literary
History 35/1 (2004): 103-116.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/new_literary_history/v035/35.1bronfen.html

Dickstein, Morris. “Sunset Boulevard,” in Grand Street 7/3 (1988): 176-184.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/view/25007116?&Search&eq;yes&searchText&eq;%22sunset+boulevard%22&list&eq;hide&searchUri&eq;%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D%2522sunset%2Bboulevard%2522%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don&prevSearch&eq;&item&eq;2&ttl&eq;722&returnArticleService&eq;showArticle

Additional Reading Material:
Ankum, Katharina von (ed). Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar
Culture. U. California Press, 1997.

Bernstein, Matthew. “A Tale of Three Cities: The Banning of Scarlet Street.” Cinema Journal, 35/1 (1995): 27-52.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1225806

Biesen, Sheri Chinen. Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.

Benson, Renate. German Expressionist Drama: Ernst Toller and Georg Kaiser. New York, 1984.

Bronfen, Elisabeth. “Femme Fatale—Negotiations of Tragic Desire.” New Literary
History 35/1 (2004): 103-116.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/new_literary_history/v035/35.1bronfen.html

Brook, Vincent. Driven to Darkness: Jewish Emigre Directors and the Rise of Film Noir.
Rutgers: Rutgers University Press, 2009.

Bronner, S.E. & D. Kellner (eds). Passion and Rebellion: The Expressionist Heritage.
New York, 1983.

Calandra, Denis. “Georg Kaiser’s From Morn to Midnight: the Nature of Expressionist
Performance,” in Theatre Quarterly 4/21 (1976): 45 54.

Cantor, Paul A. “Film Noir and the Frankfurt School: America as Wasteland in Edgar
Ulmer’s Detour,” in The Philosophy of Film Noir. Mark T. Conard (ed). University Press
of Kentucky, 2006: 139-161.

Davies, Cecil. The Plays of Ernst Toller: A Revaluation. Harwood Academic Press, 1996.

Coates, Paul. The Gorgon’s Gaze: German Cinema, Expressionism, and the Image of Horror. Cambridge U. Press, 1991.

Conard, Mark T. (ed). The Philosophy of Film Noir. University Press of Kentucky, 2006.

Dickstein, Morris. “Sunset Boulevard.” Grand Street, 7/3 (Spring, 1988): 176-184.
JStor: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25007116

Dimendberg, Edward. “From Berlin to Bunker Hill: Urban Space, Late Modernity, and Film Noir in
Fritz Lang's and Joseph Losey's M.” Wide Angle 19/4 (October 1997): 62-93.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/wide_angle/v019/19.4dimendberg.html

Dove, Richard. He was a German: A Biography of Ernst Toller. London, 1990.

Eisner, Lotte H. The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence
of Max Reinhardt. U. of California Press, 1965.

Elsaesser, Thomas. Weimar Cinema and After: Germany's Historical Imaginary. New York:
Routledge, 2000. [Part iv]

Erickson, Glenn. “Fate Seeks the Loser: Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour (1945),” in Film Noir: Reader 4:
The Crucial Films and Themes. Alain Silver and James Ursini (eds). New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 2004: 25-31.

Garten, H. F. Modern German Drama. New York, 1959. Chapter 4: “Expressionist Drama”.

Gay, Peter. Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider. New York, 1968.

Gordon, Mel. “German Expressionist Acting,” in The Drama Review 19/3 (September 1975): 34 50.
Also in Expressionist Texts: 7-22.

Gordon, Mel (ed). Expressionist Texts. New York: PAJ, 1986.

Hales, Barbara. “Projecting Trauma: The Femme Fatale in Weimar and Hollywood Film Noir.”
Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture 23 (2007): 224-243. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/women_in_german_yearbook/v023/23.1hales.html

Harris, Oliver. “Film Noir Fascination: Outside History, but Historically So.” [On Robert Siodmak,
1900-1973]. Cinema Journal 43/1 (Fall 2003): 3-24. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v043/43.1harris.html

Herzog, Todd. “Fritz Lang’s M (1931): An Open Case,” in Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era. Noah Isenberg (ed). New York: Columbia U. Press, 2009: 291-309.

Isenberg, Noah (ed). Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era. New York: Columbia U. Press, 2009.

Isenberg, Noah. “Perennial Detour: The Cinema of Edgar G. Ulmer and the Experience of Exile.”
Cinema Journal 43.2 (2004): 3-25.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v043/43.2isenberg.html

Isenberg, Noah. “Weimar Cinema, the City, and the Jew: Paul Wegener’s Der Golem: Wie er in
die Welt kam,” in his book Between Redemption and Doom: The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism. U. of Nebraska Press, 1999: 80-104.

Kaes, Anton. M. BFI Film Classics. London: BFI Publ., 2000

Kaplan, Ann (ed). Women in Film Noir. London: BFI Pub., 1998.

Kellner, Douglas. “Expressionist Literature and the Dream of the ‘New Man’,” in Bronner and
Kellner (eds), Passion and Rebellion: 166-181 + 189-193.

Kenworthy, B. J. Georg Kaiser. Oxford, 1957.

Knapp, Bettina. “Oskar Kokoschka’s Murderer Hope of Womankind: An Apocalyptic Experience.” Theatre Journal (May 1983): 179-194.

Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film.
Princeton U. Press, 1947.

Krutnik, Frank. In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. London: Routledge, 1991.

Kuhns, David F. German Expressionist Theatre: The Actor and the Stage. Cambridge U.P, 1997.

לנדאו, ציפי. "יצוג דמות האשה ב"סרט האפל" בשנות הארבעים ובשנות השמונים"
במסגרת עבודת גמר לתואר מוסמך בחוג לקומוניקציה, בהנחיית פרופ' ישעיהו ניר‬
ירושלים : האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים, 1990

Manon, Hugh S. “Some Like It Cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity.”
Cinema Journal 44/4 (2005): 18-43.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v044/44.4manon.html

Naremore, James. More Than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts. U. of California Press, 1998.

Nicholls, Peter. “Sexuality and Structure: Tensions in Early Expressionist Drama.” New Theatre Quarterly 7/26 (May 1991): 160-170.

Pam, Dorothy. “Murderer, the Women’s Hope.” The Drama Review 19/3 (1975): 5-17.

Paris, James A. “‘Murder Can Sometimes Smell Like Honeysuckle’: Billy Wilder’s Double
Indemnity (1944),” in Film Noir: Reader 4: The Crucial Films and Themes. Alain Silver and
James Ursini (eds). New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 2004: 9-23.

Patterson, Michael. The Revolution in German Theatre 1900 1933. London, 1981.

Pittock, Malcolm. Ernst Toller. Boston, 1979.

Ritchie, J. M. German Expressionist Drama. Boston, 1976.

Rubenstein, Lenny. “Caligari and the Rise of the Expressionist Film,” in Bronner and
Kellner (eds), Passion and Rebellion: 363-373.

Schürer, Ernst. Georg Kaiser. New York, 1971.

Schürer, Ernst (ed). German Expressionist Plays. New York, 1997.

Sharp, Francis Michael. “Expressionism and Psychoanalysis.” Pacific Coast Philology 13
(Oct. 1978): 94-100.

Selby, Spencer. Dark City: The Film Noir. Chicago: St. James Press, 1984.

Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward (eds). Film Noir. London: M. Secker and Warburg, 1980.

Sinowitz, Michael. “Graham Greene's and Carol Reed's The Third Man: When a Cowboy
Comes to Vienna.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies 53/3 (2007): 405-433. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modern_fiction_studies/v053/53.3sinowitz.html

Sokel, Walter H. (ed). An Anthology of German Expressionist Drama: A Prelude to
the Absurd. New York, 1963.

Spicer, Andrew. Film Noir. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd, 2002.

Styan, J.L. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre.
Cambridge U. Press, 1981.

Styan, J.L. Max Reinhardt. Cambridge U. Press, 1982. Chapter 4: “Expressionist Experiment”.

Toller, Ernst. I Was a German: The Autobiography of a Revolutionary. New York, 1991.

טולר, ארנסט. נעורים בגרמניה. תרגום: צבי קדמי. הוצאת מרחביה: הקיבוץ המאוחד, 1943.

Tuske, Jon. Dark Cinema: American Film Noir in Cultural Perspective. Greenwood Press,
1984.

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 30 %
Participation in Tutorials 30 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 40 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
Please see the film "The Third Man" before the first meeting of the seminar