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MIT
Directions &
The series is sponsored in part by the Goethe-Institut Boston |
Exiled
to Hollywood: Surrounding events The Rise of Film Noir A class to be offered during MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January 2012, led by MIT film music scholar Martin Marks. This class will look closely at how film noir emerged as a powerful alternative to other film styles and genres in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1950s. The focus will be on important émigré directors who moved to Hollywood when the Nazis rose to power. These include Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Edward Dmytryk, Otto Preminger, Edgar Ulmer, Michael Curtiz, Max Ophuls, and Fred Zinnemann. Discussion will focus on select films, including six films to be run in a concurrent film series during IAP. (See below.) Also to be considered are contributions by cinematographers, actors, designers, and composers. Free and open to the public. Class time and room: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00 to 2:30 on the following dates: January 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26, 31, and Feb. 2, in MIT Room 4-364 Film Series at MIT: Five Émigré Directors and the Rise of Film Noir This series will demonstrate how film noir emerged as a powerful genre in Hollywood in the 1940s. Many of these films still carry a punch, due to their emphasis on pervasive corruption and crime as forces disrupting the social fabric and civic virtue. Their dark and complexly-textured visual styles, as well as their convoluted plots with femme fatales, psychotic villains, and flawed heroes, have become enduring motifs, picked up again and again in "neo-noir." Five émigré directors who moved to Hollywood when the Nazis rose to power are featured: Edgar Ulmer, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, and Robert Siodmak. (Two films by Siodmak will be shown, since he is a very interesting but under-appreciated figure.) Their turn to Noir film-making was an urgent response to the ongoing political crises in their native countries, as well as responses to the terrible tragedies witnessed and experienced in their personal lives. Series hosted by Martin Marks, who will give brief introductions to each film prior to its screening. A short discussion period will follow each film. Free and open to the public. Time and room: 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in MIT Room 2-105
Film Series at the Museum of Fine Arts in February 2012 Focus on Hollywood films linked by World War II, scored by émigré composers. Planned by Kristen Lauerman, Manager and Assistant Programmer, in consultation with Martin Marks. Tickets and information
A docent-led tour of Harvard's Sackler Museum to view other visual art works by émigré artists on January 17 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Open to the public. Admission: $8; free for MIT students with ID; $5 for non-MIT students. |
