Dismissed in her day as but a trifling novelist–and a female one, at
that–Jane Austen is presently regarded as a very important figure in
English literature. Her seemingly provincial characters are so ingeniously
rendered as to translate readily into a multitude of historical and cultural
milieus. Austen's quick-witted narrative tone belies her serious and often
ambivalent attitudes towards money, social hierarchy, love, and marriage.
Austen's six major works (Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and those
below) have gained enormous popularity in part through multiple screen
adaptations, particularly in the past two decades. While many of these
efforts are traditional in their approach, such as Ang Lee's Sense and
Sensibility and 2005's Pride and Prejudice, others are more
irreverent, such as Amy Heckerling's teen comedy, Clueless (based on
Emma), and British director Gurinder Chadha's Bollywood-inspired
Bride and Prejudice.
Learn about Austen's enduring legacy in the cinema through our exploration of
Douglas McGrath's charming Emma, Roger Michell's elegant
Persuasion, and many more.
Taught by Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini College
Yojimbo (1961)
Akira Kurosawa is the director perhaps most singularly responsible for introducing non-Western
film to American audiences, and is arguably the foreign filmmaker who had the greatest influence
on Hollywood's first blockbuster auteurs, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Yet despite his now iconic status as one of the luminaries of world cinema, over the course of
his long career, Kurosawa regularly met with criticism in his native Japan—it was said that
he was not "Japanese" enough and was too much a hostage to Western styles and genres.
In this course, we will try to understand Kurosawa's films as a skillful and increasingly brave
response to this caricature of his work. In Stray Dog and High & Low, Kurosawa
shrewdly blends film noir and the harsh realities of post-war Japanese society. In Throne of Blood,
Kurosawa adapts Shakespeare's Macbeth to the samurai ethos, and in Yojimbo (template for
Leone's Fistful of Dollars), Kurosawa is at his most inventive, merging the conventions of the
American western and the samurai film to astonishing effect.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Rebecca (1940)
Alfred Hitchcock did not simply emerge from the primordial cinematic ooze a fully-formed filmmaker,
in the mid-1950s, to create classics like Rear Window, Vertigo, and North by Northwest.
Indeed, by that time Hitch had been directing pictures in Europe and the U.S. for nearly thirty years,
over the course of which he developed his signature style and formulated his thematic approach to filmmaking.
While this class does not venture all the way back to Hitchcock's German films of the 1920s, it does
cover some of the director's better known British work, such as The Lady Vanishes (1938), as
well as his initial forays into Hollywood. These include his very first (and nearly his last) American
film, Rebecca (1940), and Suspicion (1941), both of which star Joan Fontaine as a young
wife who gets more than she bargained for after marrying Laurence Olivier and Cary Grant, respectively.
These early pictures contain some of the elements for which Hitch would later become famous:
(blonde) women in trouble, danger in everyday places, Machiavellian matrons, and of course, his iconic
cameos—despite being made by the Master of Suspense when he was but a craftsman.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Saboteur (1942)
As you might expect, the director who famously declared, "A lot of movies are
about life, mine are like a slice of cake," is not going to be too interested
in engaging serious ideological or political questions in his films. However,
as the filmmaker who also declared of audiences, "Give them pleasure—the
same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare," Alfred Hitchcock
was not going to shy away from stories about terrorism and international
intrigue, either.
But is it a mistake to conclude that the Master of Suspense's raison d'etre
was the only motivation behind his setting a number of films in the realm of
espionage and a time of world war? Is it possible that even Hitchcock's skill
as an auteur was unable to overpower the political undercurrents in source
material by such writers as Dorothy Parker and John Steinbeck? Might the
Neutrality Acts of the 1930s have provoked the director's uncharacteristic
political engagement?
We consider these questions and more while examining some of Hitchcock's more
overtly political films, including Foreign Correspondent (1940),
Saboteur (1942), and Lifeboat (1944).
Taught by Marc Lapadula, M.F.A., Film Studies Program, Yale University
On the set of Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
If you think of screenplays as the blueprints for the films produced from
them, then it becomes easy to see the appeal of examining them to both the
aspiring screenwriter and the cinema enthusiast. After all, not only
architects and engineers enjoy viewing the plans for a skyscraper or the
schematics for a bridge. Likewise, whether you long to write a screenplay, or
just love the movies, you will enjoy breaking down films to see how they are
first crafted on the page before being incarnated on the screen.
While sharing the tactics of writing and selling a feature-length screenplay,
the instructor provides in-depth analysis of such films as Psycho, Rebel
Without a Cause, and Chinatown. Students read exemplary screenplay
manuscripts and learn about text vs. sub-text, narrative structure, cinematic
pacing, character creation, and film dialogue, among other topics. In addition,
the course covers professional screenplay format and marketing strategies,
ensuring there is something for the screenwriting novice, veteran, and
admirer alike.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program,
Temple University
Little Big Man (1970)
From Billy the Kid (The Left Handed Gun) to Helen Keller (The
Miracle Worker), from Jack Crabb (Little Big Man) to Bonnie and
Clyde, director Arthur Penn explores the lives of memorable characters
who struggle to find a way to connect with the world from which they are so
mercilessly alienated. His portraits of outsiders are all the more indelible
because they mirror American culture's most turbulent era—the 1960s and
'70s—in which the tensions between young and old, poor and rich, and
peace and war were ever present. Penn was one of this period's more
thoughtful, perceptive chroniclers, for as he once observed, "A society would
be wise to pay attention to the people who do not belong if it wants to find
out... where it is failing."
Penn was at the forefront of a new generation of directors trained in theater
and live television that revitalized American filmmaking at a time of crisis
in the industry. He bridged the gap between Hollywood's old studio system and
the "auteur" cinema influenced by the French New Wave. Such a legacy makes
Arthur Penn, who died last year, one of the most complex, interesting, and
vital directors in American cinema.
Taught by Marc Lapadula, M.F.A., Film Studies Program, Yale
University
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Stanley Kubrick has earned his reputation based on only a dozen films over
nearly five decades. What is it about the nightmare worlds he depicts that
cause audiences to find his work so compelling? His ambitious masterpiece,
2001: A Space Odyssey, revolutionized the medium by exploding past
technical limitations and inspiring a new generation of artists to facilitate
even bolder innovation. But Kubrick's overall contributions are much more
than those of a supremely sophisticated visual stylist. His films, no matter
what their genre, force viewers to confront startling facets of our world.
Additional films examined include: Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, and The
Shining.
Taught by Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English,
Cabrini College and Hailin Zhou, Ph.D., Classical and Modern Languages and
Literature, Villanova University
Rashomon (1950)
The directors to whom the title of this course refers are largely responsible
for introducing non-Western film to American audiences. They are among the
defining artists of Asian Cinema, a term denoting a body of filmic texts as
expansive and diverse as the continent from which it springs. Such pictures
run the gamut from the Hollywood-influencing epics of Japan's Akira Kurosawa,
to the lushly desirous films of Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, to John Woo's
slick and Hollywood-influenced Hong Kong productions and beyond.
But among their contributions to and re-appropriations of western filmmaking,
these directors and their cinematic progeny have carved out new paths in film
language, characterization, and narrative approach. As a result, viewers are
treated to sometimes mythic, sometimes mundane—and often
familiar—stories that are formally, thematically, and narratively
infused with a fresh sensibility.
Taught by Chris Long, M.A., Film Critic and Author
The Fog of War (2003)
The quizzical notion that the primary purpose of the documentary is to provide
an objective account of real events rose to dominance in America in the 1960s,
along with the influence of direct cinema as practiced by such filmmakers as
the Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter). This inclination lingers today,
like an unwanted guest in the corner of a party muttering, "Michael Moore
doesn't make real documentaries because he's biased!"
But in the last forty years, new generations of documentarians have questioned
the primacy of objectivity and introduced a variety of self-conscious,
reflexive techniques that have permanently transformed the ever-shifting
practice of documentary filmmaking. This course examines the ways in which
this diverse body of work has shattered old myths and often blurred the line
between fiction and non-fiction and, in so doing, revealed fascinating (and
sometimes frustrating) new means of expressing "the truth" through
documentary. Filmmakers such as Errol Morris, Ross McElwee, and Nick
Broomfield, among others, are discussed as we trace a convoluted path through
this brave new world where no rule goes unchallenged.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
Volver (2006)
Since his career began in 1980, Pedro Almodóvar has become Spain's
preeminent director and one of the most distinctive and popular filmmakers in
the world. His trademark blend of highly passionate melodrama, licentious
comedy, vivid color schemes, and strong female characters was developed in a
series of films Almodóvar made over the course of the 1980s. This cycle
reached its zenith in 1988 with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,
a film that brought the writer/director international acclaim, including
awards at the Toronto and Venice film festivals and an Oscar nomination.
Throughout his work, Almodóvar has created career-defining roles for a
number of talented actors with whom he has made multiple pictures, including
Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz, and Victoria Abril. This
course examines the career of this prolific director, who is both playful and
profound, and includes discussions of such films as Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,
High Heels, All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Volver, and Broken Embraces.
Taught by Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini College
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Each seminar features a stand-alone class built around a different classic
film, taught by one of our most popular instructors. Students will
receive a reading about the film, an introductory lecture before the
film, and a guided discussion after the film.
Taught by Ian Abrams, Associate Professor, College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University
The Lady Eve (1941)
Each seminar features a stand-alone class built around a different classic
film, taught by one of our most popular instructors. Students will
receive a reading about the film, an introductory lecture before the
film, and a guided discussion after the film.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Metropolis (1927)
Each seminar features a stand-alone class built around a different classic
film, taught by one of our most popular instructors. Students will
receive a reading about the film, an introductory lecture before the
film, and a guided discussion after the film.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
On the Waterfront (1954)
Each seminar features a stand-alone class built around a different classic
film, taught by one of our most popular instructors. Students will
receive a reading about the film, an introductory lecture before the
film, and a guided discussion after the film.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Each seminar features a stand-alone class built around a different classic
film, taught by one of our most popular instructors. Students will
receive a reading about the film, an introductory lecture before the
film, and a guided discussion after the film.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
The Third Man (1949)
Each seminar features a stand-alone class built around a different classic
film, taught by one of our most popular instructors. Students will
receive a reading about the film, an introductory lecture before the
film, and a guided discussion after the film.
Taught by Nasser Chour, Communication Department, Villanova University
The Color of Paradise (1999)
This course examines a range of films from Islamic countries, both
Arabic-speaking (Lebanon and Egypt) and non-Arabic speaking (Iran and
Afghanistan). In doing so, we consider how film is used not only to entertain,
but also to address some of the region's social and political issues.
We also discuss the stylistic, cultural, and ideological characteristics of
these films and the ways in which their directors manage to overcome the
religious and political constraints imposed upon them. Students will gain a
better understanding of the Arab and Islamic world by considering the cultural
and political similarities and differences that exist between it and the West,
especially the United States.
Some of the films to be discussed include: Caramel, a Lebanese film by
critically acclaimed director and actress Nadine Labaki; The Yacoubian
Building, by Marwan Hamed of Egypt; and The Color of Paradise, by
the brilliant Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Racism, anti-Semitism, corruption, and political oppression are not just
problems that plagued our nation in the 1950s—they are issues that
Hollywood addressed in some of its best work of the era. These political
films, coming in the relatively comfortable period following World War II,
had the luxury of once again taking on domestic social problems after the
industry spent years focusing on the more immediate threats abroad.
But filmmakers with controversial political viewpoints needed to tread
lightly in this time of HUAC, Joseph McCarthy, and the emerging Soviet
threat. As a result, much of the era's cinematic activism was aimed at
slightly off—center-yet clearly analogous—targets.
This course examines such films as Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront and
A Face in the Crowd and considers the factors surrounding the
translation of individual social consciousness into mainstream entertainment.
Understanding these ideas opens up new cultural and historical avenues to the
appreciation of cinema from any era.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
What do Katharine Hepburn's wit, Cary Grant's charm and Claudette Colbert's
glamour all have in common? They are in rare form in the screwball comedy.
This course introduces students to the genre, also known as the "comedy of
remarriage" because often, when boy meets girl and they fall in love, it is a
road the two have gone down before.
But these films, most popular in the 1930s, are not just snappy patter and
romantic hijinks. Beneath the surface they address important class, gender,
and social issues, and do so with subtle aplomb under the watchful eye of the
industry's then-new regulatory agency, the Production Code Administration.
Join us to laugh (and think) along with the screwball classics that we will
discuss, which include It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934),
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937), and Bringing Up Baby
(Howard Hawks, 1938).
In these films, you, like Depression-era audiences, will see the noble
working class getting the better of the idle rich, and sassy heiresses
winning over wealthy playboys and blue-collar guys alike.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
The Big Heat (1953)
Do you think the good guy always wins in Hollywood Cinema? Do you think these
movies always have a good guy?
Think again.
This course introduces students to film noir, a phrase credited to critic
Nino Frank who used it to describe a cycle of pictures that emerged from the
gangster and crime genres in the 1940s. A tricky category, noirs can be
detective films, thrillers—even post-modern anti-narratives—and
are often more concerned with "How" or "Why" rather than "Who-dun-it."
More style than genre, noir through the decades has had a sustained
fascination with doom, male anxiety and transgression, the threats of which
the spell-casting femme fatale embodies. Although these films are typified by
stark lighting, bleak urban settings and corrupt, broken characters, their
influence extends far beyond these parameters and has impacted films as
diverse as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Barton Fink, and Brick.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Olympia (1938)
Even before its invention, the cinema was saddled with a "documentary
impulse"—the desire, tendency, and ability to capture, depict, and
communicate facets of life, both familiar and foreign.
As the medium matured and coalesced into an industry, this inclination tended
to be subverted in favor of fictional, narrative films. The cinematic
documentary was marginalized and pushed before the feature (newsreels), out
of the theater altogether (educational, instructional, and propaganda films),
or finally off the movie screen entirely, landing on television.
In recent years, however, there has been something of a resurgence of the
documentary form in mainstream cinema, with major Hollywood players now eager
to be involved in producing the traditionally affordable and potentially
lucrative genre.
This course examines the history of documentary film, considers different
approaches to non-narrative cinema, and discusses some recent entries in the
genre and the questions they raise about the form.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Network (1976)
In a career that has spanned more than fifty years, Philadelphia-born Sidney
Lumet has defied genre boundaries, resisted Hollywood's edict of moral
simplicity, and silenced the chorus of critics that claimed his best work was
behind him by making 2007's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. He has
directed it all: courtroom dramas (The Verdict); Motown musicals
(The Wiz); tales of big-city corruption (Prince of the City);
literary adaptations (of work by Eugene O'Neill, Anton Chekov, Agatha
Christie, and others); and heist movies (Dog Day Afternoon).
Over the course of these and the other forty diverse films on his
résumé, Lumet has worked with a variety of settings, genres, and
source material, but what remains decidedly constant over time is his depiction
of, in the words of one film historian, "the quintessential hero acting in
defiance of peer group authority and asserting his own code of moral values."
Join us to explore a small sampling of Lumet's work, including his debut film,
12 Angry Men (1957), as well as The Pawnbroker (1964) and
Network (1976), and learn why he has been called "a master of the
morally complex American drama."
Taught by Chris Long, M.A., Film Critic and Author
Rescue Dawn (2006)
Poet. Visionary. Daredevil. Madman. These are a few of the (kinder) words
that have been used to describe Werner Herzog, along with another: unique.
Herzog has invented and re-invented himself many times, emerging first as a
leader of the New German Cinema of the 1970s, then as a controversial
documentary guru, and now, in his mid-60s, as a Hollywood action director
(Rescue Dawn and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.)
Herzog has devoted his career to the pursuit and creation of the "new images"
we desperately need to survive as a culture, and he has journeyed to all ends
of the earth (South America, Africa, Antarctica) to find them. Along the way,
his films have blurred the distinction between fiction and documentary in
perplexing and fascinating ways. The course will cover both his fiction and
documentary work, including Aguirre: The Wrath of God, The Great Ecstasy
of the Woodcarver Steiner and Little Dieter Needs to Fly.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
Claire's Knee (1970)
In contrast to the intensely personal tone found in the films of Francois
Truffaut, or to the politically provocative works of Jean-Luc Godard, the
cinema of Eric Rohmer—also a founding member of the French New
Wave—is informed by a rationalist sensibility similar to the principles
of the 18th-century thinkers whose words he often cites in his movies. At the
same time, an undercurrent of romanticism, erotic yearning, and a spirit of
generosity pervades these films, in which he dramatizes the vulnerability of
his characters, the conflict between personal identity and sexual temptation,
and the scrutiny of moral issues of the everyday.
We look at Rohmer's three extraordinary cycles of films: "Six Moral Tales,"
made during the 1960s and '70s; "Comedies and Proverbs" (1980s); and "Tales
of the Four Seasons" (1990s). In addition to their engaging visual style,
these films are distinguished by the supple, ironic language that reveals
characters and their worlds in all their complexity and humanity.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Wag the Dog (1997)
Poet. Vulgarian. Pulitzer-Prize Winner. These labels and more have been
applied to playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker David Mamet. Best known
for his stage work—particularly 1984's Glengarry Glen Ross—few
people realize Mamet has brought his distinctive style to screenplays
beginning with The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), and including
The Untouchables (1987), and Wag the Dog (1997). Mamet also has
penned screen versions of his plays and he has written and directed several
original films, starting with House of Games (1987).
All of these pictures examine issues of trust, honor, and responsibility, and
they contain two elements for which Mamet's films are notorious: confidence
games (in one form or another) and eloquent, mannered, and cadenced dialogue.
Skeptics who think these elements preclude Mamet's films from consideration as
cinematic art should heed the auteur's own words: "Drama is not an attempt to
depict something which is real in the external world but rather an attempt to
depict something which is real in an internal world... It's the difference
between being a painter and an illustrator."
Join members of BMFI's faculty and staff for a series of discussions charting
a course through some of the diverse genres that constitute the cinema.
During our stops at these cinematic destinations, we will consider two
contrasting entries in each of the following categories: film noir, melodrama,
documentary, screwball comedy, animation, and musicals, respectively.
Join members of BMFI's faculty for a series of discussions charting a course
from the birth of cinema to the brink of its modern age. We will visit a
chronological series of styles and national cinemas, including actualities
from the U.S. and Europe, German Expressionism, and classics from Hollywood's
first few decades, as well as other movements and genres of the medium's
first fifty years.
Seventy years ago, Hollywood was closing the book on what is widely considered
the greatest single year in its history. Join members of BMFI's faculty for a
series of discussions charting a course through the American cinema of 1939
(with a few classics from abroad thrown in). We will visit a series of genres
and styles via the work of legendary directors, unforgettable stars, and an
unparalleled studio system. Such essential films as The Women (George
Cukor), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra), and The Rules
of the Game (Jean Renoir, France) will be discussed.
Join members of BMFI's faculty for a series of discussions charting a course
through the post-World War II history of world cinema. We will visit a
chronological series of styles and national cinemas, including classical
Hollywood, Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, and other movements and
genres of the last sixty years.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
Amores Perros (2000)
The cinema of Latin America offers a vibrant portrait of a continent and its
people possessed of rich contradictions between cultural colonialism and
indigenous expression, turbulent civil war and stable democracy, and the
preservation of tradition and the confrontation of modernity.
Consequently, this region's cinema is distinguished by its unconventional
approach to financing and distributing films, as well as its refusal to
merely dramatize stories popularized by Hollywood and other Western film
industries. For the goals of these films from such countries as Mexico,
Brazil, Argentina, and Chile are to extend the possibilities of cinematic
expression and to provide audiences with new ways of seeing their
sociopolitical reality.
As a result, Latin American cinema's portrayal of stories about love and
treachery, peace and war, oppression and freedom, and doubt and faith are
fresh, compelling, and illuminating. Films to be discussed include Like
Water for Chocolate, Amores Perros, Four Days in September, Camila, and
Pan's Labyrinth.
Taught by James Breckenridge, MFA, Founder and Director, The PlayCrafters Group
Die Hard (1988)
For a film to be successful, it must accomplish several things to set the
story on its proper track. This course explores the creation of a
screenplay's first act in both principle and in practice. In examples from
several films, both classic and recent, we discover how these elements have
been successfully employed in a variety of genres.
A screenwriter is someone who takes us on a journey, one that we couldn't, or
possibly wouldn't, want to experience otherwise. She or he is the chart-maker,
the navigator, the original artist, and the person who stands behind the
curtain. This course takes you behind that curtain to illuminate the
dramatic elements found in a screenplay's first act; from the opening image
to the first turning point.
In the end, participants will not only understand some of the mechanics
involved in setting up the story, but will have seen them at work through the
review of film clips from the work of several different screenwriters. If
you love film and are interested in knowing more about the mechanics of
successful storytelling, this course is for you.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
À bout de souffle (Breathless) (1960)
One of the most fascinating of all cinematic movements, the French New Wave,
refers to the iconoclastic spirit of a group of filmmakers who, between 1958
and 1964, produced a distinctive body of work that departed from the
conventions of traditional French cinema in its treatment of narrative,
visual style, and editing.
These innovators had influences ranging from Italian neo-realism, to French
masters Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo, to such Hollywood directors as Charlie
Chaplin, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock. In their work, nouvelle vague
filmmakers like François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol,
Jacques Rivette, and Eric Rohmer paid homage to, as well as subverted,
familiar genres to create a new mode of cinematic expression.
Toward this end, they utilized new lightweight cameras which enabled them to
shoot in the streets rather than in studios, used long takes as well as rapid
changes of scene, scripted loosely-constructed scenarios, and encouraged actors
to improvise their lines. These things were done in an effort to explore not
only the social and political upheavals of their era, but to remind audiences
that they were indeed watching a film.
Since its inception, cinema has always shared an affinity with literature. To
wit, many of the first narrative films produced were adapted from classic or
popular literature—a trend that continues today.
This course introduces students to the significance of the literary
adaptation and explores how different cinematic versions of one novel can
reflect the particular cultural climate—and anxieties—of their
respective moments in history. Beginning with a precursory evaluation of the
origins of early cinematic technique and its relationship with popular
literature, we then consider two specific texts, both of which have been
adapted more than once for the screen.
During the first two class meetings, we will cover The Talented Mr.
Ripley, and consider two different screen manifestations: Purple
Noon (1960) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). Our third and
fourth class meetings will cover Vladimir Nabokov's controversial, yet
beloved, classic, Lolita, alongside Stanley Kubrick's 1962 adaptation
and Adrian Lyne's 1997 remake.
It is recommended, but not necessary, for students to have
already read The Talented Mr. Ripley before the first class meeting.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Often dismissed as expensive, explosive, multiplex fodder for the
12-to-25-year-old set, blockbusters are in fact an important sector of the
film industry that warrants serious consideration. Not mere summertime
entertainment, such films have exposed people around the world to their first
glimpse of American popular culture, and in the process made California's
economy one of the world's ten largest.
Hollywood sees the blockbuster as a necessary evil: Studio heads and the
conglomerates that employ them consider such pictures to be necessary for the
survival of their industry, while many filmmakers and most critics view them
as evil. Audiences, in their underestimated wisdom, acknowledge elements of
both perspectives, and respond accordingly by flocking to some films and
avoiding others. While it is impossible to definitively explain why they do
so, some light will be shed on the issue as this course explores the history,
practitioners, and commercial impact of blockbusters and discusses the form
and content of some emblematic films.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Alfred Hitchcock
"At the height of what?" you may ask, and the answer is: "Everything." By the
mid-1950s, Alfred Hitchcock had been in Hollywood for fifteen years, had long
since moved beyond the rockiness of his early American productions, and was
about to embark on the portion of his career that would see him soar like
The Birds to new, Vertigo-inducing heights of filmmaking
prowess, popular appeal, and critical acclaim.
In fact, by the time the ride ended a decade later, the director had long
since lost sight of his peers out the Rear Window, and audiences and
critics alike were going Psycho to find out what the Master of Suspense
would take a stab at next.
These films for which Hitch is best known contain his most notable cinematic
trademarks: blonde women in trouble, danger in everyday places, Machiavellian
matrons, and, of course, his iconic cameos. Oh, and did we mention these
classics will all be screened in the theater in brand-new, high-definition,
digital transfers?
Taught by Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini College
On the set of Mystic River (2003)
As an acting icon whose work redefined both the western and action genres,
Clint Eastwood has nonetheless always thought of himself as a
director-in-training, even from his earliest days in television. He learned
from all the filmmakers with whom he worked, but none more than Sergio Leone
(The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars) and Don Siegel
(The Beguiled, Dirty Harry), to whom he dedicated Unforgiven.
With a filmmaking career that spans over thirty films and more than
thirty-five years, some of his work has been overlooked for its modest scope
and ambition. In recent years, the breadth and diversity of his films have
allowed Eastwood to take his place among the great directors of Hollywood
cinema. He has been called "the modern inheritor of traditional Hollywood
directorial values," and a creator whose true talent was to "draw upon
Hollywood's genre traditions and make of them unique and perceptive studies
of human beings under stress."
This course explores Eastwood as a director through an overview of his
impressive accomplishments, including a closer look at his films High
Plains Drifter, Unforgiven (which is featured on 35mm), and Mystic River.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Vigorous, diverse, and inventive, the Italian cinema has produced throughout
its history a body of memorable films that have left an indelible imprint on
international culture. This course will present an historical overview,
beginning with the post-World War II movement known as neo-realism,
characterized by stories (like Bicycle Thieves and Open City)
set among the poor and working class, filmed in long takes on location,
frequently using amateur actors for secondary and sometimes primary roles.
We will then turn to the 1950s and 60s, when economic, social, and
technological conditions changed significantly, and important filmmakers like
Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni emerged to create new forms of
cinematic expression that explored the alienation and neuroses of modern life.
Italian comedy will be explored as well, beginning with the popular style
known as La commedia all 'italiana which evolved into a new form in recent
decades with the films of Nanni Moretti and Roberto Benigni.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
The Conformist (1970)
Il Viaggio in Italia through its cinema continues. Building on The Italian
Cinema course presented last year, this new class will provide an historical
overview, beginning with the influential films of the 1960s and 1970s,
continuing through the 1980s and 1990s, and ending with the most evocative
movies at the beginning of the 21st century.
We begin with a brief consideration of the final works of the acknowledged
masters of neorealism—Vittorio DeSica, Luchino Visconti, and Federico
Fellini—before discussing the next generation of dynamic
writer-directors who reinvigorated Italian film. Through new forms of
cinematic expression, they examined the legacy of World War II and fascism
(Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist); class struggle and gender
politics (Lina Wertmuller's Swept Away); memory, loss of national
identity, and modern ennui (Francesco Rosi's Three Brothers); and
terrorism (Marco Bellocchio's Good Morning, Night).
The course concludes with Italian comedy, starting with a brief look at the
popular style known as La commedia all 'italiana, which evolves into a new
form with the films of Nanni Moretti and Roberto Benigni.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
From the sly, surrealistic greatness of Luis Buñuel (Tristana)
to the colorful, exuberant irreverence of Pedro Almodóvar (Volver),
Spanish Cinema has consistently cast a vivid, penetrating gaze on the history
and culture of that impassioned country.
Recently, that gaze has led Spanish filmmakers to explore new approaches to
traditional genres, and aided by such accomplished actors as Penelope Cruz,
Javier Bardem, and Maribel Verdu, these films have enjoyed critical and
popular success internationally. In examining Spanish Cinema from the Franco
era to the present, we will discuss The Spirit of the Beehive, That Obscure
Object of Desire, The Others, and The Sea Inside, among many others.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Visions of Light (1992)
Diegesis, mise-en-scene and chiaroscuro are not trendy Center City nightspots
but rather some of the key terms of film analysis. This course introduces
students to cinematic grammar, giving them the vocabulary and frames of
reference to view and discuss motion pictures in an insightful and critical
manner.
Screenings largely consist of clips from a wide assortment of films
illustrating different aspects of the medium's language, including
cinematography, sound, editing and narrative. A highlight of the course is a
screening of the documentary Visions of Light, which showcases some of
the most beautiful and memorable images in cinema history and enriches them
with commentaries by the cinematographers who made them and other luminaries
in the field.
Understanding the language of film allows you to get more enjoyment out of
your cinematic experience-and to impress your friends at the post-movie
discussion!
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Notorious (1946)
Now that you know what diegesis, mise-en-scene, and chiaroscuro are, what's
next? You've learned the vocabulary of The Language of Film, so now get
conversant!
This course builds on the cinematic grammar taught in Part I to delve more
deeply into film's formal elements and teaches students how to craft their
own insightful aesthetic analyses of films. Screenings largely consist of
clips from a wide assortment of films rich with provocative uses of different
aspects of the medium's language.
The course culminates in the class doing its own original formal analysis of
a feature film. By learning how to make meaning of filmmakers' specific
aesthetic choices, you will gain an even greater appreciation for popcorn
movies, classic films, and art house fare alike. If understanding the language
of film allowed you to impress your friends during the post-movie discussion,
being able to speak it like a native will knock their socks off!
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
The Dark Knight (2008)
Springing forth from the colorful pages of the pulpy, dime store periodicals
of our youth, films about mysterious, costumed crusaders—comic book
movies—have been with us for decades in a range of shapes, sizes,
colors, and budgets. Yet, despite such variety, these pictures all have in
common heroes with extraordinary abilities who are able, or willing, to do the
things of which we mere mortals can only dream.
Whether fighting fascism, postmodernism, bigotry, or terrorism (not to mention
muggers, gangsters, and jokers) these heroes appeal to the better angels of
our nature while combating the bitter devils of our culture.
Though, over the years, their flaws, complexities, and existential crises have
begun to show through the slightest of cracks in their chiseled exteriors,
these heroes have always been mythic figures—the Greek Gods of popular
culture—whose brave and bold exploits have taught us as much about
ourselves as any documentary.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Humoresque (1946)
Hollywood melodramas, also known as "women's films" or "weepies", enjoyed
considerable popularity during the 1940s and 50s due in no small part to the
presence of luminous stars, such as Joan Fontaine, Bette Davis, and Joan
Crawford, and the skilled direction of iconic filmmakers like Alfred
Hitchcock, Max Ophüls, and Douglas Sirk.
Of course, it didn't hurt that in such films these leading ladies were both
prone to the mundane frustrations of middle-class domesticity and subjected
to fantastic struggles with dangerous men, psychiatric maladies, and deadly
female competition. These films were highly stylized as well, as directors
augmented the characters' plights with chilling suspense, textured
cinematography, and rich Technicolor.
But these pictures are more than soapy, big-screen entertainment. As the
World War II years gave way to the postwar era, changes in American
society—and women's roles in it—were roiling the culture. The
melodrama of this time is a female counter, of sorts, to film noir, and it
can be just as cynical and dark.
Taught by Alice Bullitt, M.A., Programming Manager, BMFI
Now, Voyager (1942)
Popularly known as "weepies", melodramas in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s were a
force in the motion picture industry, directed by some of the most successful
directors of the time, and attracting prominent leading ladies like Bette
Davis and Joan Crawford.
With sweeping scores, hyperbolized emotion, and outlandish plots that included
thwarted love, psychoses, and murder, melodramas were considered escapist
fantasy for women, devoid of any intellectual depth. Though on closer
examination, melodramas craft a unique aesthetic through camera movement,
music, and lighting to address conflicts between the individual and society.
This course focuses on prime examples of the genre, including Letter from
an Unknown Woman and Now, Voyager.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
By the end of the 1960s, the Golden Age of Hollywood was over and the Movie
Mogul, who had ruled over his celluloid fiefdom as a benevolent (at times)
dictator, was all but extinct. The industry was adrift, battered by an influx
of foreign films, conglomeration, and the counterculture revolution—all
of which forced Hollywood to radically alter the way it did business. After a
period of turmoil, what emerged was a cinematic renaissance known as New
Hollywood. Its greatest artists and craftsmen were the first generation of
filmmakers to be raised on television and to have gone to film school; its
biggest patrons the massive corporate entities that gobbled up the remnants
of once great studios.
From this imperfect union emerged some of the most powerful—and
personal—films the industry ever produced. Freed creatively by the new
ratings system and hailed as auteurs by a burgeoning film intelligentsia,
directors of this era ignored tradition to make cinematic history.
This course takes a look at the life and work of a screamingly funny,
desperately unhappy soul—an international film star who thought he was
empty. Through close analyses of four of Sellers' greatest films, the
course—taught by Sellers biographer Ed Sikov (Mr. Strangelove: A
Biography of Peter Sellers)—examines the complex framework of
Sellers' intuitive, untrained talent; his fruitful but often troubled
collaboration with his directors; and the unique nature and style of his
comedy.
Sellers could mimic anyone and don any mask at will, but he was privately
convinced that his personality had no core. His blistering improvisations
could ruin takes by sending the casts and crews of his films into peals of
uncontrollable laughter while the camera was running, but off screen he was a
confused and lonely man, volatile one minute and sullen the next. Join us as
we trace both his life and his art.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Jewish Americans have had an enduring, substantive, and complex influence on
the nation's cinema, both behind the scenes and on screen. It began with a
small group of Eastern European immigrants (with names like Zukor and Mayer)
and first-generation Americans (with names like Warner and Cohn) who took the
movies from being dismissed as a fad and a petty amusement to being hailed as
a major art form and a mighty industry.
The course starts by discussing some of the ways in which the Jewish identity
of the industry's early, prominent moguls was a key ingredient in Hollywood's
formation and success in the first half of the 20th century. It continues by
considering the work of filmmakers and actors from Jewish backgrounds, and by
looking at such films as The Jazz Singer (1927) and Annie Hall (1977) to get
a taste—a cinematic nosh, if you will—of their lasting
contributions to the art form.
Taught by Marc Lapadula, M.F.A., Screenwriting Program, Yale University
You Only Live Once (1937)
The notion of the outlaw roaming across vast stretches of the American
countryside with the authorities in hot pursuit has captivated our collective
imagination since before the nation's very founding.
What is it about these social deviants we find so compelling? Is it their
belligerent refusal to willingly submit to the at-times oppressive mores of
our society? Is it their casting of caution to the wind, their devil-may-care
freedom, short-lived though it may be? Indeed, such reckless abandon seems
even more tantalizing precisely because it is so evanescent.
Whether perpetrated by hardened individuals, infatuated couples, or daring
gangs, these doomed, ephemeral blazes of glory have been depicted on screen
by some of our most ambitious directors. This course strives to redefine the
outlaw by offering a vast composite of desperate, highly combative, and
self-destructive characters that all chose to live and die outside the law.
Films to be discussed include Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once (1937),
Nicholas Ray's They Live by Night (1949), and The Night of the
Hunter (1955), starring Robert Mitchum, himself one of Hollywood's great
outlaws.
Taught by Ian Abrams, Associate Professor, College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
In a dizzying four years, Preston Sturges reinvented American film comedy.
With seven landmark films, his mix of wordplay and slapstick created a school
of movie-making that was wildly funny and distinctively American—a
sophisticated take on the screwball cycle: fast and smart and never too
dignified for pratfalls. Sturges was the first prominent writer-director in
Hollywood history, paving the way for his Paramount Pictures colleague, Billy
Wilder, among others.
In this course, we will discuss the process by which Sturges the writer became
Sturges the director, and what his films, which include The Lady Eve
and Sullivan's Travels, say about their times and the American
character. We will also see how he achieved his comic effects, and how, in an
era of strict censorship, Sturges managed to creatively and amusingly evade
the period's reigning Production Code to deal with some very adult themes.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
The Gold Rush (1925)
Long before Garbo talked, Jolson sang, or Norma Desmond readied for her
close-up, there were movies. Some were scandalous, some were glorious, and
many have been lost to time. But what remains sheds considerable light on the
origins of this form that emerged from the confluence of science, art,
commerce, and the Industrial Revolution.
This course introduces students to silent film, a blanket term covering the
period in cinema from the Lumieres' Paris premiere in 1895 to the
establishment of synchronized sound feature films as the Hollywood standard in
1929. We examine some of the medium's key precursors, pioneers, and
practitioners in technology and technique, and discuss some of the classic
films of the age, including novelties, short films, documentaries, and
features.
Don't miss your chance to experience the era that saw the movies go from being
dismissed as a fad and a petty amusement to being hailed as a major art form
and a mighty industry.
Taught by Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University
The Dreamers (2003)
Few international directors over the past four decades have managed to remain
as vital as Bernardo Bertolucci, who has become the most significant figure to
emerge from the Italian Cinema of the 1960s. Influenced by Pier Paolo
Pasolini, Jean-Luc Godard, and the later Luchino Visconti (as well as by Freud
and Verdi), Bertolucci has created provocative, resonant portraits of history
(1900, The Last Emperor), family (Luna, Tragedy of a Ridiculous
Man), and sexuality (Last Tango in Paris, The Dreamers).
His elegant visual style—characterized by fluid camera movement, meticulous
lighting, symbolic use of color, and inventive editing, all most notably
featured in The Conformist, a dazzling work—has influenced
several generations of filmmakers, from the American "movie brats" of the
1970s, such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, to the music video
auteurs of the 1980s and 1990s. Other films that will be viewed and discussed
include Before the Revolution, The Sheltering Sky, and Besieged.
This course, then, will examine the career of a master director whose dream
has been "to arrive at a point at which one can live for films, [and] can
think cinematographically."
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Serenity (2005)
Science fiction films are almost as old as the cinema itself, dating back,
most famously, to 1902 and French magician and filmmaker George
Méliés's spectacular and groundbreaking "A Trip to the Moon".
The genre was a natural choice for motion pictures, given the revolutionary
and technological nature of the fledgling form and the fertile imaginations
of so many of its pioneers.
Beyond their stunning visual elements, science fiction films serve as
allegories for the societies that create them. From the German Expressionist
dystopia of Metropolis (1927) to Cold War America's Forbidden
Planet (1956), such movies offer glimpses into a culture's consciousness
and insights into its fears and fantasies.
Join us as we screen a variety of films from the genre's rich
history—including a 35mm presentation of Serenity (2005)—and
discuss the mythic conflicts they address.
Taught by Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini College
Martin Scorsese
This course explores the dynamic cinema of one of America's foremost
directors, with attention paid to the elements of autobiography at work in
Scorsese's films, as well as to the broader cultural critique he has
developed. We examine how his films have been informed by profound questions
about violence, alienation, faith, and genuine self-understanding (or
self-delusion).
Among the issues Scorsese confronts us with: How do we, as Americans,
ultimately define community? Do our communities serve the personal or even
spiritual needs of their members? Or are our individual frustrations and
pathologies merely symptomatic of a broader failure to connect with one
another?
In this light, Scorsese's films will be appraised, having brought into
American popular culture a shared vocabulary for talking about the nature of
freedom in America and the nature of responsibility in a criminal, absurd, or
even fallen world.
Our exploration will touch upon many films from Scorsese's body of work, and
will specifically cover the following: After Hours; Raging Bull; Mean
Streets; and The Last Temptation of Christ.
Taught by James Breckenridge, MFA, Founder and Director, The PlayCrafters Group
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Have you ever left a movie feeling queasy? Perhaps the plot was stale, some
awkward lines of dialogue were repeating, or the main character wasn't
sitting well. You were probably thinking, "I could do better than that." Well
now's your chance!
Learn the crucial elements you'll need to start your own screenplay in this
course geared to the beginning screenwriter as well as those more experienced
writers who may have lost their way. It covers screenwriting from first idea
to well-structured screenplay, making stops at premise, story arc, scene
building, and character development along the way. In addition to learning
critical techniques and the building blocks of the form, students use the
essential principles of dramatic writing to examine two films.
In screenwriting, there is a lot of ground to cover between being inspired
and being done. This course gets you moving on that journey.
Join four of Bryn Mawr Film Institute's most popular instructors as they span
a decade that was as rich, diverse, and turbulent in the cinemas as it was on
the streets. This engaging day of learning includes lectures, film clips, and
lively discussions, and allows you to dive into world cinema and culture while
rediscovering the joys of education.
The Short (But Not Short Enough) Era of the Epic Comedy Ian Abrams, Associate Professor, College of Media Arts &
Design, Drexel University
Two words that should probably never be used in the same sentence are
'epic' and 'comedy.' Yet the 1960s saw a brief flurry of gigantic,
big-budget, star-stuffed vehicles-most of which are remembered as
expensive misfires. Return with us to the days of It's a Mad, Mad,
Mad, Mad World, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, and
Casino Royale. Why were they made-and what do they tell us about
movie comedy?
From The Sound of Music to Midnight Cowboy: What
Happened to Hollywood? Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
In the 50 months between the releases of these two films in 1965 and
1969, respectively, the American film industry changed forever. Gone
was the appropriate-for-all approach instituted by the moguls, who
themselves were nearly extinct by this time. In its place emerged a
something-for-everyone ratings system emblematic of the corporate and
political culture that had taken over Hollywood. Learn about this
tectonic shift through such films as The Pawnbroker, The Graduate, and
Bonnie and Clyde.
Focus on Fellini's 8 1/2 Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program,
Temple University
Described as a twentieth-century version of Dante's Inferno, Federico
Fellini's masterpiece is also a surrealistic parable of the agony of
artistic creation. Marcello Mastroianni plays a film director whose
creative paralysis plunges him into a subconscious dream world of
nightmares, fantasies, and flashbacks that infiltrates his perceptions
of the present. 8 ½ was essential to ushering in a more personal
cinema for Fellini—as well as other directors—and to mining the rich,
expressive potential of the medium itself.
Four Knights, One Flop: The Japanese Studio System in the 1960s Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini
College
In the late 1960s, four master directors of Japanese cinema staged a
revolt that failed. Their names are iconic: Kurosawa (Rashomon),
Ichikawa (The Burmese Harp), Kobayashi (Hara-kiri), and
Kinoshita (The Ballad of Narayama). Calling themselves "The Club
of the Four Knights", their revolt began and ended with Kurosawa's
box-office flop Dodesukaden (1970). The story behind this extraordinary
disaster reveals much about the evolution of Japanese film production
and culture in the tumultuous decade of the 1960s.
Join four of Bryn Mawr Film Institute's most popular instructors as they offer
diverse perspectives on film comedy from across time and around the world.
This engaging day of learning includes lectures, film clips, and lively
discussions, and allows you to dive into world cinema and culture while
rediscovering the joys of education.
How They Get a Laugh: Seven (Or Maybe Eight) Techniques Used in Screen Comedy Ian Abrams, Associate Professor, College of Media Arts &
Design, Drexel University
Recovering comedy writer (and Drexel professor) Ian Abrams will talk
about how screen comedy works-what comedies are about, why some things
are good for a laugh, and seven (or maybe eight) techniques used in
film comedy from the earliest days up to the present.
Cracking Wise and Falling in Love (Again): The Screwball Comedy Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
These films, most popular in the 1930s, are not just snappy patter and
romantic hijinks. Beneath the surface they address serious issues, but
gladly do so with subtle aplomb-not to mention pratfalls, melees, and
mistaken identity.
Pane, Amore, e Fantasia: Commedia all'italiana (Bread,
Love, and Dreams: Italian-Style Comedy) Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program,
Temple University
From Big Deal on Madonna Street to Johnny Stecchino,
Commedia all'italiana unites laughter with a sense of desperation,
employing a cynical sense of humor in depicting the ironic and, at times,
painful contradictions of Italian life.
Border Crossings: Humor and Genre in Japanese Cinema Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini
College
The 1930s silent films of Yasujiro Ozu (made long before his dramatic
masterpieces) and Juzo Itami's films of the 1980s and '90s, (a creative
period that saw Itami harassed by the yakuza) form the backdrop for an
exploration of the unique nature of Japanese humor.
Join some of BMFI's most popular instructors as they
introduce you to four directors whose work broke new cinematic ground. This
engaging day of learning includes lectures, film clips, and lively
discussions, and immerses you in world cinema as you rediscover the joys of
education.
Preston Sturges: Hollywood's First Writer/Director Ian Abrams, Associate Professor, College of Media Arts &
Design, Drexel University
In a dizzying four years and seven films (including The Lady Eve
and Sullivan's Travels), Preston Sturges reinvented American
film comedy and in the process paved the way for the likes of Billy
Wilder and the Coen Brothers.
Elia Kazan: The Popular and the Political Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Kazan's most thoughtful and prolific decade, bracketed by
Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and A Face in the Crowd
(1957), is a study in the translation of individual social
consciousness into mainstream entertainment.
Bernardo Bertolucci: Poetry and History Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Intellectual Heritage Program,
Temple University
From Last Tango in Paris to The Last Emperor,
Bertolucci's elegant visual style, along with his provocative
exploration of sexuality and history, has influenced generations of
filmmakers.
Akira Kurosawa: East Meets West Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini
College
Kurosawa, whose work includes Rashomon and Seven Samurai,
is largely responsible for introducing non-Western film to American
audiences, and is the foreign filmmaker who had the greatest influence
on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Taught by Chris Long, M.A., Film Critic and Author
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
In the post-war years, the German film industry, controlled by American
distributors, had fallen into ruin both commercially and creatively.
Beginning with the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962, however, a group of young,
ambitious filmmakers began to create a body of work that would come to be
known as New German Cinema.
As a movement, the New German Cinema was not defined by unified thematic or
stylistic concerns, but rather it crystallized around a series of robust
personalities such as Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Wim
Wenders. Since these auteurs could easily be marketed to international film
festival audiences, the state eagerly funded these rising stars in hopes of
promoting a new, rehabilitated image of German culture to the rest of the
world.
Before the New German Cinema gradually dispersed by the early 1980s, it left
an indelible mark on German and international cinema. Along with the
filmmakers mentioned above, Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, and Helma
Sanders-Brahm will be discussed.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Have you ever strolled down 42nd Street, just enjoying the sound of music,
wishing you were an American in Paris who was singing in the rain? If so,
this class is for you. While the musical film has fallen out of favor in
recent decades, for a time-especially the 1940s, 50s and early 60s-it was a
jewel in Hollywood's crown.
We examine the different musical modes—backstage, integrated—and
consider how these productions, often thought of as pure escapism, reflect
the cultural moments in which they were made. Key practitioners of the genre,
both well-known (Gene Kelly) and more obscure (Arthur Freed), are discussed.
Taking this class doesn't mean you will spontaneously burst into song, but it
does guarantee you will have a new appreciation for those who do so on
screen.
The vampire is a creature that has haunted the artistic imagination for
centuries—it both literally and figuratively refuses to die. Like other
creatures in Gothic literature, such as Frankenstein's Monster or Mr. Hyde,
the vampire is a locus of cultural ideology, reflecting the social, economic,
and psychological anxieties of its historical moment.
Bram Stoker's late-Victorian novel, Dracula, acted as a catalyst for
the twentieth century's cinematic obsession with vampires, spawning over 200
feature films about this most beloved bloodsucker. This course will introduce
students to the literary tradition of the vampire that culminated with
Stoker's novel, and focus on the myriad film adaptations that followed.
The films we will study include (but are not limited to) F.W. Murnau's German
Expressionist masterpiece, Nosferatu, Francis Ford Coppola's
audaciously imaginative Bram Stoker's Dracula, and several others.
In addition, students may sign up for an optional field trip to the Rosenbach
Museum and Library in Philadelphia where we will receive a private lecture on
Stoker and get to view his original notes and outlines for the novel, which
are in the permanent collections of their library.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Touch of Evil (1958)
His life is the stuff of legend, and so are his best films.
He was a theater revolutionary at twenty; perpetrator of a stunning hoax at
twenty-three; the creative force behind the greatest American film ever made
at twenty-six; run out of Hollywood (the first time) at twenty-seven. During
this period, he co-wrote (with Herman J. Mankiewicz), starred in, and directed
Citizen Kane (1941), and wrote, narrated, and directed
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). He would later return from his
second exile from Hollywood-at the age of forty-three-to write, star in, and
direct Touch of Evil (1958), widely hailed as the nigh-perfect finale
to the film noir cycle.
Though often dismissed during his career and largely unknown to a generation
today, we should never forget that Welles was, in the words of Martin
Scorsese, "responsible for inspiring more people to be film directors than
anyone else in the history of the cinema." Take this course to see why.
Taught by Paul Wright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Cabrini College
Bunny: "Uli doesn't care about anything. He's a Nihilist."
The Dude: "Ah, that must be exhausting."
-- The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen form a unique partnership, collaborating on both
the scripting and the direction of films that are among the most distinctive
in contemporary American cinema. They display an uncanny ability to capture
perfectly the language, look, and feel of a time and place—from the
Depression-era South, to the frozen plains of Minnesota, and from post-60s
Los Angeles, to the desolation of rural Texas.
Hand-in-hand with this extraordinary appreciation for how people thrive and
sometimes wither in their element is the Coens' recognition of the comic
absurdities inherent in how we make our way through a world we do not fully
understand. This course will explore the Coens' impressive body of work,
paying special attention to No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski,
and Burn After Reading.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Unforgiven (1992)
The Western, like jazz, is an original American art form the influence of
which has spread far and wide to nations (and filmmakers) such as Japan
(Akira Kurosawa), Italy (Sergio Leone), Australia (George Miller), and Taiwan
(Ang Lee).
In this course, we examine the definitive characteristics of the
genre—its iconography, key practitioners, and recurrent themes—to
better understand how these tales of people weathering the beautiful, but
often brutal, frontier are myths that attempt to address the concerns and
allay the fears of a society that appears to have abandoned the values such
films represent.
Its stories are the conflicts of America: civilization vs. wilderness, order
vs. chaos, white vs. other, justice vs. vengeance. The changing attitudes
toward these issues throughout the nation's history are evident in the
western's evolution during its over 100-year existence. We will discuss
classic and more recent big-screen westerns that will leave you wondering, as
you ride off into the sunset, why Hollywood only very rarely, if ever, makes
them like they used to.
Among other films, this course will feature a 35mm screening and discussion
of the highly acclaimed film There Will Be Blood.
Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, BMFI
Manhattan (1979)
At once prolific and profound, at times unnerving and uneven, no matter how
you feel about Woody Allen's films, there is one thing on which we all can
agree: No other filmmaker has spun so much cinematic gold from his own
neuroses. As a result, Allen's work is admired in the cafés of Paris
and the bars of the Upper West Side, but not in too many multiplexes.
It is surprising, given the limited draw of most of his pictures, the degree
to which elements from them have entered the collective consciousness; and
Allen has had this influence while remaining committed to making small, often
personal films when a number of his peers have either moved on to larger and
more glamorous canvases (Lucas, Scorsese), or appear to have nearly abandoned
filmmaking altogether (Bogdanovich, Coppola).
Join us as we travel through Allen's forty-year career—with stops
ranging from his paradigm-shifting Annie Hall (1977) to his recent
"comeback" film, Match Point (2005)—in an effort to better
understand the appeal of the only writer/director who can credibly cite both
Ingmar Bergman and Groucho Marx as formative influences. On second thought,
perhaps that says it all.
Taught by Ian Abrams, College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
The American entertainment industry has always reflected what Americans were
thinking and, simultaneously, helped shape it. Between the late-1930s and the
mid-1940s, what was on American minds was global war, the fight against
fascism, our boys over there, and life here on the home front.
The movies rose to the occasion. We saw our share of stirring war dramas, but
it was through comedy that Hollywood really shined. A good comedy reflects
the real world in a funhouse mirror—the best and funniest films of the period
not only make us laugh today, but let us see what life was like and what people
needed to believe during the war years.
This class looks at four great comedies: To Be or Not to Be, Buck Privates,
Hail the Conquering Hero, and Apartment for Peggy, as well as
newsreels, cartoons (both print and animated), and even some popular music to
see what they can teach us about the era.
