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Great Directors and Their Masterpieces

One of Hollywood's most endearing debates is over precisely what makes a movie great: The actor, the screenplay or the director? If one sees movie making as the ultimate collaborative art, the answer would have to be “the director.” It is the director who has the ultimate responsibility for taking words, ideas, setting and ego, and then synthesizing them into celluloid art. It is an enormous undertaking that few have ever mastered.

These sixteen stand-alone lectures present the biographies of eight of filmdom's greatest directors, and then offer a critical examination of what, in the opinion of the instructor, is their greatest contribution to the cinematic art. Note: Each lecture will require use of a VCR or DVD Player and projected screen.

 

Lectures (Sixteen)

  1. D.W. Griffith (Intolerance): The “Father of All Directors,” directing cinema's only true “cinematic fugue.”

  2. Raoul Walsh (The Thief of Baghdad): Griffith's greatest disciple, directing Douglas Fairbanks' greatest spectacles.

  3. Buster Keaton (The General): After years in the critical wilderness, Keaton is now considered one of Hollywood's most brilliant directors.

  4. Ernst Lubitsch (Ninotchka): The teaming of an enigmatic director with a volatile star (Garbo) resulted in a sophisticated classic.

  5. Michael Curtiz (Casablanca): No one liked Curtiz. All he could do was direct brilliant films.

  6. John Houston (The African Queen): The man and the film who drove Bogart to risk sobriety and Hepburn to consider homicide.

  7. David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia): The quintessential English director and his unsurpassed masterpiece.

  8. William Wyler (Dead End): A prolific director whose camera exposed the seamier side of American life.

  9. John Ford (1895-1973): Orson Welles once said: “If you want to learn how to direct, you must study the masters – John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.”

  10. Preston Sturges (1898-1959): Independently wealthy and eccentric, Sturges' life was as unlikely as the plots of his most famous movies.

  11. George Cukor (1899-1983): Generally dismissed as ‘a woman's director,' Cukor got masterful performances out of Grant, Stewart and Boyer, as well as Hepburn, Crawford and Garbo.

  12. Alfred Hitchcock (1900-1980): There's got to be a reason why Hitchcockian is a real word . . .

  13. Howard Hawks (1896-1977): Hawks succeeded brilliantly in virtually every genre. Best known for screwball comedies like His Girl Friday and film-noir classics like The Big Sleep.

  14. Frank Capra (1897-1991): From Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to Meet John Doe , Capra was known for his pictures about “the little guy.”

  15. Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999): Best known as a member of the “Hollywood Ten,” Dmytryk made such hard-hitting “message” films as Crossfire and Till the End of Time.

  16. Billy Wilder (1906-2002): One of Hollywood's greatest screenwriters. Wilder “also” directed such classics as Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd. and Some Like It Hot.