Fritzi Goes To Hollywood

Fritz Lang never let the truth get in the way of a good story but, as it happens, this one is both:

Once upon a time, Fritz Lang stood atop the apex of German cinema -- an entire industry seemingly engineered to service his every baroque whim and bankrupting want. After declining Goebel's invitation to become the official Filmmaker of the Third Reich, Lang fled Nazi Germany in 1936 [although not quite in the way he’d tell it the rest of his life], and joining a refugee legion of his fellow colleagues, compatriots, and craftsman to begin his life and career all over again in Hollywood, where the filmmakers served the studio and not the other way around.... 

And so our monocled, maniacal, mercurial, fabulist was expected to function as a cog in a machine rather than operate the machine himself, an unstoppable force at war within the immovable object that contained him. The resulting films Lang made in America -- fascinating, provocative, polemical, savage, bizarre, and searing -- were never anything less than indelibly Lang [whoever that really was] regardless of the truths working within the studio system imposed upon him. After all -- the truth should never get in the way of a good story, and Lang had a million of ‘em.

Films:

8/4: MAN HUNT (1941, 105 min)

8/11: HUMAN DESIRE (1954, 91 min)

8/18: RANCHO NOTORIOUS (1952, 89 min)

8/25: THE BIG HEAT (1953, 99 min)

This class will be taught by Matt Fraction, an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of comic books like Sex Criminals, Hawkeye, and Last of the Independents. He co-created, executive produced, and wrote for AppleTV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

Each class will begin with a short lecture, followed by a screening of the film, after which an instructor-led discussion will take place. 

Class will be held at the Movie Madness Miniplex at 4320 SE Belmont Street.

Enrollment is limited to 18 students.