A broad view of narrative cinema history : from the very origins of film genres, through the definitions of style in the ‘classical’ film era, to the institution of ‘master’ narratives provided by the studio system. The course will take on both the legacy of a century of formal innovations as well as outright challenges to the medium, including: New Wave cinema, the Dogma filmmakers, the various waves of the American ‘indie’ film movements, and contemporary forms that push the edges of the genre. Our goal is to break away from a strict chronology, to find the larger formal and thematic patterns of narrative film history from inside and outside the margins, and perhaps to imagine the future of the medium itself. Corequisites: Required film screenings on Wednesday evenings.