SCHEDULE NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the last two dates for this course have been changed: Class dates are: Nov. 8, 15, 29 and Dec. 6. There will be no session on Nov. 22.
Since movies began, they have depicted people's love for "film houses" - take Griffth's five minute film, Those Awful Hats (1909). Most films concerned running the theater itself, from economics to machinery, or the theater as a messenger of cinematic magic. We will sample a taste of this genre, starting with Buster Keaton's surreal silent short, Sherlock, Jr. (1924); then Britain's The Smallest Show on Earth (1957), about the frustrations of ownership; The Majestic (2001), focusing on the America in the Fifties; Frances's My Life With James Dean (2017), involving a small Normandy film festival and its eccentric village community; and India's Last Film Show (2021) depicting a new take on a boy's obsession with film.