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CIN105Y: Introduction to Film Study
Final Assessment
All of the information below is important. Please read it carefully before you get started.**
ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS
• In the pages that follow you will see Part A, Part B, and Part C. For each of these parts, you
will be presented with two options (for example, A1 and A2). You should answer ONE of those
two options. That means you will be answering THREE questions in total: one from Part A, one
from Part B, and one from Part C.
• Each answer should be 2-3 pages in length. Please bear in mind that three pages is a hard upper
limit: the markers will stop reading after three full pages.
COMPLETION AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
• You have 72 hours to complete and submit your answers.
• Your answers must be submitted by noon (12 pm) EST on April 14th. Late submissions will
not be accepted.
• You should format your answers and upload them as a single MS Word document.
• Hand your assignment in online through the Quercus site for your tutorial. To do so, click on
“FINAL ASSESSMENT” in either “Assignments” or the “Module” called “Materials for Final
Assessment.” Then click on “Start Assignment” and follow the prompt to upload your work and
“Submit Assignment.”
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
• Your exam should be typed (Times New Roman, 12 point) and double-spaced with 1” margins.
• Include a title page with the following information: name, student number, tutorial, questions
answered (for example, “A1, B1, C2”).
• At the start of each answer, indicate clearly which question (A1 or A2; B1 or B2; C1 or C2)
you are answering.
• Insert page breaks between answers, so that each answer starts at the top of a new page.
• Number your pages.
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CITATIONS
You are not required to quote directly from the course readings, but you are welcome to do so
and your answers may very well benefit from doing so. Should you choose to quote material,
you do not need to provide a full citation, but you should provide an in-text citation that clearly
identifies the author(s) and page number(s) of the source text. Here are a couple of examples:
In “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice” David Bordwell argues that
“characters of the art cinema lack defined desires and goals” (776).
“Characters of the art cinema lack defined desires and goals” (Bordwell 776).
If it is necessary to cite a lecture, lecture outline, or some other course material, please note the
document from which you are quoting by listing it in parentheses after the quoted material. For
example, write “Lecture for Week 12” or “Lecture Outline for Week 20” in parentheses.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
As you read through this prompt, you will see a series of links to two online short films in Part A
and six still images in Question C2. Just in case those links are not working or those images are
not appearing as they should, you can also find these items in the “Module” called “Materials for
Final Assessment” on the Quercus site for your tutorial.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Under no circumstances should you represent someone else’s idea as your own or collaborate
with anyone else when completing this exam. Plagiarism, cheating, or any conduct that violates
the University’s academic integrity standards will result in serious disciplinary action. For
further information on this topic, please visit the U of T’s website on “Academic Integrity,”
where you will find, among other things, the University’s Code of Behaviour on Academic
Matters.
A FINAL NOTE
As you will quickly come to realize, far more than 2-3 pages could be written in response to each
of the questions on this exam. Please rest assured that the marking team realizes this as well and
is not expecting an answer that fully exhausts the material. Instead it will be looking for an
answer that is complete – that is, one that attends to all of the multiple parts of each question;
demonstrates an ability both to explain and to apply the ideas and/or concepts at issue; and
communicates clearly about the various ways that the film medium in general, and the specific
films discussed in each answer, make meaning.
Good Luck!
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PART A
For this first part you are required to analyze a short film – either a documentary or an avant-
garde film -- that we have not screened before. Choose ONE of the following two options.
A1. Documentary
In Film Art: An Introduction David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, and Jeff Smith posit three
possible forms for documentary films: narrative, categorical, and rhetorical. First, describe each
of these forms. Second, discuss E.J. McLeavey-Fisher’s The Dogist as an example of one (or
more) of these forms. In the process of completing this second step, you should methodically
analyze the structure of the film: What are the various parts that make it up? How do those parts
relate to one another? What are the key stylistic features of the various parts and, by extension,
the film as a whole? Finally, how does the film’s structure contribute to the spectator’s
experience?
In Film Art: An Introduction David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, and Jeff Smith posit three
possible forms for avant-garde films: narrative, abstract, and associational. First, describe each
of these forms. Second, discuss Pleix’s Birds as an example of one (or more) of these forms. In
the process of completing this second step, you should methodically analyze the structure of the
film: What are the various parts that make it up? How do those parts relate to one another?
What are the key stylistic features of the various parts and, by extension, the film as a whole?
Finally, how does the film’s structure contribute to the spectator’s experience?
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PART B
As we discussed in the second semester, genre criticism and auteur criticism both depend on an
analytical process that situates individual films in larger bodies of work. In this part you will
explore one of these varieties of criticism. Choose ONE of the following two options.
B1. Genre
In this course, we discussed the fact that a film genre is, in the words of Thomas Schatz, “both a
static and a dynamic system” (691), meaning that it is both relatively consistent over time and
subject to historical change. First, explain how a film genre can be both static and dynamic by
answering the following questions: In what ways is it static? How, and why, does it change over
time? Second, use our case study of the Western to illustrate the simultaneously static and
dynamic nature of a film genre. In the process of completing this second step, be sure to discuss
in detail the Westerns we screened, High Noon and Rio Bravo.
B2. Auteurism
In this course, we charted the development of auteurism as a mode of analysis. First, trace that
development by identifying the origins of auteurism and then discuss the way certain scholars,
including Peter Wollen, reformulated it subsequently. In other words, answer the following
questions: How, and when, did auteurism first emerge? How, and why, did certain scholars later
reformulate auteurism and, in so doing, foreground the “operation of decipherment” (Wollen 77)
and the concept of the textual author? Second, use our case study of Howard Hawks to explain
and illustrate the concept of the textual author. In the process of completing this second step, be
sure to discuss in detail the films by Hawks that we screened: His Girl Friday, Rio Bravo, and
Bringing Up Baby.
PART C
This final part is devoted to key concepts that we explored throughout the second semester.
Choose ONE of the following two options.
C1. “ All films are political”
In their essay “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism” Jean-Louis Comolli and Jean Narboni declare that
“all films are political” and thereby set the stage for an approach to film study that foregrounds
the way films comply with or challenge dominant ideology. Based on Comolli and Narboni’s
argument, do the following. First, explain why they claim that all films are political. Second,
compare and contrast the means by which films reinforce dominant ideology with the means by
which they challenge dominant ideology. Third, use two films from our course to illustrate those
different means; in other words, discuss one film in terms of its compliance with dominant
ideology and the other film in terms of its resistance to (or its capacity to counter) dominant
ideology. With regard to your chosen films, be sure to be as specific as possible as you discuss
various aspects of their narrative and/or stylistic systems.
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C2. Direct address as a self-reflexive technique
In this course we have at various points discussed the fact that characters in fictional, narrative
films rarely “break the fourth wall,” or directly address the audience, since doing so can disrupt
the spectator’s ability to lose themselves in the world of the film by drawing their attention to the
fact that they are watching a film. Yet in this course we have watched multiple films wherein
this self-reflexive technique is used; all of those films (with a representative image) are listed
below.
Choose two films from the list below and then compare and contrast how, and to what ends, they
break the fourth wall. In the process, you should consider the following questions in relation to
each film: Is the fourth wall broken repeatedly in the film or on a limited number of occasions?
Does this technique work in tandem with other self-reflexive techniques in the film? If so, how?
How does this technique affect the spectator’s experience? What functions are served – artistic,
narrative, thematic, and/or ideological – by the film’s use of direct address? Finally, how is the
use of this technique related to a film’s status as a classical, art, radical, and/or postmodern text?
