During the past several decades, video games have steadily increased in technical sophistication, economic significance, and cultural importance. Declared "the tenth art" by French critics during the 1990's, video games are gradually becoming more widely accepted as cultural artifacts worthy of serious study. We'll examine what it means to view video games as art, and we'll familiarize ourselves with a broad range of critical approaches to video games, from ludology to narratology.

It's been 50 years since the directors of the French New Wave upended the world of cinema with their revolutionary approach to filmmaking. The French New Wave, or Le Nouvelle Vague was started by some of Paris's most prestigious film critics, who decided to apply their theories in reality and make films themselves. Stylish, experimental, and daring, the French New Wave permanently changed the face of contemporary cinema, and many of its directors continue to innovate to this day.

Film noir came out of the Great Depression and World War II, drawing upon German Expressionism and a newly formed mistrust of the American institutions of family and marriage. The sexy, enigmatic, and dangerous femme fatale was a key archetypical character in these dark crime dramas, and while she can be seen as a result of misogynist fear, she was also an expression of women's power and capability as they broke free of the conventional roles of wife and homemaker to which they'd been mortally confined. This 4-week film course will explore the emergence of the femme fatale and her crucial role in the film noir genre, as well as her evolution since.