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Rick Winston Will Be Presenting Another Series of Six Film Classes Via Zoom, Starting on Thursday, June 25

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Rick Winston Will Be Presenting Another Series of Six Film Classes Via Zoom, Starting on Thursday, June 25 Rick Winston will be presenting another series of six film classes via Zoom, starting on Thursday, June 25. This will be a series of talks, illustrated with many clips, on six broad themes in film history, with an opportunity for a Q&A afterwards. The subjects will be Alfred Hitchcock’s Art of Suspense; Comedies with a Social Conscience; Movies About Movies; American Comedies of the 1940s; From Stage to Screen; and French Films Confronting the German Occupation. The classes will be on five Thursday mornings at 10:00 AM, lasting approximately two hours. The cost will be $50 for the series, payable by check or cash to me at Box 32, Adamant, VT 05640. Please let me know via email [email protected] if you will be registering, and I will enter you on the Zoom invitation list….and please email with any questions. I miss seeing you all in person, but this will have to do for now. June 25 - ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND THE ART OF SUSPENSE – Alfred Hitchcock’s career spanned forty years and many film eras. I’ll show twelve film clips, including such favorites as REBECCA, NOTORIOUS, and REAR WINDOW, with a discussion of the evolution of Hitchcock’s craft, an exploration of his favorite themes and motifs (innocence and guilt, ordinary people in extraordinary situations, thrilling climaxes in public places, inanimate objects which take on great significance), and his work with collaborators (such as actor James Stewart, composer Bernard Herrmann, and art director Saul Bass). JULY 2 – COMEDIES WITH A CONSCIENCE - War, economic depression, inequality, racism, political corruption are all weighty topics, yet they were the themes of several memorable film comedies. Whether it’s Charlie Chaplin making a statement about the dehumanizing effects of factory life in MODERN TIMES or Stanley Kubrick attacking the assumptions underlying nuclear strategy in DR. STRANGELOVE, filmmakers have used humor to make a salient point. I’ll show clips from these films and several others, including DUCK SOUP, and MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN. JULY 9 - MOVIES ABOUT MOVIES – A wide range of films – comedies, dramas, romances, and thrillers – take place behind the scenes on a movie set. Some have a writer as the lead character; others a star or a director; some even have audience members as their leads. I’ll show excerpts from some classic films that help to demystify the film-making process, including Francois Truffaut’s DAY FOR NIGHT, Billy Wilder’s SUNSET BOULEVARD, Preston Sturges’ SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS, Woody Allen’s THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO and Federico Fellini’s 8 ½. JULY 16 - AMERICAN COMEDIES OF THE 40s – This topic was to be the focus of my MSAC course this summer, to celebrate a return to being together in one place (not so fast!). The Forties were an unusually rich time in Hollywood films, with witty scripts and great parts for Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur, Spencer Tracy, and other stars. We’ll see clips from HIS GIRL FRIDAY, ADAM’S RIB, and HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, plus films that used the World War Two home front as the jumping-off point for their humor: THE MORE THE MERRIER, HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO and THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN’S CREEK. July 23 – FROM STAGE TO SCREEN – In adapting plays for the screen, filmmakers face one big choice at the outset: do the filmmakers choose to “open up” the action in a way only films can do (such as in AMADEUS and BILLY LIAR) or keep the intimate feel of the stage (GLENGARY GLEN ROSS and VANYA ON 42ND STREET). We’ll look at these and other films, including adaptations of Tennessee Williams, William Shakespeare, and August Wilson. JULY 30 – GERMAN OCCUPATION & FRENCH RESISTANCE – French filmmakers have made excellent and sometimes very personal films about the terrible years of 1940-44, among them Louis Malle (AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS), Bertrand Tavernier (SAFE CONDUCT), Francois Truffaut (THE LAST METRO), Jean- Pierre Melville (ARMY OF SHADOWS), and Claude Miller (LUCIE AUBRAC). I’ll discuss how the Occupation affected the French film industry, explore the excruciating moral dilemmas that many in France faced, and how this era remains a sensitive topic to this day. .
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