Classic & Contemporary: 6 Films of the 40s with Ed O’Toole

Date: 6 classes, Tues, Mar 10-Apr 14
Time: 1:00-3:30pm
Location: Schoolhouse
Price:$225/$191 members

The more things change, the more they remain the same. We’ll examine and discuss six popular films made in the 1940s, each of which may seem at first quite different in many ways from contemporary films.
But things are not always what they appear to be in these movies from an era startlingly similar to ours.

Join educator and cinephile Ed O’Toole for this six-week exploration of films that are as pertinent today as they were 80 years ago as we determine how much things have changed and how much has remained the same.

The six films — comic, melodramatic, satiric, tragic — illuminate conflicts and themes that were front and center in the 40s, and yet reverberate in our lives and culture today: the power of the media; the cost of war; the price of duty; economic uncertainty; wealth and status; the struggle of women seeking autonomy and equality; the fragility of democracy; the struggle against autocracy; the street fight that is politics; the spectre of world war; the legacy of genocide; the end of an old way of life; the dawn of an unfamiliar tomorrow, and so many others.
The films chosen for this class are available for viewing on various subscription streaming services (Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, etc) and on DVD through the CLAMS library network. Films will not be viewed during class, though Ed will show excerpts from each one to enhance the discussion. Also, FREE POPCORN.

WEEK ONE
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

WEEK TWO
His Girl Friday (1940)

WEEK THREE
Meet John Doe (1941)

WEEK FOUR
They Were Expendable (1945)

WEEK FIVE
State of the Union (1948)

WEEK SIX
The Stranger (1946)