This course examines the historical development of film as a popular art and entertainment medium from the 1880s to the present, with a focus on the American and European contexts. Students will learn how to watch a film - they will learn how to pay attention to significant visual details and to understand the ways that films construct meaning from a language of images - and will develop the skills to write fluently about what they see. The course covers some of the most influential genres and movements from the earliest actuality films, through the French New Wave, to the Disney/Marvel Universe. Films covered may include short films from the Edison Studio and Charlie Chaplin, M, The Seven Samurai, The Battle of Algiers, Unforgiven, and Black Panther.