SILENTS, PLEASE

SILENTS, PLEASE

Lifelong Learning Institute: Spring 2004

Mondays: April 5 through May 24

Cooperage: 1pm &emdash; 2:45pm

(classes where features are shown will run until 4pm)

Instructor: Barbara Spear

email: spearb@sonoma.edu

Course Syllabus:

April 5:
- Before the movies began & first films:
  - Thomas Edison / Lumiére Brothers / Georges Méliès
April 12:
- Early story films & the nickelodeon:
  - Edwin S. Porter / Cecil Hepworth
- Women in early film:
  - Alice Guy / Lois Weber
April 19:
- Development of storytelling on screen:
  - D.W. Griffith
April 26:
- Silent clowns: part 1:
  - Keystone Studios / Charlie Chaplin
    - THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
May 3:
- Silent clowns: part 2:
  - Harold Lloyd / Buster Keaton
    - THE GENERAL (1927)
May 10:
- Influence of foreign countries:
  - Sweden / Germany / England / Russia
    - BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925)
May 17:
- Perfection of an art form:
  - D.W. Griffith / Lillian Gish / the star system
    - BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919)
May 24:
- End of an era:
  - the beautiful glow from a dying ember
    - SUNRISE (1927)

All materials handed out in class are also available online at: http://yorty.sonoma.edu/filmfrog/archive