The Making of David Lynch

A painter turned filmmaker, David Lynch was one of America’s most beloved pop-surrealists. To call a picture “Lynchian” is to evoke a world where heady dream-logic collides with absurdist humor, and high melodrama meets hardboiled mystery. This four week course explores the genres and filmmakers that influenced Lynch’s aesthetic style and thematic concerns, from the avant-garde visions of Maya Deren and Luis Buñuel to the lush domestic dramas of Douglas Sirk. Each week, we’ll focus on a different genre (surrealism, fantasy, noir, and melodrama) and how it manifests in Lynch’s work.

Films:

9/4: Surrealism and the Avant-Garde - short films by Maya Deren, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali, Fernand Leger, Kenneth Anger, and David Lynch (70 mins)

9/11: Fantasy - THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939, 101 mins)

9/18: (Neo) Noir - EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962, 123 mins)

9/25: Melodrama - WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956, 99 mins)

This class will be taught by MMU Education Instructor Anna Weltner, whose previous classes include The Wonders, Bellissima and The Portrait at 24 Frames Per Second.

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 size will be limited to 18.

Questions? Email us at education@moviemadness.org