About Film at Summer Classics

In all three-weeks of the film offerings at Summer Classics, we develop a technical understanding of the style and vocabulary of cinema, while simultaneously learning to recognize each film as a distinctive work of art. Along the way, we become better viewers of film and deeper thinkers about the cinematic art form.

Students may enroll in one, two, or all three of the seminar weeks. Each week presents a self-contained, individualized curriculum. Participants are encouraged to view all movies before arriving on campus. Film screenings are offered on campus in the early evening hours, and additional morning opportunities are available in the classroom or library. If you need assistance viewing the films prior to arrival on campus, please contact Summer Classics at classics(at)sjc.edu.

Summer 2026 Film Seminars

Film seminars are one afternoon session daily: 2–4 p.m. MDT, with optional film screening times in the mornings and evenings.

Selected Films of Andrei Tarkovsky

David Carl and Rebekah Spearman
2–4 p.m. MDT
July 6–10, 2026
IN-PERSON

Although he made only seven films over the course of his career, Andrei Tarkovsky is widely hailed as the greatest Russian filmmaker and one of the greatest voices in world cinema of all time, ranked alongside artists like Bergman, Kurosawa, and Godard. We study his classic 1966 film about the great Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev, then consider his last two films, made in 1983 and 1986, in Italy and Sweden, while he was in exile from Russia during the final years of his life. In each of these works, Tarkovsky explores the themes of profound spiritual longing in the context of human suffering against a backdrop of stunning cinematic landscapes.

Films:

• Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Rublev
• Andrei Tarkovsky, Nostalghia
• Andrei Tarkovsky, The Sacrifice

From Noir to Neo-Noir: Four Great Films from the Noir Tradition

David Carl and Paul Goldberg
2–4 p.m. MDT
July 13–17, 2025
IN-PERSON

Along with the Western, Film Noir may be the single most influential movie genre in the history of cinema. Although distinctly American in its sensibilities, unlike the classic “cowboy movie,” Film Noir has had an international influence on directors as diverse as Fritz Lang, Jean Luc Godard, and Akira Kurosawa. We will look at four great examples from the noir tradition, from two early classics from the 1940s and ‘50s to two examples of how Film Noir evolved in the 1970s to renew the genre’s ability to tell a nation about itself through the power of cinematic storytelling. These are movies about America’s growing pains, from the glory days of Hollywood to the gritty streets of 1970s Los Angeles as seen through the eyes of some of our most perceptive filmmakers. Movies about power, love, betrayal, and ambition—all the things that made Hollywood, and America, a force that shaped the 20th century around the globe.

Films:

• Carol Reed, The Third Man
• Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard
• Robert Altman, The Long Goodbye
• Roman Polanski, Chinatown

Native American Films

David Carl and David Meyer
2–4 p.m. MDT
July 20–24, 2025
IN-PERSON

Estimates suggest that Native Americans have occupied the North American continent for 30,000 years. The oldest work of written literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, is only about 4,000 years old. By comparison, human beings have been using the cinematic arts to tell their stories for a mere 125 years, and it was only in 1998, with the appearance of Chris Eyre’s movie Smoke Signals (based on a collection of stories by Sherman Alexie), that an authentic indigenous cinema appeared. We study seminal works from this relatively new tradition of Native American and indigenous filmmaking—a tradition which strives to recapture the image of “the Indian” from traditional Western movies—by focusing on four films made between 1998 and 2016: Chris Eyre’s Smoke Signals, and his 2002 follow-up film Skins; Amanda Kernell’s Oscar-nominated Sami Blood, from 2016, about an Indigenous Sami woman passing for white in Sweden; and Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, from 2000, which is the sole cinematic depiction of a traditional Indigenous Inuit myth, made by the community whence it sprung and to whom it remains a central part of their culture.

Films:

• Chris Eyre, Smoke Signals
• Chris Eyre, Skins
• Amanda Kernell, Sami Blood
• Zacharias Kunuk, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

Note:  In Week 4, July 27-31, 2026, an online seminar on a text about film is being offered. See Week 4 Catalog schedule for a full listing of:

Pursuing Happiness—and Philosophy—in Marriage and Film: On Stanley Cavell’s Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage