EUROPEAN 222 : European Cinema and The City
Arts
2025 Semester Two (1255) (15 POINTS)
Course Prescription
Course Overview
This course aims to provide students with an understanding of key movements, moments and critical debates in European cinema studies, particularly around the relationship between cinema and the city. Since the end of the nineteenth century, the fortunes of cinema and the city have been inextricably linked on a number of levels. The rise of cinema occurred simultaneously with increasing urbanization and industrialization, and early cinema production and exhibition was largely urban. Thematically, the cinema has, since its inception, been constantly fascinated with the representation of the distinctive spaces, lifestyles, and human conditions of the European city (e.g. the Lumière brothers’ Paris of 1895). Formally, the cinema has long had a distinctive ability to capture and express the spatial complexity, diversity, and social dynamism of the city through mise-en-scène, location filming, lighting, cinematography, and editing. In parallel, European thinkers from Walter Benjamin – confronted by the shocking novelties of modernity, mass society, manufacture, and mechanical reproduction – to Jean Baudrillard and Bourdieu–have recognized and observed the correlation between the mobility and visual and aural sensations of the city and the mobility and visual and aural sensations of the cinema. Industrially, cinema has long played an important role in the cultural economies of cities all over the world. The city space became a genre in German street dramas (German Expressionism -1920s; New German Cinema of the 70s and 80s and the depiction of pre-and post-reunification Berlin) and in the Italian cinema of the street Italian Neorealism (1940s and 1950s), which also opened the road to women. The city also plays a major role in the French New Wave of the early 1960s, banlieue cinema and The New Wave of the 1990s. Finally, we look at how in more contemporary European cinema, cities and cinemas continue to be linked, as complex and independent categories, each in dialogue with the other, in emerging political and cultural economics, legitimating or challenging dominant ideologies and reflecting/refracting emerging crises.
Course Requirements
Capabilities Developed in this Course
| Capability 1: | People and Place |
| Capability 2: | Sustainability |
| Capability 3: | Knowledge and Practice |
| Capability 4: | Critical Thinking |
| Capability 5: | Solution Seeking |
| Capability 6: | Communication |
| Capability 7: | Collaboration |
| Capability 8: | Ethics and Professionalism |
Learning Outcomes
- Relate individual films to important issues in European Cinema. (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)
- Demonstrate sound basic knowledge of how aesthetics (film form and style) constructs meaning in European Cinema. (Capability 3, 4 and 5)
- Communicate in an engaging and persuasive manner, personal interpretations and arguments on individual films, in order to illuminate key issues in European cinema and its relationship to the city. (Capability 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8)
- Research films and filmmakers effectively, in order to support analysis and arguments. (Capability 3, 4, 5 and 8)
- Understand films, in terms of their socio-cultural and ideological significance, their relationships to industrial, historical and socio-cultural practices, and theoretical concepts in relation to the city. (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)
- Relate course content to other courses (on Europe and/or Cinema) and to one's personal and social situation. (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)
- Work individually and collectively, with classmates, to develop understanding and openness, and to refine, exchange and present ideas. (Capability 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8)
- Reflect honestly and constructively on one’s own performance and the performance of others. (Capability 4, 6 and 8)
Teaching & Learning Methods
Weekly lectures will involve an interactive component, with opportunities for student questions, discussion and active contributions. While most sections of lectures will be recorded and lecture pwpts made available on Canvas, sections involving student interaction may not be available as a recording. Discussion Classes will be focussed on student-led group discussion of prepared set questions, film clips, assignments and/or weekly readings. These classes will not be recorded.
Workload Expectations
Delivery Mode
Campus Experience
Attendance is expected at scheduled activities to receive credit for components of the course, including a 10% participation grade for discussion classes.
Lectures will be available as recordings. Other learning activities including tutorials will not be available as recordings.
The course will not include live online events.
The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly timetable.
This course is not available for delivery to students studying remotely outside NZ in 2025.
Learning Resources
Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).
Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.
Student Feedback
At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.
Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.
Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.
Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework, tests and examinations as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.
Class Representatives
Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.
Inclusive Learning
All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.
Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz
Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.
Special Circumstances
If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.
If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.
This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.
Learning Continuity
In the event of an unexpected disruption we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about how to proceed.
Student Charter and Responsibilities
The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.
Disclaimer
Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.
In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.