The Writer and the Cinema

lrom2856  2019-2020  Louvain-la-Neuve

The Writer and the Cinema
Note from June 29, 2020
Although we do not yet know how long the social distancing related to the Covid-19 pandemic will last, and regardless of the changes that had to be made in the evaluation of the June 2020 session in relation to what is provided for in this learning unit description, new learnig unit evaluation methods may still be adopted by the teachers; details of these methods have been - or will be - communicated to the students by the teachers, as soon as possible.
5 credits
15.0 h
Q1

This biannual learning unit is being organized in 2019-2020
Teacher(s)
Maeder Costantino; Martelli Matteo (compensates Maeder Costantino);
Language
Italian
Prerequisites
Prerequisite (ideally in terms of competences).
  1. To know the general framework of italian literature.
  2. To know how to express oneself in italian.
  3. To know ho to write-up a text in italian.
  4. To know the basics pertaining to narratology and textual analysis.
Main themes
In this seminar we will approach the themes concerning the perception an author has of himself, of his works and of his public. We will analyse the strategies of manipulation, of argumentation, and the practical execution (or non-execution) in a selection of works of the author in question. The student will demonstrate his or her ability to use, in a critical and personal fashion, the strategies of interpretation and of analysis presented in other master courses of the program.
Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1
  • To be able to analyse an Italian libretto.
  • To know how a libretto functions.
  • To know the characteristics of a libretto and of Italian operas.
  • To know how to write-up an analysis.
  • To have read the fundamental libretti.
  • To know how to interpret a libretto according to semiotic and post-semiotic methods.
  • To know how to recognize the distinctive traits of a libretto and to replace them in their cultural context.
 

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.
Content
This course investigates the strange and comic character, the loner and misfit, particularly loved by Italian writers and directors from the very beginnings.

Pier Paolo Pasolini one of the major writers, directors, and essayists, has tried to define screen writing as a new literary genre. Why don't we accept screen writing as an art form of its own, as it is now the case for plays or poetry (often written for music or other art forms)

We will investigate how novelists and playwrights approached cinema and screen writing and how they interpreted the socially unadapted person as filmic and literary character.

We will read, watch and analyze the following movies, scripts and novels:

La ricotta, written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Miracolo a Milano, directed by Vittoria de Sica, written by Cesare Zavattini, adapted from his book Totò il buono.

La voce della luna, written and directed by Federico Fellini, based on the novel Il poema dei lunatici by Ermanno Cavazzoni who participated actively as screenwriter during the shooting of the film.
Teaching methods
This course fosters the active participation of the student. In a first moment, the teacher will introduce theoretical and analytical approaches and offer a historical overview of Italian writers and their relation to cinema. The student writes an essay on an analogous topic. He will discuss it in public and then write an academic paper.
Evaluation methods
Final evaluation base on an academic paper, ~12-15 pages.
Other information
A cineforum will accompany this course.
Bibliography
P.P.Pasolini, Empirismo eretico, Milano, Garzanti, 1975.
P.P. Pasolini, La ricotta, in Per il cinema, Milano : Mondadori, 2001.
P.P. Pasolini, Che cosa sono le nuvole, in Per il cinema, Milano : Mondadori, 2001.
Shakespeare, Othello,
P.P. Pasolini, Teorema, in Per il cinema, Milano : Mondadori, 2001
P.P. Pasolini, Teorema, romanzo, Milano : Garzanti 1968.

V. Cerami, Consigli a un giovane scrittore, Milano, Mondadori, 2010.
S. Chatman, Story and discourse: narrative structure in fiction and film, Ithaca (N.Y.), Cornell University press, 1983.
S. Cortellazzo, D. Tomasi, Letteratura e cinema, Bari, Laterza 2008.
N. Dusi, Il cinema come traduzione, Torino, Utet, 2006.
V. Jouve, L'effet-personnage dans le roman, Paris, Puf, 1998.
B. McFarlane, Novel to Film. An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996.
Lu Shengui, Transformation et réception du texte par le film: pour une nouvelle problématique de l'adaptation, Bern, Peter Lang, 1999.
Faculty or entity
ROM


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Aims
Master [60] in Modern Languages and Literatures : General

Master [120] in French and Romance Languages and Literatures : General

Master [120] in Modern Languages and Literatures : General