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4. Final Exam Guide

The final exam will be of a similar format of the midterm exam and will consist of true-false, multiple choice, identification and essay questions. The exam will cover the course material from the first six weeks of the class, including all lectures, readings and screenings.

The exam will cover the following topics:

• Western European Cinema
• Soviet Union and Tarkovsky
• Mainland China
• East Asian Cinemas
• Global Film Culture
• Hollywood and the Entertainment Economy

The exam will take place on Tuesday, May 22, at 8:30 AM. The exam will consist of eighteen (18) questions of the following nature:

True-False

Answer five (5) questions by indicating whether the statement is either true or false. 2 points each.

Multiple Choice

Answer five (5) questions by selecting the best choice that completes each statement. 3 points each.

Identification

Identify five (5) terms and explain the significance of each for the history of the cinema. 6 points each.

Essay Questions

Answer three (3) of the following four questions with a two-to-three paragraph response, about eight to ten sentences. 15 points each.

1. How did European nations use television and international financing to sustain film production thorough the recessions and attendance declines of 1970s and 1980s? How did European nations apply the West German model of television-subsidized film production? At the same time, what steps were taken to increase international coproductions? What sorts of films resulted from both of these types of arrangements?
2. Compare and contrast two of the three following young cinemas: China’s Fifth Generation, the Hong Kong New Wave, the Taiwanese New Wave. What factors enabled the directors working within these movements to break into filmmaking? In what ways did the foremost directors in each country deviate from the narrative and stylistic conventions of earlier trends or of contemporaneous popular genres? What factors contributed to the decline of these young cinemas?
3. What qualities have enabled the film festival circuit to become perhaps the leading alternative global film distribution system? In what ways do festivals benefit both host countries and non-commercial filmmaking? How do they benefit Hollywood studios?
4. How did the advent of home video technologies change the American film industry? In what ways did the studios—who in 1976 regarded home video as a competitor—exploit these technologies to their advantage?