International Cinema: Four Film Trilogies

In this course we will consider four film trilogies, each of whose stories are embedded in a specific cultural place and time: John Ford's "Cavalry" trilogy, set in the American west during the 19th century (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande); Marcel Pagnol's "Fanny" trilogy, set in the French port city of Marseilles in the 1930s (Marius, Fanny, César); Satyajit Ray's "Apu" trilogy, set in the Indian state of West Bengal in the 1910s-20s (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, The World of Apu); and Abbas Kiarostami's "Koker" trilogy, set in the rural villages of northern Iran in the 1980s (Where Is My Friend's House?/, /Life and Nothing More, Through the Olive Trees). We will explore the different elements that bind the films in each trilogy together (character, narrative, theme) and the ways in which the cultures out of which they emerge shape their cinematic and narrative styles.