To provide students with an insight into the interaction of film and political authority, the structures which the authorities use or have used in order to exert control on the cinema and the ways in which cinema’s power over its audience has been harnessed, manipulated or occasionally feared to the point of suppression;

To examine specific films, scenes from them and the controversies around them as case studies of the interaction of film and political and/or other authority;

To introduce students to theoretical debates about propaganda and censorship in Film Studies.

Students will gain a differentiated understanding of the way in which political and other authorities have sought to control, harness and curb the power of film in different historical situations. 

Students will gain an awareness of film’s position in national institutional structures and the effect of these on the finished product and a historical perspective on the perceived purpose of and limits on film production in Europe.

Students will develop an alertness to the ways in which film may seek to manipulate the viewer and a critical attitude to the theories that have been constructed regarding the effects of film on its audience.

Students will develop an ability to use different kinds of textual evidence to present a balanced and sophisticated argument about complex issues of representation and control and to reach a reasoned conclusion recognising the power of social attitudes and desires in the formulation and conduct of debates in these fields.

Lecture - Lectures provide an introduction to key topics and films

There are two lectures in week one and two seminars in week two; thereafter the pattern is one lecture/one seminar per week. The purpose of lectures is to introduce key concepts.

Seminar - Seminars provide an opportunity to discuss material and scenes from films. Typically they are based on the thematic and stylistic analysis of scenes from the films viewed.

There are two lectures in week one and two seminars in week two; thereafter the pattern is one lecture/one seminar per week. The purpose of seminars is to explore key concepts in practice using extracts from the films covered.

Other - Essay consultation: students are encouraged to talk to their tutors about an essay plan; they are also encouraged to seek further feedback.

Essay Plan Consultation, Essay Feedback Consultation

Using some of the most controversial films ever made as case studies, this m odule examines the relation between film, political authority and public morality. The module examines films from the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, the German Democratic Republic, France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain. All films are shown with English subtitles and the modules is suitable for all students in HSS interested in film, propaganda and censorship. All films are subtitled in English if not in English.

Topics will include:

Introduction: What is propaganda?

Soviet cinema and Eisenstein''s October (1927); 

National Socialist cinema I: Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl, 1934) and The Eternal Jew (Hi ppler, 1934)*;

East German Film and the censorship of Maetzig''s I am the Rabbit (1965);

Political propaganda and censorship in Eastern Europe: Man of Marble (Wajda, 1977);

Italian Cinema and Propaganda under Mussolini;

Censorship and the politics of film in Spain under Franco;

Italy, France and The Battle of Algiers (1965);

Problems of film classification and the BBFC: Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971).

* The Eternal Jew is not available commercially because of its content and it is not in the SJL. It is loaned from the educational collection of the Imperial War Museum.