Adventures in Academia: Teaching Film as Literature

The fall semester of my Film as Literature class – for the Emeritus Program of Saddleback College in Laguna Woods, CA – is about to begin. I’ve been teaching this course going on three years, which means I’ve shown a lot of movies. My goal is to get students thinking about film artistry, storylines and character, and more. My criteria is … eclectic. This semester I’ll show contemporary classics (i.e. “L. A. Confidential”), vintage favorites (such as “The Postman Always Rings Twice”) and … Mel Brooks! Hey, this year marks the 200^th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” That, and the fact that I’ve got an October 29 session (Halloween is just two days later), is reason enough to make way for “Young Frankenstein”!