Film History Classes

Westerns!

LOF4: Wednesdays, January 14 - March 4, 2009
Instructor: Lance Rhoades
8 Sessions - 7:00-10:00pm
Tuition: $295.00

This course will survey one of the quintessential genres of American cinema and a cornerstone of our national mythology: the Western. While taking stock of its familiar characters and motifs -- cowboys and Indians, outlaws and settlers, wide open spaces, singing and shooting -- we will explore ways in which the Hollywood Western has helped fashion American "national character," and how historically it has expressed collective aspirations and frustrations. While exploring the genre's evolution, we will also consider cross-pollination between Western novels and films, and between Hollywood, American independent cinema, and European and Asian cinemas. The films to be analyzed span the Western's origins in silent film, through its so-called "classic" or golden era in the forties and fifties, to its self-critiques and parodies since the sixties, and its current revival.

Download class brochure.

Register for classes

Directors and Genres

LOF3: Wednesdays, October 15 - December 10, 2008 (no class 11/26)
Instructor: Lance Rhoades
8 Sessions - 7:00-10:00pm
Tuition: $295.00

We think of great directors as having singular and original visions, yet American films became a potent force in the world thanks to genres such as the Western, the Screwball Comedy, film noir, the Thriller, the Epic, and the Musical -films that got made as a set of agreements between filmmakers and audiences. Originality would seem to be beside the point in these films, yet many of our greatest filmmakers such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, Frank Capra, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock worked brilliantly in different genres and managed to stamp them with their signatures. This class will look at some of the great examples of genre that these towering figures brought to the screen in spite of, or perhaps because of, the constrictions of the form.

Register for classes

The Language of Film: A History

LOF1: Wednesdays, April 9 - May 28, 2008
Instructor: Lance Rhoades
8 Sessions - 7:00-10:00pm
Tuition: $295.00

This is a course on the fundamentals of film analysis. Individual classes are dedicated to the study of basic elements of film composition (including editing, cinematography, set design, color, and sound) and the ways in which each contributes to a film's meaning. The course also introduces some of the major theories in cinema studies, including recent trends influenced by developments in the way films are produced and distributed. Each class combines lecture, group discussion, and extensive clip analysis.

Register for classes

Director Focus: Alfred Hitchcock

LOF2: Wednesdays, July 23 - September 10, 2008
Instructor: Lance Rhoades
8 Sessions - 7:00-10:00pm
Tuition: $295.00

Join in a celebration of the life and works of the master of wit and suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. In a career spanning six decades, Hitchcock directed dozens of classics, such as The Birds, Dial M for Murder, The Lady Vanishes, Lifeboat, The Lodger, North by Northwest, Notorious, Psycho, Rear Window, Rebecca, Rope, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, Strangers on a Train, The 39 Steps, To Catch a Thief, and Vertigo. This course undertakes a comprehensive survey of these and other films in appreciation of the craft and style of a true cinematic giant.