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CentreTerm features lecture by Baltimore Sun film critic, plus classic film series
RELEASED: December 31, 2009 DANVILLE, KY—CentreTerm is unique in many ways. During the three-week term, each student devotes full time to a single course specially designed for the intensive format, on such innovative topics as “Kentucky Prehistory,” “Religion in Japanese Popular Culture,” “Venetian Glass Techniques” and “The History of Rock Music.” Many courses are taught off-campus; students this January will attend classes in Costa Rica, China, and Bali. And distinguished visiting faculty are invited to campus to enhance the experience for Centre’s students. CentreTerm this year features one of America’s most influential film critics, Michael Sragow of the Baltimore Sun, who will serve as Humana visiting professor for the three-week term. Professor Sragow will teach a course on “Classic American Films,” present a public lecture titled “What Does a Movie Director Do? The Case of Victor Fleming” and host an evening film series, Centre Film Classics. Both his lecture and the film series are free of charge and open to the public. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and Salon, Sragow has long been recognized as one of the most thoughtful and independent-minded film critics writing today. He is also a distinguished scholar of film history, having edited James Agee: The Film Criticism and Selected Journalism for the Library of America and having published a landmark critical biography, Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master (Pantheon, 2008). Widely praised by reviewers, the book received the 2008 Marfield prize for writing about the arts.
Yet unlike such of his contemporaries as Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Fleming has never become a household name. As Steven Spielberg puts it, “We honor his films, but we don’t know him.” Sragow’s book, the result of 10 years of painstaking research, traces the stages of Fleming’s career and his creative involvement in each of his films, as well as showcasing the outsize personality of a director who was as glamorous as the swashbuckling stars he directed. “A fantastic read,” according to reviewer John Gallagher, the book “restores the director to his rightful place in film history and popular culture.” The reviewer for the New York Times agreed: “Thanks to Michael Sragow, we now know Victor Fleming.” In addition to his lecture, Sragow will host a film series, Centre Film Classics, opening on January 11th with Fleming’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The films and dates are listed below. All showings are at 7:00 p.m. in the Vahlkamp Theater, and the public is warmly invited to attend. Monday, January 11th Have comments, suggestions, or story ideas? E-mail leigh.ivey@centre.edu with your feedback. - end -
Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/ For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html. Communications Office Centre College 600 W. Walnut Street Danville, KY 40422 859-238-5714 |
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Sragow’s public lecture, on January 7th at 7:30 p.m. in Centre’s Vahlkamp Theater, will revisit the subject of his book, Victor Fleming, director of two great American films, The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. (Both films celebrated their 70th anniversaries in 2009.)