The power of film. Part 6, Love and meaning.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Gabbert, Laura, director.

Suber, Howard, 1937- host.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Production and direction.

Motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 video file (00:43:03)) : sound, color

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : Good Docs, 2024.

Language Note:

Closed-captions in English.

Summary:

The Power of Film is a 6-part series about the inner workings of America's most popular and memorable films. It's hosted by legendary UCLA Film School Professor Emeritus Howard Suber, Ph.D., whose insights are interwoven with dramatic clips from an incredible array of powerful and beloved movies from the last century through today. For over fifty years, Professor Suber taught directors, screenwriters, producers, and scholars the defining principles and hidden patterns of great films. The Power of Film distills these teachings into six episodes with clarity, humor, and an understanding of the history of storytelling from Aristotle to Shakespeare to Coppola and beyond. Neither a technical analysis nor a review, this series reveals the psychological underpinnings of why certain films affect viewers so deeply and can impact viewers for generations beyond their release. Using dramatic film scenes, Suber uncovers mysteries, dispels myths, and explains powerful themes that have impacted us for millennia. Though The Power of Film is about movies, it's really about ourselves. By examining the psyche of the audience, Suber ultimately inspires us — as the heroes of our own stories — to realize that we can seize our own destinies, "that we CAN change our world." Although it's often said Hollywood films need a happy ending to succeed, an astonishing amount of love stories end with the separation or death of one or both of the lovers, from "Romeo+Juliet" to "Harold and Maude" to "Brokeback Mountain." In this episode, Howard Suber delves into romance and demonstrates our need in movies to see love as a triumph over death ("Titanic"), and cites Billy Wilder's famous quote, "All great stories are love stories." Narcissism, from the Greek myth Narcissus and Echo, is seen in tragic characters such as Kane in "Citizen Kane," the obsessed Jimmy Stewart in "Vertigo," and in Gloria Swanson's unrequited love in "Sunset Blvd." Suber also analyzes all four versions of "A Star is Born" (1937 through 2018) to show their common, structural shift in power between the lovers, and how those relationships represent a form of gift giving. Wrapping up the series with an emotional plunge into "The Wizard of Oz," we find nearly all the patterns and elements we've covered throughout the series exhibited within. As Dorothy sings, Suber identifies what most memorable and popular films are fundamentally about: "the fulfillment of desire." Sacred dramas, for a secular society.

Participant:

Director, Laura Gabbert ; Host, Professor Howard Suber.

Notes:

Description based on XML content.

ISBN:

9781036248345

OCLC:

1584443699

Publisher Number:

301832