Define what makes a film a "musical." Key themes: creating community and putting on the show, high vs popular culture, social class vs merit, restraint vs spontaneity. Films discussed: Love Me Tonight, 42nd Street, Top Hat.

Hitchcock's style dovetails with the Hollywood system's imposed constraints. Survey his career (Silent Era through the 1960s), method as a fastidious technician. Key themes, such as confinement and authority, demonstrated in Strangers on a Train clip.

Film emerges as a global cultural form. Compare American vs. European cinemas, Hollywood vs. "high art", and montage vs. mise en scène styles. End with viewing and discussing the "Odessa Steps" montage in Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.

Explore the emergence of Charlie Chaplin during the early years of Hollywood. Examples: Keystone Kops, The Tramp.

Continues the discussion of the evolution of early film, centering on D.W. Griffith and Buster Keaton, whose 1927 masterpiece The General is seen as a culmination of the Silent Era.

Introducing film as a cultural form, an institution and an art. Beginning as a novelty without conventions, film developed a unique language and grew into an embedded social norm. Examples: Fred Ott's Sneeze, Great Train Robbery.