1980—89 prompted a renaissance in America and British filmmaking. During that decade American cinema underwent various transformations as filmmakers responded to the social, political, and cultural conditions of the Reagan era. Hollywood launched a long-awaited cycle of films about the Vietnam War, but science fiction remained the era's most popular genre. At the same time serious independent films by among others the Coen Brothers, Spike Lee and Derek Jarmusch attracted ever-widening audiences, culminating with Steven Soderbergh's award-winning sex, lies, and videotape. In Britain cinema started to respond to the political ideology of the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and produce images relating to a shifting sense of 'Britishness'—no longer solely the appeal of images of the past in the heritage film but also the more questioning ones of the present by the 'state of the nation' film such as Letter to Brezhnev and My Beautiful Launderette. Many such films deal with issues of class, gender and ethnicity as they underscore the social, political, historical, and industrial developments of the period. There is also the lesser known but equally important territory of Channel 4's Film on Four, gay and lesbian filmmaking, and the avant-garde films of Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway.

By applying the necessary critical tools students can become better informed about the nature of cinema and develop their critical faculties as more perceptive viewers of film. Those participating in the course are expected to have—and demonstrate in class!!—a keen enthusiasm for the medium of film and a willingness to talk and write about film in an academic manner. Students are required to present an oral presentation on one film which provides an insight into its filmic language and techniques such as camera distance, camera angle, editing, and camera movement. Students must also complete a written paper on a different film to the one they dealt with in the Referat AND on a different country to the one dealt with, i.e a Referat on a British film must then be followed by a paper on an American film and vice versa. The paper is expected to engage in the sort of cultural analysis students became acquainted with in their Einführung in die Kulturwissenschaft.

Workload:

Regular class attendance, one oral presentation, one written term paper