FLM 163 — Hollywood Looks at Itself
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Elliot Lavine
Date(s): Jan 14—Mar 18
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $500
Refund Deadline: Jan 16
Unit(s): 2
Status: Registration opens Dec 1, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Winter
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 14—Mar 18
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $500
Refund Deadline: Jan 16
Instructor(s): Elliot Lavine
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Dec 1, 8:30 am (PT)
From its earliest days, Hollywood has been obsessed with itself, eager to both lionize and demonize its own existence. This survey of American films offers an insider’s look at Hollywood—an eternally fascinating dreamworld that could, as often as not, become a soul-crushing nightmare.
The course will feature 20 films, including the riotously funny (Singin’ in the Rain, What Price Hollywood?, Get Shorty), the ambitiously satirical (Bombshell, Sullivan’s Travels), the ruthlessly scathing (In a Lonely Place, The Day of the Locust), the floridly melodramatic (A Star Is Born, Sunset Boulevard, The Bad and the Beautiful), and 21st-century epics like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Students will watch films at home, then discuss together in class.
The course will feature 20 films, including the riotously funny (Singin’ in the Rain, What Price Hollywood?, Get Shorty), the ambitiously satirical (Bombshell, Sullivan’s Travels), the ruthlessly scathing (In a Lonely Place, The Day of the Locust), the floridly melodramatic (A Star Is Born, Sunset Boulevard, The Bad and the Beautiful), and 21st-century epics like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Students will watch films at home, then discuss together in class.
All films can be rented or streamed through online platforms or viewed using free links provided by the instructor.
ELLIOT LAVINE
Film Historian and Filmmaker
Elliot Lavine has been an active participant in both film production and film exhibition since the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, he directed a pair of short films in the film noir tradition and has been cited as among the nation’s leading film programmers, beginning his career at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco in 1990. In 2010, he received the Marlon Riggs Award from the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle for his revival of rare archival titles and his role in the renewed popularity of film noir. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.