ONLINE FILM COURSE “DODGING DEATH: Morality and Induligence / Mortality and Horror in Four Debaucherous Italian Films of the 1970s”

Course Description:

This course jumps into a rich tapestry of diverse styles exploring themes of beauty, desire, and terror in four iconic films, each reaffirming Italy’s view, evolution, and depth of movie making humanity.

The Second World War leveled a fascist, then partisan Italy. In real locations, a film movement emerged, called Neorealism, but we might just call it Realism, as Italy’s film was the first to jump into narratives of self-search within an economic blitz of poverty and pulchritude. While the US was still obsessed with glitz, liberation in Italy freed up depiction of gender, narrative, and style that drive modern film to this day!

Course Objectives:

• To witness social and media transformation through the lens of Italian cinema.
• To grasp the contribution of Italian film masterpiece to our modern history.
• To enjoy movies beyond plot, effects, stunts, and good vs bad people.

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings and syllabus, and reading list.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ONLINE FILM LECTURES

Complete syllabus will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE COURSE HAS ENDED.

LECTURE 1 – “La Grande Bouffe (The Big Feast)”(1973)

Wednesday, February 3

Director: Marco Ferreri
Writer: Marco Ferreri, Rafael Azcona, Francis Blanche
Lead Actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi
Cinematography: Mario Vulpiani
Topics: Satirical critique of consumerism, bourgeois excess and the grotesque, societal and cultural fallout

LECTURE 2 – “Death in Venice” (1973)

Wednesday, February 10

Director: Luchino Visconti
Writers: Luchino Visconi, Nicola Badalucco
Author: Based on novel “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann
Lead Actors: Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrèsen, Silvana Mangano, Marissa Berenson
Cinematography: Pasquale De Stantis
Topics: Beauty idealized, gender, surrender, pandemic, Venice

LECTURE 3 – “Don’t Look Now” (1973)

Wednesday, February 17

Director: Nicholas Roeg
Writers: Alan Scott, Chris Bryant
Lead Actors: Julie Christie, Donald Southerland
Cinematography: Anthony Richmond
Topics: Death, grief, release, murder, closure

LECTURE 4 – “The Passenger” (1975)

Wednesday, February 24

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Writers: Mark Peploe, Michelangelo Antonioni, Peter Wollen
Lead Actors: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider
Cinematography: Luciano Tovoli
Topics: Identity and existential ennui, Antonioni’s stylistic approach to storytelling and cinematography, political and social context of the 1970s film.

Weller has appeared in more than 70 films and television series, including RoboCop (1987) and its sequel RoboCop 2 (1990) (in which he played the title character), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He has also appeared in such films as Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite (1995), the Oliver Stone-produced The New Age (1994), and David Cronenberg’s adaptation of William Burroughs’s novel Naked Lunch (1991).

While enrolled at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), he played trumpet in one of the campus bands. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and began his acting career after attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (class of 1972). In 2004, Weller completed a Master of Arts degree in Roman and Renaissance Art at Syracuse University, and occasionally taught courses in ancient history at the university.

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