We seldom stop to think about the cinematographic language in the movies we watch. The story simply enters our mind directly. It is being told so smoothly that we completely forget that there’s a camera, that it has been edited, and even that it’s fiction.

The history of the language of cinema is fairly within reach as it really just encompasses a span of 100 years. And although many of the earliest films were lost, access to an extensive number of old movies has become much easier thanks to recent streaming platforms.

The seminar takes you on a journey through film history to look at how visual storytelling took shape, finding a language that seemed to be universally understood, and at its evolution as technical progress allowed it.

Film is a fundamental part of our cultural history five generations back, and our knowledge of it constitutes a common ground for references and communication. The seminar will furthermore equip you with an understanding of newer films that relate intertextually to their predecessors.