SELCS

Nordic Cinema


Course code: SCAN5840.
Course unit value: 0.5.

This unit has two key objectives: (a) to enable students to develop the skills to analyse films as texts in their cultural and historical contexts, and (b) to provide an overview of the development and range of Nordic film as art and industry, within the broader context of European film history. We will cover a variety of film genres, ranging from the golden age of the silent period, through the great Scandinavian auteurs Dreyer and Bergman, to contemporary ‘intercultural’ cinema in the Nordic region.

The unit runs in the autumn term only and takes the form of a two-hour introduced screening per week, followed the next day by a two-hour seminar.  Students are expected to undertake preparatory reading for lectures and seminars, to attend all screenings, and to watch additional films as necessary.

A detailed course outline and week-by-week reading is available on the Scandinavian Studies moodle site (UCL user id and login required).

Assessment: one assessed 2 500 word essay (30%); and one assessed 4 000 word essay (70%).

Tutor: Dr Claire Thomson.

Preparatory reading and set texts:

  • Susan Hayward, Cinema Studies. The Key Concepts (London, Routledge, 2001) and/or another introduction to film studies.
  • Andrew Nestingen and Trevor Elkington (eds.), Transnational Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition (Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 2005).
  • Tytti Soila, Astrid Söderbergh-Widding and Gunnar Iversen, Nordic National Cinemas (London, Routledge, 1998).
  • C. C. Thomson (ed.), Northern Constellations: New Readings in Nordic Cinema (Norwich, Norvik Press, 2006).