OLLI0138 - Formative Filmmakers

Course Description

We will explore the impact of some of the world’s most innovative directors on fiction filmmaking. By examining their film-historical and film-art contributions, we’ll chart the ways each evolved filmmaking practices and participated in a global network of artistic dialogue and influence. Though we will focus on some Hollywood icons, we’ll also be looking at directors in other countries and those working outside the studio system. The course structure will follow film history. We’ll begin with the silent shorts of Alice Guy-Blaché, D.W. Griffith, and Lois Weber. We’ll then consider Charlie Chaplin’s involvement in the evolution of film sound; John Ford’s international and intergenerational impact; how Vittorio De Sica started a worldwide film revolution; and how John Cassavetes, Spike Lee, and Jane Campion moved popular and critically acclaimed filmmaking beyond the Hollywood model. This course will be recorded.