Some of the most brilliant movies ever made have taken aim at Hollywood as the center of the worldwide film industry. Students will see films (before class) from the 1940s-2000s that open up a critical view of this multifaceted world. Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard depicts the haunting of the silent-film star system on Hollywood filmmaking. Preston Sturges’s Sullivan’s Travels satirically explores the relation of movies and sociopolitical change in the 1930s. Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt gorgeously depicts the struggle between art and commerce in the international film world keyed to Hollywood. Robert Altman’s The Player steps satirically into the conflicts among producers, directors and actors in the “New Hollywood” of the 1970s. Spike Jonze’s Adaptation takes on the comic paradoxes of Hollywood screenwriting. And David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive encapsulates these dimensions of movie history within a mythic, dreamlike and nightmarish Hollywood. Students will see films before class by streaming or rental.
((Jon Klancher - Tuesday - In-Person))
