The concepts of Modern and Postmodern invite us to think about cinema in at least three ways. First, we are invited to ask how cinema is connected to the historical moments in which it emerged, cross-referring particular film texts to political, cultural and philosophical debates of the day. Second, the course requires us to identify what exactly is modern and postmodern about cinema, what formal properties of this medium constitute its belonging to the categories of the modern and postmodern. Third, by taking a particular feature or theme of modernism or postmodernism we can trace film's relationship to other cultural forms of art and literature.