FILM TV 114
Film Genres
Description: Lecture/screenings, five hours; discussion, one hour. Study of specific film genre (e.g., Western, gangster cycle, musical, silent epic, comedy, social drama). P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I thought Carolin was a great professor, and she had a wide range of knowledge on Film Noir. I also really appreciated that this course went in depth with Film Noir rather than with a quantity of film genres. I learned a lot about Film Noir because of this course. I'm glad the movies were screened in James Bridges, and I was so grateful to see so many great flicks on that screen. I had never seen a black and white film before this course except for Following by Christopher Nolan, and I had no idea what film noir was until I saw these films. This course really taught me a lot about the genre, and truth be told, I thought this course defined it really well. Like I actually feel like I know what film noir is. The only qualm I had with the course were the written examinations. There was just so much content to cover in the readings that the examinations felt overwhelming in terms of construction. I felt like I had to know all the dates and names, and I did learn them. I just didn't find much use in it. My constructive feedback for that would be to perhaps make the readings a little more accessible on the slides (since the slides were so dense). There were quite a bit of readings and a more comprehensive study guide for the examinations would help a lot. I made the wrong move and took this class Pass/No Pass when I should’ve used P/NP for Stats because I wound up with an A- in this class. It’s just hard to tell what a grade will be since throughout this course, I felt I was doing poorly until I received my final essay back and got a 96 on it. There are two essays in this course, both of which are relatively straightforward and act as a cushion for (written response only) examinations. Those essays are just a single scene analysis on a noir movie of your choice, the first essay is 3 pages and the second is 6 pages. The examinations themselves are pretty much all written responses and cover almost all of the readings, so it’s important you understand the overarching concepts. The movies themselves were phenomenal, each class there was a different screening. That alone should be a great reason why you should take the course since most of those films are shown online or anywhere else. Overall, I loved this course and would recommend it to any one of my friends as a well-rounded, beneficial GE.
Fall 2019 - I thought Carolin was a great professor, and she had a wide range of knowledge on Film Noir. I also really appreciated that this course went in depth with Film Noir rather than with a quantity of film genres. I learned a lot about Film Noir because of this course. I'm glad the movies were screened in James Bridges, and I was so grateful to see so many great flicks on that screen. I had never seen a black and white film before this course except for Following by Christopher Nolan, and I had no idea what film noir was until I saw these films. This course really taught me a lot about the genre, and truth be told, I thought this course defined it really well. Like I actually feel like I know what film noir is. The only qualm I had with the course were the written examinations. There was just so much content to cover in the readings that the examinations felt overwhelming in terms of construction. I felt like I had to know all the dates and names, and I did learn them. I just didn't find much use in it. My constructive feedback for that would be to perhaps make the readings a little more accessible on the slides (since the slides were so dense). There were quite a bit of readings and a more comprehensive study guide for the examinations would help a lot. I made the wrong move and took this class Pass/No Pass when I should’ve used P/NP for Stats because I wound up with an A- in this class. It’s just hard to tell what a grade will be since throughout this course, I felt I was doing poorly until I received my final essay back and got a 96 on it. There are two essays in this course, both of which are relatively straightforward and act as a cushion for (written response only) examinations. Those essays are just a single scene analysis on a noir movie of your choice, the first essay is 3 pages and the second is 6 pages. The examinations themselves are pretty much all written responses and cover almost all of the readings, so it’s important you understand the overarching concepts. The movies themselves were phenomenal, each class there was a different screening. That alone should be a great reason why you should take the course since most of those films are shown online or anywhere else. Overall, I loved this course and would recommend it to any one of my friends as a well-rounded, beneficial GE.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - If you are a film major, or any major for that matter, you are doing yourself a severe injustice if you do not take this class! Professor K is one of the most charming, engaging, and accommodating professors I've had at UCLA. He has a great sense of humor and is very approachable (as approachable as one can get by interacting online). For this particular class, Film Genres, we studied 3 different spheres of East Asian Horror Cinema: Japanese, Hong Kong, and Korean cinema. Throughout the quarter we watched a great variety of films that were all interesting and engaging in their own right (don't worry if you get too freaked out by horror movies; there's something for everyone here!) The assignments are all extremely reasonable and relatively easy, too. There's just one essay for the class, and you have a lot of freedom in what you want to write about. Highly recommend!
Winter 2021 - If you are a film major, or any major for that matter, you are doing yourself a severe injustice if you do not take this class! Professor K is one of the most charming, engaging, and accommodating professors I've had at UCLA. He has a great sense of humor and is very approachable (as approachable as one can get by interacting online). For this particular class, Film Genres, we studied 3 different spheres of East Asian Horror Cinema: Japanese, Hong Kong, and Korean cinema. Throughout the quarter we watched a great variety of films that were all interesting and engaging in their own right (don't worry if you get too freaked out by horror movies; there's something for everyone here!) The assignments are all extremely reasonable and relatively easy, too. There's just one essay for the class, and you have a lot of freedom in what you want to write about. Highly recommend!
Most Helpful Review
Prof. McHugh is one of those teachers whose lectures are mostly composed of questions. If the class doesn't answer some of the questions, she throws a fit. A lot of the times, people just didn't know the answers. McHugh acted like the class was lazy, but it was really annoying having a lecture be like a freaking quiz show. She really never lectured. Sometimes there would be a few lines about a film, or film technique. Also, her questions don't really seem to lead anywhere, so it's very tough to see what she wants you to learn, so rely on your TA. Also, her readings (while in some cases were interesting) were all over the place. I couldn't really understand what she wanted out of us. Also, sometimes she dug a little too deeply in the many questions she had for us. For example, after watching "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," she asked "What makes the good character good, the bad character bad, and the ugly character ugly?" Also, the class title was "Melodramas, Musicals, and Westerns." She never tied the three genres together.
Prof. McHugh is one of those teachers whose lectures are mostly composed of questions. If the class doesn't answer some of the questions, she throws a fit. A lot of the times, people just didn't know the answers. McHugh acted like the class was lazy, but it was really annoying having a lecture be like a freaking quiz show. She really never lectured. Sometimes there would be a few lines about a film, or film technique. Also, her questions don't really seem to lead anywhere, so it's very tough to see what she wants you to learn, so rely on your TA. Also, her readings (while in some cases were interesting) were all over the place. I couldn't really understand what she wanted out of us. Also, sometimes she dug a little too deeply in the many questions she had for us. For example, after watching "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," she asked "What makes the good character good, the bad character bad, and the ugly character ugly?" Also, the class title was "Melodramas, Musicals, and Westerns." She never tied the three genres together.
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