Cinema and Visual Theory
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with a general knowledge of the critical tools underlying filmology as understood in the frame of visual studies. Through the integration of methodologies such as semiotics, theory of photography, theory of the gaze, and film analysis, the course will favour the comprehension of the experience of vision created by cinema, between reality and representation, visible and invisible, animism and documentary. Moreover, it will allow the familiarization with a net of questions spanning from the ontology of the technical image to the theory of the dispositif and the apparatus, without forgetting the specificity of the filmic object, its language, and its mode of signification. Preserving this double focus, the course aims to offer critical tools to be reinvested in more advanced studies in image theory, in the places of cultural dissemination, and in all those contexts in which the understanding of the images and the cognitive potential of the technologies of the visible perform a crucial political role.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students
- will have developed awareness of the language of images and master the main techniques of analysis of the photographic and filmic
- will be able to trace the image back to the gaze that gave it shape, by recognizing the aesthetic and ideological implications of the point of view
- will be able to frame the role of cinema among the dispositifs of modernity, and finally grasp its contemporary postmedial transformation
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:
- put into practice the acquired tool and apply it to significant cases
- grasp the contextual elements related to the appearance of specific images
- build paths of film analysis which open themselves to the consideration of the visual culture to which artwork belongs
- recognize and assess the experimental forms, as well as the influence of film culture on the landscape of contemporary media art
- employ the notions and critical tools acquired in different professional contexts, such as education, research, and creative industries
At the end of the course, students
- will have developed awareness of the language of images and master the main techniques of analysis of the photographic and filmic
- will be able to trace the image back to the gaze that gave it shape, by recognizing the aesthetic and ideological implications of the point of view
- will be able to frame the role of cinema among the dispositifs of modernity, and finally grasp its contemporary postmedial transformation
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:
- put into practice the acquired tool and apply it to significant cases
- grasp the contextual elements related to the appearance of specific images
- build paths of film analysis which open themselves to the consideration of the visual culture to which artwork belongs
- recognize and assess the experimental forms, as well as the influence of film culture on the landscape of contemporary media art
- employ the notions and critical tools acquired in different professional contexts, such as education, research, and creative industries
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The course focuses on cinema, and in particular contemporary cinema, starting with a reconstruction of the most relevant issues in visual theory for interpreting the current post-media landscape. The first part of the course will analyze the specific characteristics of the film image, while the second part will discuss contemporary aesthetics using the cinema of David Lynch as a case study.
Prerequisites for admission
None
Teaching methods
Lectures, analysis of movies and video art and installations; case studies, discussion of classic pages from cinema theory and filmology.
Teaching Resources
Slides and suggested readings will be accessible on Team "Cinema e teorie del visuale", Channel 2025-2026, codice: ryz2b91.
Bibliography
V. Pravadelli, Dal classico al postmoderno al global. Teoria e analisi delle forme filmiche, Marsilio, Venezia pp. 192.
L. Malavasi (a cura di), Il cinema contemporaneo. Caratteristiche, identità culturale, esperienza, Utet, Roma 2024, pp. 288.
P. Bertetto, David Lynch, Marsilio, Venezia 2008, pp. 176
Non-attending students are required to study also:
B. Grespi, Cinema e montaggio., Carocci, Roma 2010, pp. 120
Bibliography
V. Pravadelli, Dal classico al postmoderno al global. Teoria e analisi delle forme filmiche, Marsilio, Venezia pp. 192.
L. Malavasi (a cura di), Il cinema contemporaneo. Caratteristiche, identità culturale, esperienza, Utet, Roma 2024, pp. 288.
P. Bertetto, David Lynch, Marsilio, Venezia 2008, pp. 176
Non-attending students are required to study also:
B. Grespi, Cinema e montaggio., Carocci, Roma 2010, pp. 120
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral exam testing the knowledge of the texts in the syllabus and the acquired skills, with a particular focus on the language of images. The evaluation corresponds to:
- knowledge level of the theoretical frameworks;
- ability to traslate theoretical concepts into methods to analyze images;
- making judgments;
- ability to argue with conceptual and linguistic precision.
- knowledge level of the theoretical frameworks;
- ability to traslate theoretical concepts into methods to analyze images;
- making judgments;
- ability to argue with conceptual and linguistic precision.
L-ART/06 - CINEMA, PHOTOGRAPHY AND TELEVISION - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor:
Grespi Barbara
Professor(s)
Reception:
From 28 April to 12 May 2025, reception office will still take place on Mondays, but only online from 13:30 to 16:30, by appointment requested by email or Teams (due to research transfer in the US).
Dipartimento di filosofia, second floor, and/or Teams