University Catalogs

Since the early days of the twentieth century, debates have proliferated in the Nordic countries about film's nature and function, whether as popular entertainment, high art, or a dynamic cultural artifact important in defining national and regional identities. In this course, History of Nordic Cinema, we will survey discrete moments in Nordic film history (viewing films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and contextualize them within broader developments in global cinema. Particularly important in this regard will be Nordic Cinema's love-hate relationship with Hollywood and its complicated status as European Cinema. We will begin in the beginning, with examples of Scandinavia's often-underestimated role as an international, artistic, and popular culture powerhouse in the silent era up through WWI. We'll go on to explore Nordic film productions intended mainly for domestic audiences and juxtapose these with the emergence of a compelling modernist, art-house cinema tradition revolving around the international figure of the auteur director, including Ingmar Bergman and later, Aki Kaurismäki. We'll consider examples of 60s and 70s political, avant-garde cinema (reverberations of the French Nouvelle Vague); talk about the unique development of state-funded structures for film production in these small countries; and end with a survey of recent Nordic films and movements such as Dogme 95 that illustrates ways in which small national cinemas continue to grapple with new iterations of globalization. In this course, students will be exposed to visual cultures from all five Nordic countries and consider the implications of reading film at regional, national and global levels. In short, Nordic Cinema provides a vital and vibrant case study with which to consider a broad range of issues involving the aesthetics and politics of cinema in the world.