Spring 2005

E 379S • Senior Seminar

Course Description

This course will focus on a group of films from The Maltese Falcon to Body Heat, and the various novels, short stories, and screenplays that fed into these films. I know we will do the following films and novels to start the course:

The Maltese Falcon, novel and film
Double Indemnity, novel and film
Farewell, My Lovely, novel and Murder, My Sweet, film
Mildred Pierce, novel and film
The Big Sleep, novel and film

We will talk about where to go after these introductory works. Possible titles include The Killers, Out of the Past, The Lady From Shanghai, Criss Cross, Gun Crazy, The Big Combo, Kiss Me Deadly, and Body Heat, plus any titles that you might want to make a case for. I am going to put together a short packet of ancillary readings for the course and may pass out some supplementary readings as the course progresses.

How much can we do? I would like to do a film a week, but that might not work. We’ll discuss this at the first class meeting. We will have to arrange a separate time each week to look at the films.

Grading Policy

Work for the course: three short papers, 4-5 pages in length, and one longer final paper, 8-10 pages in length. This is a substantial writing component course and you will be asked to write and rewrite.

Papers 90%
Class participation 10%

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