World cinema has had a love affair with fantastic imagery and narrative since the beginning of moviemaking in the 1890s (see the early films of Georges Melies, for example). Filmmakers today continue to create movies constructed around imaginary worlds that, ironically, often resemble our own “real” world. This course will feature what some regard as the most successful films in the genre, concluding with the work of one of the acknowledged masters of surreal cinema, Guillermo del Toro. Films shown will include: Beauty and the Beast, The Princess Bride, Edward Scissorhands and Pan’s Labyrinth.
