IS SHE OR ISN’T SHE?

IS SHE OR ISN’T HE?
Comedy as Subversion, Social Critique, and Catharsis
AH 119

Please note time change for January 17 session only -- 1:30-4 PM

In this fun, lively, audience-participation course, we will examine Some Like It Hot, Tootsie and Mrs.Doubtfire through the “friendly” lens of their comedic subversions. For example, no one would disagree with the American Film Institute when it named Some Like It Hot its top film comedy; on the other hand, the film was revolutionary in the depiction of men dressed as women in that it pivots away from films seeking laughter solely from the incongruity of men dressing as women and toward a more “realistic” portrait of cross-dressing – reaching its first full expression in Tootsie. Before Tootsie began filming on April Fool’s Day 1982, Hoffman extensively tested “his Dorothy” in front of friends and strangers, none of whom guessed it was Hoffman. Some Like It Hot also had an incalculable impact on film history. For while Joe E. Brown’s last line, “No one’s perfect” makes us laugh, Some Like It Hot had to be produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code and was instrumental in dismantling of the restrictive Hays Code, affecting cinema to this day. Each film will be shown in its entirety, preceded by a brief contextual “lecture” and followed by audience discussion. Bring an open mind, a joyful heart and a communing spirit.

Presenter: Steven Forry
is a lifelong cinephile. He earned a doctorate in English Literature from Columbia University, where he taught for three years and published several articles on the history of Frankenstein and cinema.

Developer:
Judy Strauss

Dates/Time:
Wednesdays, January 10, 17 and 24
January 10 from 1-3:30 PM
January 17 from 1:30-4:00 PM
January 24 from 1-3:30 PM
Location:
The Irvine Station-Onken

Facilitators:
Charlene Norris 949-702-4807
Charlenen65@gmail.com

Elizabeth Stevens 949-552-5607
elizabethcstevens@sbcglobal.net

Ronni Lasky