EEUR110 - Czech Through Film

This course has two separate but related components: a series of Czech films, shown with subtitles and open to the entire University of Pennsylvania community, and a Czech language class which relies on the films for content. Each film screening will be preceded by introductory remarks and followed by a discussion, with optional reading material made available in advance. In this way, the film series can but need not also be offered as a for-credit course, cross-listed through REES and Cinema and Media Studies. The films will be sequenced chronologically through Czech history, as opposed to film history, so that the series will double as a survey of Czech history. For example, we will begin with films set in the medieval period, such as Marketa Lazarova (dir. Frantisek Vlacil, 1967) and Cisaruv pekar-Pekaruv cisar (Emperor's Baker-Baker's Emperor, dir. Martin Fric, 1955). Eventually we will progress to recent films that deal with the current moment. Classic and contemporary films will be intermingled to simultaneously present a variety of important historical eras and cinematic techniques. Concurrently, students enrolled in the language course will learn basic Czech using custom-made materials drawn from the films. As their vocabulary and grasp of grammatical concepts increases, we will be able to work with longer and more complex sections of the film-texts. The films will provide the material for listening and reading exercises, and the students' oral and written work will be anchored by their responses to the films. We will advance from picking out simple statements to analyzing dialogue and identifying irony in film and composition, developing skills of intercultural communication and competence. By the end of the course, students will be able to read about Czech cinema using authentic materials, and discuss the films' aesthetic, historical and political importance.