The Grandeur of the Hollywood Musical $25 / $30 • Option # 1 – March 3 at 1:30 – 3pm, Thursday CC4607 – Cypress Cove (Ft. Myers) • Option #2 – March 24 at 1:30 – 3pm, Thursday MM4608 – Military Heritage Museum (Punta Gorda) Speaker: Dr. Arthur Wenk Choose one of the course options above. This presentation offers a salute to America’s most joyful contribution to cinema, with a focus on Top Hat, Meet Me in St. Louis, and Singin’ in the Rain. Learn how movies use music to tell a story, persuade audiences to accept singing and dancing as somehow natural, and artfully conceal the art of musical performance. Expect to see these familiar films with new eyes. The Rebel Director Series: John Huston & The Coen Brothers (2-part series) $46 / $56 March 15, April 19 at 10 – 11:30am, Tuesdays MM4322 – Military Heritage Museum (Punta Gorda) Speaker: Shelly Kaufman Participants may register for the series above (MM4322) or for either of the individual lectures below. In these sessions, we explore film directors who made their unique mark in Hollywood by insisting on seeing their vision through. Film clips will accompany each lecture. • John Huston $25 / $30 March 15 at 10 – 11:30am, Tuesday MM4323 – Military Heritage Museum (Punta Gorda) An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as the director of Treasure of Sierra Madre, African Queen, Maltese Falcon, and as screenwriter of – Asphalt Jungle. As a character actor he made his mark in such fare as Chinatown. In a career that lasted 5 decades, his unique style represented the rebel against the norm. Complete freedom by the studio, allowed his unique style of man against the system to emerge. As an independent film maker, he was able to bring his vision to the screen in such movies as Moby Dick and The Man Who Would Be King. • The Coen Brothers $25 / $30 April 19 at 10 – 11:30am, Tuesday MM4324 – Military Heritage Museum (Punta Gorda) A Hollywood box office sensation, despite their strange, eclectic and often outright weird offerings – Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, Fargo. Although they started out as independent fare, the brothers have become Hollywood elite with such movies as – No Country For Old Men, Millers Crossing. Their humor is witty, anecdotal, farcical and silly. It’s also dark and morbid - Burn After Reading – and uses gallows humor and black comedy – Blood Simple, Fargo. The best way to know them is to analyze their work and get inside their creative minds. Through the Lens: How Great Directors Tell Stories with a Camera in Comedy Films $25 / $30 March 17 at 1 – 2:30pm, Thursday CO4325 – The Collaboratory (Downtown Fort Myers) Speaker: Dr. Arthur Wenk How do movie directors tell stories cinematically? If we have read the screenplay, why bother seeing the movie? What choices does a director make in terms of mise-en-scène (literally, the action taking place on the stage), cinematography (lighting, camera angle, composition), editing, and sound? We shall explore these questions in the comedy film category. We associate comedies with memorable screenplays and memorable acting: so what
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Hollywood Invents the Screwball Comedy part does the director play in telling the story? We shall study Howard Hawks’s His Girl Friday (1940), a screwball comedy that satirized the traditional love story; Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), whose story originated in a Christmas card; Mike Nichols’s The Graduate (1967), which earned the director an Academy Award; and Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1977), which won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay. Hollywood and the Importance of Musicals $25 / $30 May 17 at 1:30 – 3pm, Tuesday BR4326 – Brooks Commons Club (Bonita Springs) Speaker: Shelly Kaufman As America struggled with ways to cope with the Depression, Hollywood’s answer was lively, vibrant musicals which distracted from the dark times as they emerged as an enduring art form. Movies starring Astaire and Rogers - Top Hat as well as Disney productions - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the rst “talkie” The Jazz Singer kept moviegoers entertained. Later, more sophisticated musicals such as Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story, Gigi and An American in Paris were Oscar winners.
