Instructor: Dr. Jorn K. Bramann                                                              
Frostburg State University
Frostburg, Maryland 21532
jornfsu@hotmail.com

Course description: Viewing and discussion of artistically outstanding films in conjunction with the analysis of significant philosophical texts. ("The more you know, the more you see ...")

Objectives: To enable students to see films not only as forms of entertainment, but also as important philosophical statements. And to clarify significant philosophical texts by juxtaposing them with the contents and forms of important motion pictures.

Testing: A student's work should be evaluated on the basis of the detailed discussion of a film in light of an appropriate philosophical text ( a 10pp term paper or an essay written under exam conditions), and a final exam based on study questions as those listed below. (Cf. the notes Concerning On-Line Courses.)

Select films and their corresponding texts:

"Modern Times" (Charles Chaplin)--Marx: Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

"Citizen Kane" (Orson Welles)--Xenophon: Memorabilia; Plato: Apology

"Apocalypse Now" (Coppola)--Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy

"Nine1/2 Weeks"(Adrian Lyne)--De Beauvoir: The Second Sex

"The Cider House Rules" --Kant: "What Is Enlightenment?"

"The General" (Buster Keaton)--Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

"Duck Soup" (Marx Brothers)--Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

"She's Gotta Have It" (Spike Lee)--Kant: "What is Enlightenment?"

"Play It Again, Sam" (Woody Allen)--Emerson: Self-Reliance

"Husbands and Wives" (Woody Allen)--Sartre: The Emotions

"Dead Poets Society"--Emerson: "Self-Reliance"

"Educating Rita" (Lewis Gilbert)--J.S. Mill: Utilitarianism

"Network" (Sidney Lumet)--Plato: The Republic

"Last Year at Marienbad" (Alain Resnais)--Descartes: Meditations

"Koyaanisqatsi" (Godfrey Reggio)--Fichte: The Vocation of the Scholar

"What Dreams May Come"--Wittgenstein: "Lecture on Ethics"

"Hester Street"--De Toqueville: Democracy in America

"A Heart in Winter" (Claude Sautet)--Plato: Symposium

By clicking on the linked film titles you will find relevant philosophical texts, notes, or references.

The following sites provide useful information about films in general:
themoviesonline.com
allmovie.com
Internet Movie Database

Of special interest for this course: Film & Philosophy

Scripts of a great number of films can be found at INFlow's Screenplay Repository and Drew's Script-O-Rama.

Movie Review Query Engine is an outstanding instrument for locating substantial reviews of films.

Study Questions: Texts: These questions should help the reader to focus on the main points of the texts.
Study Questions: Films: These questions should pinpoint those aspects of the films that are philosophically most relevan

Further Films at Educating Rita and Other Philosophical Movies

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