Explains how films work using classics such as CITIZEN KANE, VERTIGO, BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, THE MATRIX, and DO THE RIGHT THING (all shown during the “lab” screenings). Students study film as an art form and a medium, cover all the major film types (silent, classical, and contemporary narrative cinema, art cinema, animation, documentary, and experimental film), and get introduced to two basic approaches to film criticism: authorship criticism and genre criticism. They learn to recognize film techniques–mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound–and to analyze how filmmakers make us watch, think, and feel.