Approaches to Popular Film

The module considers approaches to popular cinema through the lenses of industry, genre, stardom and authorship. It aims to encourage critical thinking about the role of popular cinema within film culture, engaging with questions around judgement, taste and cultural value. While it gives detailed consideration to Hollywood it also considers the notion of popular cinema within a global context.
The module builds on work that students have done around Hollywood and mainstream commercial film in Level 4, while introducing a range of critical debates that will prove useful to underpin students’ independent research and projects in Level 6. The module is designed to complement and counterpoint FLM020N227S ‘Alternative Film Cultures’, by critically interrogating common ways in which mainstream commercial cinema is conceptualised and framed in cultural and popular discourse, and encouraging students to reflect on their own engagement with this.