ONLINE FILM COURSE
“RADICAL! Love, Corruption, and Pursuit of the Oscar“
LIVE FILM COURSE with Dr. Peter Weller and Jordan Ledy
Dates: May 23, 30 and June 6, 2024
Schedule: Thursdays
Time: 6:00 – 7:15pm ET | 3:00 – 4:15pm PT | 11:00pm – 12:15am London
Contact Hours: 3 Hours 45 minutes
ONLINE FILM COURS
“‘RADICAL! Love, Corruption, and Pursuit of the Oscar’
Three Revolutionary Academy Nominated Italian Films From 1969/70″
Course Description:
The Second World War leveled a fascist, then partisan Italy. Using real locations, a film movement emerged, now called Neorealism. However, we might just call the movement Realism, as Italy’s film, in the country’s confused void in post-war ethic, was the first to jump forth into social narratives of self-search within an economic blitz of poverty and pulchritude. Liberation freed depiction of gender and politics; After neorealism, the 60s and 70s generated a hard look at individual moral and social liability. This course explores the radical shifts in Italian cinema during the late 1960s through the lens of three provocative OSCAR nominated films: Luchino Visconti’s “The Damned,” Elio Petri’s “Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion,” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist.” Building on the verve, fun, and epiphany of Women and Men: Post War Italian Cinema Parts I-III, and its look at gritty realist post-war life — this new entertainment will explore Italian cinema’s evolution into the late 1960s troubling and harrowing moral anxiety of social and political entitlement.
Course Objectives:
Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings and syllabus.
Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE FILM CLASSES
Complete syllabus will be provided upon registration.
LECTURE 1 – The Damned: Luchino Visconti (1969)
– Thursday, May 23
1970 Oscar Nominee Best Original Screenplay / New York Film Critics Nominee Best Film
“Life is a circus but where’s the fun?” Especially when the Nazi’s are here and no one in your family has your back (or is even paying attention). Fantastic narrative of gender, division, and denial, madness, and decadence while your country is in turmoil.
LECTURE 2 – Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion: Elio Petri (1970)
– Thursday, May 30
1971 Oscar win for Best Foreign Film / 1970 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize
“Who me? I didn’t kill her! I’m the cop! Catch me if you can!” The signature post-modern film on the deconstruction of narcissism in power – particularly if you are the political muscle in charge.
LECTURE 3 – The Conformist: Bernardo Bertolucci (1970)
– Thursday, June 6
1972 Oscar Nominee for Best Screenplay Based on Previous Material / National Society Film Critics win for Director (Bernardo Bertolucci) / Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro)
“I don’t care who you are, you’re the cool guys, and I wanna hang.” Perhaps the most brilliant visual rhetoric on joining anything – be it club, gang, crew, or friends — without weeding the garden first. Cinematography that changed the game of everything we see in color to this day.
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.