Sociology of Films is concerned with films as a social institution, and how works of fiction, documentaries, and archive films offer a space of convergence for numerous sociological and psychological perspectives. In "restructuring the fast-paced upper-crust romance, the screwball comedy dominated Depression-era screen comedy and provided that period's most significant and engaging social commentary. Film noir is a term that was coined by the French who categorized the films of the 1940s-1950s to use film noir. Sociology of Music, Sociology of Arts, Casting Couch also touch upon sociology of films. In the present-day world, gangster movies are more of an inspiration to youngsters.
"The melodrama's narrative formula, its interrelated family of characters, its repressive small-town milieu, and its preoccupation with America's sociosexual mores-managed to live beyond the Eisenhower years and into the era of civil rights, Vietnam, the sexual revolution, and the Women's Movement." - Thomas Schatz.
"Generally speaking, film noir ("black films") refers to two interrelated aspects: visually, these films were darker and compositionally more abstract than most Hollywood films; thematically, they were considerably more pessimistic and brutal in their presentation of contemporary American life." - Thomas Schatz. Hollywood Genres. Random House, 1981.
Sociology of Films
- Alex Hicks.
This course will introduce students to social aspects, causes and consequences of the
production, distribution, content, form and reception of film. The course will carried out
as a combination of lecture course and seminar, enlivened by frequent film clips and
nearly weekly films.
Sociology of Films
Description: This course examines the history of the film industry and the significance of
films in the cultural history of the United States. In particular, it focuses on the
effects of social conditions on the film industry and the content of films. It also
assesses the impact of films on American culture and society.
Soci 3000: Sociology in Film
Prof. James J. Dowd Baldwin Hall, Rm. 320.
Course Syllabus:
The distinctive feature of this course is its extensive
use of feature-length films to illustrate sociological concepts and issues.
We will also consider various sociological ideas, including
modernization theory,
anomie, social
class and social mobility,
cultural capital, gender roles, social identity,
subculture,
and assimilation.
The Sociology of Films - Prof. David MacGregor.
This course deals with film as a social institution. We look at the
movies as a globalized industry with a particular history that operates like any
other productive enterprise—bringing together labour, capital and land. Film
involves an audience with certain characteristics and expectations.
As Richard Barsam points out in Chapter 8 of Looking at Movies (p. 340), “movies are
a social phenomenon. Social history and culture have a profound effect on the movies,
which in turn often influence society and culture. Because the movies reflect, make and
influence history, they can be primary sources in the study of society.”
Sociology of Film
- Wellesley College.
This course will examine movie-going and the experience of spectatorship within a
comparative and historical frame. Focus will be on the relationship between the spectator
and the cultural product and the evolution of the culture of reception. Beginning with an
exploration of the origins of cinema and its links to the consumer revolution in the 19th
century, the course will follow the evolution of cinema through its itinerant, nickelodeon
and movie palace eras and beyond with particular emphasis on reception settings, film
exhibition and audiences.
University of Bordeaux - France
SOCIOLOGY OF FILMS / AUDIOVISUAL
Course Description: This course examines how works of fiction, documentaries, and archive
films offer a space of convergence for numerous sociological and psychological
perspectives. The course questions what permits cinema to present itself as a medium of
human expression and how it becomes a witness to our times. This course presents in-depth
sociological and sociocultural approaches to analyzing cinema and the audiovisual. -
Language of Instruction: French - Partner Title: SOCIOLOGIE DU CINEMA ET DE L'AUDIOVISUEL.
Image and Influence: Studies in the Sociology of Film , London : Allen & Unwin; New York : St Martin 's Press, 1974.