NOTE: This is a discussion course. Writer and director Billy Wilder told his cinematic stories for more than 50 years. A Jewish émigré from Germany, he brought his considerable talents, creativity, and insight into the human condition to fruition in a prolific career in Hollywood. His films run the gamut – from hard-edged noir thrillers, to intimate exploration of the human psyche, to the fraught nature of personal relationships, to the divine silliness of screwball comedy. His stories are told with verve and a keen sense of history, place, and American culture. He was a proponent of good fiction well told and an adversary of “fancy schmancy” camera work. Participants will meet Billy Wilder by exploring a variety of his films against the backdrop of the social and cultural movements which informed his body of work, seeking a perspective from a selection of Billy Wilder’s corpus of films as they are risen from and relate to American culture and an appreciation of good cinematic storytelling told by a master.

Additional information: Except for the documentary Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood, all films on the syllabus are available to stream from Amazon Prime Video. Some of the films may also be found on other streaming sites. DVDs may be available to borrow from your local libraries, including the documentary above-mentioned. Films should be viewed prior to the class meeting in which each film will be discussed, if possible. Even if you have seen a film before, please try to watch it again closer to the course session in which it will be discussed.



Instructor: Roberta Rotman retired after 16 years at Northwestern University, where she was the director of undergraduate programs in the Radio/TV/Film Department in the School of Communication, teaching courses in that department and for the School of Professional Studies. Prior to joining the faculty at Northwestern, she taught at the University of Pennsylvania for 13 years, as well as in the Penn-in-London program and at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. Rotman's scholarly work and teaching mainly focus on the transformation of literary works into the visual and performing arts of film and theatre. This emphasis flows from her earlier work as a professional actor in Chicago and her graduate degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Her interests also include the portrayal on film of other forms of media and the cultural implications of those views over time. In her research she has explored novel-to-film translation, audience reception of plays in performance, dramatization of history on screen and stage, cross-dressing and gender bending in film and theatre, and the tension between text and music in the early English opera libretto. Course dates are Tuesdays, April 23, 30, May 7, 14, 21, and 28.