You’ve lived Adulthood I – you’ve built a career and perhaps raised a family. You’re in your mid-50’s or 60’s and you probably have at least another 30-40 years of good life ahead of you. So, what’s next? Human life expectancy at birth in industrialised countries has increased by some thirty years since the beginning of the twentieth century. Career and child rearing, by which we have defined ourselves, no longer occupy the majority of our time. We are in new territory. We need to r... [More]

The love and pursuit of wisdom are perhaps the oldest and most persistent grand themes of the western philosophical tradition. But what does wisdom mean in these contexts? And what does it mean to be a lover of wisdom? Indeed, is it possible now in any sense? Some philosophers believe that it is; others believe that we have forgotten what it means to be a lover of wisdom (or at least, a faithful lover in this context!) Is the love of wisdom greater than the love of happiness, or of ... [More]

When the young maverick of New York theatre and radio, Orson Welles, was given a carte blanche to make a film at RKO in 1941 he was only 26 years old. The result was CITIZEN KANE, one of the most extraordinary debuts in cinema history. Welles was never again given the same kind of freedom, but still managed to make a series of flawed masterpieces over the next decades, including THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, TOUCH OF EVIL and CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. Welles' career w... [More]

A number of philosophers have been concerned with the meaning, nature and character of the hero (for example, Plato and Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, Nietzsche and Heidegger, Camus, Wittgenstein, Tillich and Sartre). The figure of the hero has also fascinated many psychoanalysts (for example, Freud and Jung). We examine a number of theories and look at their impact on unforgettable films such as Ben Hur, Romeo and Juliet, On the Waterfront, Shane, Andrei Rublev, Ashes an... [More]

‘The Great Gatsby’ is widely regarded as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s greatest work and one of the key works of American modernism. It portrays with unforgettable lucidity an age of “miracles, art and excess”, of innocence, corruption, decadence, romance, passion, love and death. We look closely at its major themes, characters, structure and style, and its enduring relevance and significance. We also look at the film version directed by Jack Clayton in 1974 with Robert Redford as Gatsby, a... [More]

Experience the excitement of viewing surprise films before their commercial release, followed by an active discussion led by Andrew L Urban, creator and host of the former SBS series Front Up and former host of World Movies. You will explore the background of each film, analysing the themes and cinematic elements, whenever possible with a special guest from the production or relevant to it. Course Content Participants will experience a range of cinematic styles and genres, exploring... [More]

This detailed course on the developments of cinema around the world started in 2009 and has now reached the years 1942-1943, the middle years of World War II. Six sessions will be devoted to each year, with documentation supplied that provides information about the political and social events of the years in question, month by month, to provide a context. Although American films will feature most prominently, there will also be discussion of films from many countries including Austr... [More]

John Seale will guide us through his career over the course of the day in conversation with Andrew L. Urban and Q&As, illustrated with several clips and three complete films. Academy Award winning Australian cinematographer John Seale ASC ACS (American Society of Cinematographers, Australian Cinematographers Society) will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Plus Camerimage in Poland in November 2011, the unique international event which celebrates excellence in cin... [More]

At the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s, screenwriters like John Farrow, Billy Wilder and John Huston, long forced to see their scripts directed by others, were given the chance to bring their own work to the screen. Foremost among this group of writer-directors, at least for a brief, shining moment between 1940 and 1945, was Preston Sturges, who made some of the greatest comedies ever produced in Hollywood – pungent satires with witty dialogue that are as funny today... [More]

The actor who defines the 1940s is Humphrey Bogart, whose early career playing vicious gangsters, always gunned down in the final reel, was turned upside down by directors John Huston and Howard Hawks who transformed him into a flawed hero for the era in films like The Maltese Falcon, Across the Pacific, To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep. He also played the lead in one of the greatest Hollywood romances of the decade, Casablanca. But there was much more to Bogart than that, and... [More]