Smith College's Moodle

In this class, we will take the skills and insights gained in introductory production courses and develop them over the length of the semester through the creation of one short project, 10 minutes long. You may work individually or in pairs.

We will learn by making work as well as by researching, reading, and watching films related to our projects. We may take this opportunity to delve into and learn the conventions of our chosen form.  Or we may decide that our content demands formal experimentation and risk-taking.

The course will be structured by the projects each student brings to it.  We will begin the semester with brainstorming, research, script/documentary proposal writing, and pre-production. Each student will develop a script or in-depth proposal to begin with.  As we move into production, we will review and deepen our knowledge of camera, lighting (available & set), sound (location & studio), and editing principles and techniques.  We will move between production and post-production in the second half of the semester, first developing sequences, then rough assemblies, rough cuts, and fine cuts, before ultimately completing our final cut.

“Je me croyais transporté dans le jardin d’Eden”: the explorer Bougainville’s 1771 description of the abundance and beauty of “Taïti” set the tone for two centuries of exoticism in French literature and art. This course will explore legacies of Enlightenment, colonialism, feminism, and postcolonialism through the shifting representations of this so-called island paradise. Readings include travel narratives, philosophical texts, poetry, and novels by Rousseau, Diderot, Josephine de Monbart, Charles Baudelaire, Pierre Loti, and Chantal Spitz. Works will be approached in historical context, drawing connections with visual culture, global developments, and contemporary debates.

French 230 functions as a gateway to more advanced courses in literary and cultural studies (French 250 and above). Class discussions and course assignments are designed to help students develop skills in expository writing and critical thinking in French. Students will learn to move from comprehension to interpretation in their reading and from the descriptive mode to the analytical mode in their writing and speaking. In addition to class meetings (twice-weekly meetings of 75 minutes, three hours per week), the course requires an average of nine hours per week of reading (40-70 pages per week; in general there is slightly more reading for Monday than for Wednesday), writing, and preparation throughout the semester. Daily contribution to class discussions is expected.

Students entering this course should have acquired a low to mid-B1 level (utilisateur indépendant) in French as defined by the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) guidelines, and should aim to attain the mid- to high B1 level by completion of the course.