Ira Sarma, Ludwig Maximilians Universität
Hans Kuehner, Ludwig Maximilians Universität

Course description

Until recently the Western public has been largely ignorant of the long tradition and rich production of films in China and India, esp. Bombay. It was only during the last decade that popular Hindi or ‘Bollywood' films like Sometimes happy, sometimes sad which enjoy tremendous popularity in India and the Indian diaspora have also increasingly been consumed by a Western audience; likewise, films like the Hongkong-made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon have heightened the West's perception towards martial arts films from the ‘Far East' and the emergence of a new generation of directors from Taiwan and mainland China.

This course gives students an opportunity to explore examples of the cinematographic experience of these two Asian countries and invites them to discover the peculiar dramaturgy and filmic language of their respective cinematic traditions. The aim is to provide the students with knowledge of the history of Chinese and Indian (Hindi) cinema, introduce them to some ‘classics' and examine what it is that has given those films their ‘classical' status. Students will be enabled to situate films within their socio-political frame and to understand Chinese and Bollywood narrative conventions in relation to the respective cultural traditions. The students will learn to see beyond the ‘melodrama and music' or ‘swordfight and kungfu' formulas that seem to dominate the filmic traditions as perceived by a Western audience. In the Bollywood context some ‘special features' like the starsystem and the the diaspora film of the 1990s will also be discussed.

Most Chinese and all Hindi films will be shown in English or with English subtitles. The sessions will be devoted to analyses and discussions of the films. Students are expected to deliver short papers in class, presenting aspects of production and reception and the students‘ assessment of relevant cinematographic traits of the films.

The students will be required to spend extra time on viewing the films to be discussed in class.

Evaluation : Class participation and short papers (10 – 15 minutes) delivered in class 60%. End of term paper 40%.

week 1:1 Introduction: Indian Cinema.

week 1:2 Introduction: Chinese Cinema.

week 2:1 China – Urban melodrama 1: Shennü (The Goddess), Beijing 1934,

week 2:2 China – Social criticism of the Thirties: Malu tianshi (Street Angel), Shanghai 1936.

week 3:1 China – Literature and the arts after Mao's ‘Yan'an Speeches'

week 3:2 China – The patriotic cinema of the Forties: Yi jiang chunshui xiang dong liu (The Spring River Flows Eastward), Shanghai 1947/48.

week 4:1 China – Propaganda and Film: Nongnu (Serfs), Beijing 1963.

week 4:2 India – Social Criticism in the 50s: Awara (The Vagabond), 1951, Raj Kapoor

week 5:1 India – A Saga of Suffering: Mother India , 1957, Mehboob Khan

week 5:2 India – Melodramatic Love: Sangam (The Confluence), 1964, Raj Kapoor

week 6:1 India – The 1970s and the starsystem

week 6:2 India – The Curry Western: Sholay (Flames), 1975, Ramesh Sippy

week 7:1 China – ‘Cultural Revolution' and ‘Class Struggle': Jinguang dadao (The Golden Road), Changchun, 1976.

week 7:2 China – Reflections on history and the individual: Furong zhen (A Small Town called Hibiscus), Shanghai 1986.

week 8:1 China – Exploring the (cultural) roots: Huang tudi (Yellow Earth), Nanning 1984.

week 8:2 China – Exploring the (cultural) roots 2: Da hong denglong gaogao gua (The Red Lantern), Xi'an 1991.

week 9:1 China – The New Hongkong Film: Duoluo tianshi (Fallen Angels), Hongkong 1995.

week 9:2 China – New urban melodrama: Suzhou he (Suzhou River), Shanghai 2000.

week 10:1 India – The Angry Young Man: Deewar (The Wall), 1975, Yash Chopra

week 10:2 India – The Gangster film: Parinda (The Bird), 1989, Vidhu Vinod Chopra

week 11:1 India – New Nationalism & Family Matters

week 11:2 India – ‘ Feudal Family Romances' of the 90s: Hum aapke hain kaun (Who am I to you), 1994, Sooraj R. Barjatya

week 12:1 India – Dealing with Communalism: Bombay (1995, Mani Ratnam)

week 12:2 India – The Diaspora – A New Audience?: Kabhi khushi kabhie gham (Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad), 2001, Yash Johar

Recommended introductory reading:

Gokulsing K. Moti & Wimal Dissanayake, Indian Popular Cinema. A Narrative of Cultural Change , London 1998.

Banker, Ashok, Bollywood , Harpenden 2001. (an inexpensive introduction to major Hindi films; to be purchased by each student)

Required reading:

Leo Oufan Lee, Shanghai Modern (ch. I)

Chris Berry (ed.), Perspectives on Chinese Cinema.

Paul Clark, Chinese Cinema. Culture and Politics since 1949.

Philip Rosen (ed.), Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology. A Film Theory Reader, pp.17-34, 179-197, 286-299, 379-420.

Chatterjee, Saibal; Nihalani, Govind & Gulzar, Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema (Encyclopedia Britannica) , New Delhi & Bombay 2003.

Kazmi, Fareed, The Politics of India's Conventional Cinema. Imaging a Universe, Subverting a Mulitverse , New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London 1999.

Mishra, Vijay, Bollywood Cinema. Tempes of Desire , New York & London 2002.

Prasad, M.M., Ideology of the Hindi Film. A Historical Construction , Delhi 1998.

Secondary readings:

Nick Browne et. al. (eds.), New Chinese Cinemas. Forms, Identities, Politics.

Jay Leyda, Dianying – Electric Shadows: An Account of Films and the Film Audience in China.

Tonglin Lu, Confronting Modernity in the Cinemas of Taiwan and Mainland China.

Wimal Dissanayake (ed.), Melodrama and Asian Cinema.

Dwyer, Rachel & Divia Patel, Cinema India. The Visual Culture of Hindi Film , New Delhi 2002. (Chapters to be assigned)

Additional texts will be provided in course packs (CP).

Recommended websites:

http://www.upperstall.com/

http://www.imdb.com

http://www.uiowa.edu/~incinema/index.html

Weekly Reading:

week 1:

•  Leo Ou-fan Lee, „The Tradition of Modern Chinese Cinema“, in Berry, pp. 6-20.

•  Leo Oufan Lee, Shanghai Modern , ch. I, pp.3-42 and 82-119.

•  Mishra, Vijay, Bollywood , Chapter 1

•  Dwyer, Rachel, All You Want is Money , Chapter 4

•  Summaries of the Indian Epics Mahabharata and Ramayana in: Winternitz, Moriz, History of Indian Literature , Delhi 1967. (CP)

week 2:

•  William Rothman, „The Goddess: Reflections on melodrama East and West“, in Dissanayake 1993, pp. 59-71.

•  Leukwan Pang, Building a New Cinema in China. The Chinese Left-Wing Cinema Movement, pp. 141-196.

week 3:

•  Bonnie S. McDougall, Mao Zedong‘s „Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art“: A Translation of the 1943 Text with Commentary.

•  Hao Dazheng, „Chinese Visual Representation: Painting and Cinema“, in Linda Ehrlich, David Desser, eds., Cinematic Landscapes. Observations on the Visual Arts and Cinema of China and Japan, pp. 45-62.

•  Catherine Yi-Yu Cho Woo, „The Chinese Montage“, in Berry, pp. 21-29.

week 4:

•  Paul Clark, „Two Hundred Flowers on China's Screen“, in Berry, pp.40-61

•  Paul Clark , Chinese Cinema , pp. 94-101.

•  Bakshi, Rajni, ‘Raj Kapoor', in: Nandy, Ashis (ed.), The Secret Politics of Our Desires , Oxford, New York 1998. (CP)

•  Vasudevan, Ravi, ‘Shifting Codes, Dissolving Identities'. The Hindi Social Film of the 1950s as Popular Culture', in: Journal of Arts and Ideas , vol. 23-24, 1993, pp. 51-79. (CP)

week 5:

•  Mishra, Vijay, Bollywood , Chapter 3

•  Thomas, Rosie, ‘Three Indian Film Stars' (on Nargis) (CP)

•  Kakar, Sudhir, ‘The Cinema as Collective Fantasy', in: Vasudeva, Aruna & Philippe Lenglet (eds.), Indian Cinema Superbazaar , Delhi 1983. (CP)

•  Thomas, Rosie, ‘Sanctity and Scandal: Mythologization of Mother India', in: Quaterly Review of Film and Video , vol. 11, no. 3, 1998, pp. 11-30 (CP)

•  Mishra, Chapter 2

•  Prasad, M. Madhava, ‘The Absolutist Gaze: Political Structure and Cultural Form'

•  reread Bakshi, ‘Raj Kapoor'

week 6:

•  Karanajia, B.K., ‘The Star System', in: Vasudeva, A., Indian Cinema Superbazaar (CP)

•  Chapters from Encyclopedia

•  Kazmi, Fareed, ‘Analysing Conventional Films: Sholay, Coolie, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun ' (pp. 95-115 on Sholay)

•  Kazmi, Fareed, ‘Individual and Rebellion'

week 7:

•  Kam-ming Wong, „A Study of Hao Ran's Two Novels“, in Rudolf Wagner (ed.), Essays in Modern Chinese Literature an Literary Theory, pp. 117-149.

•  Nick Browne, „Society and Subjectivity“, in Nick Browne et al. (eds.), pp. 40-56.

week 8:

•  Esther Yau, „Yellow Earth“, in Berry, pp. 62-79.

•  Sheldon Hsiao.peng Lu, „National Cinema, Cultural Critique, Transnational Capital: The Film of Zhang Yimou“, in Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu (ed.), Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood , Gender, pp. 105-136.

week 9:

•  David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong. Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment, pp. 115-134.

•  Larry Gross, „Nonchalant Grace“, in Sight and Sound 6.9, pp.6-10.

•  Tony Ryans, „Fallen Angels“, in Sight and Sound 6.9, p.42.

week 10:

•  Mishra, Chapter 5

•  Prasad, M. Madhava, ‘The Moment of Disaggregation'

•  Kazmi, Fareeduddin, ‘How Angry is the Angry Young Man?'

•  Chapter on Parinda to be assigned

week 11:

•  reread Kakar

•  Mishra, Chapter 7

•  Inden, Ronald, ‘Transnational Class, Erotic Arcadia and Commercial Utopia in Hindi Films', in: Brosius, Christiane & Melissa Butcher (eds.), Image Journeys. Audio-visual Media & Cultural Change in India, New Delhi 1999. (CP)

•  Datta, P.K., ‘Hindutva', in: Chandrasekhar, Indira & Peter C. Seel (eds.), Body. City. Siting Contemporary Culture in India. (CP)

•  Uberoi, Patricia, ‘Imagining the Family: An Ethnography of Viewing Hum Aapke Hain Koun...!' , in: Dwyer, Rachel & Christopher Pinney (eds.), Pleasure and the Nation. The History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India , Oxford, New York 2001. (CP)

•  Vitali, Valentina, ‘The Families of Hindi Cinema: A Socio-historical Approach to Film Studies', in: Framework. The Journal of Cinema and Media , no. 42, 2000. (CP)

•  Kaszmi, Fareed, ‘Analysing Conventional Films: Sholay, Coolie, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun ', (pp. 137-162, on HAHK)

week 12:

•  Mishra, Chapter 7 & 8

•  Ghosh, A., Body City , Diaspora