August
Preston Sturges:
The Prince of Paramount
Taught by Ian Abrams, Associate Professor
College of Media Arts & Design

In a dizzying four years, Preston Sturges reinvented American film comedy. With seven landmark films, his mix of wordplay and slapstick created a school of movie-making that was wildly funny and distinctively American—a sophisticated take on the screwball cycle: fast and smart and never too dignified for pratfalls.

Sturges was the first prominent writer-director in Hollywood history, paving the way for his Paramount Pictures colleague, Billy Wilder, among others. In this course, we will discuss the process by which Sturges the writer became Sturges the director, and what his films, which include The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels, say about their times and the American character. We will also see how he achieved his comic effects, and how, in an era of strict censorship, Sturges managed to creatively and amusingly evade the era’s reigning Production Code to deal with some very adult themes.

Class meets Wednesdays, August 2, 9, 16, 23, 10am to 1pm
at Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr

Fee: $100 includes screenings

To register, call 610-527-4008

Film Discussion Series: 1945-Present

The Language of Film

The Italian Cinema II

From Page to Screen: The Literary Adaptation

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Blockbuster

Magnificent Obsession: The Melodrama

Touch of Genius: Orson Welles

Scorsese's Cinema of Loneliness

First Acts: Art and Structure

The Documentary Impulse

The Dark Side of Hollywood: Film Noir

The Italian Cinema

Science Fiction: A Film Odyssey

Vistas and Vengeance: The Western

Conscientious Objectors: Post-War Political Films

The Asian Masters

Must See Movies I

Midnight Cowboys and Taxi Drivers

Preston Sturges: The Prince of Paramount

Must See Movies II

The Language of Film - Tuesday class

The Language of Film - Saturday class

The Language of Film II

Cracking Wise and Falling in Love (Again): The Screwball Comedy

Femmes Fatales and Hard Boiled Patsies: Film Noir and Beyond

Mr. Strangelove: Peter Sellers On Screen and Off

Screenwriting Essentials

Singin' on the Screen: The Musical

Quiet Beauty: Silent Film