Scorsese On Film

This course combines film with discussion and charts American cinema from Nickelodeon to digital imaging. The multipart series includes an exhaustive range of clips (supervised by longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker) and interviews with great directors who discuss the nature of cinema authorship and the changing role of the filmmaker. The class not an objective history. Scorsese's love for the cinema will shine through by allowing him to choose film clips that moved him as individual. Various chapters include the director's dilemma, the director as storyteller, the director as illusionist, the director as smuggler and the director as iconoclast. We will view about one hour of Scorsese film each week, followed by a discussion of wat we learned from his thoughts and ideas. We will apply Scorsese's viewpoint to the films we are seeing now. Each person's background and film preferences should provide from animated discussion and stimulating classes.

Roger Johnson taught well-received courses on Citizen Kane, Food and Film and Scorsese on Film for the Osher Institute. He received his degrees in chemical engineering (B.S., M.S. and PhD) from UC Davis and Stanford. He has been a film buff his whole life, probably averaging a couple of movies a week over most of his 60 years. Johnson is an OLLI@SJSU member and volunteers his time to lead this course.