Film 101: Face in the Crowd at Real Art Ways

March 24, 11:30AM – 2PM 1957 | Drama | Dir. Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire)

Plot:

An Arkansas hobo becomes an overnight media sensation. But as he becomes drunk with fame and power, will he ever be exposed as the fraud he has become?

Conversation:

A small-town radio producer (Patricia “discovers” a drifter with a gift for homespun philosophizin’ (Andy Griffith in a superb role) and they rise to the top of the television industry. We’ll discuss the ways movies tell the truth about radio, television, and themselves. We’ll also consider film as part of a broad “media ecosystem” in the 1950s and what that might tell us about contemporary politics.

About Film 101: Behind the Scenes:

One of cinema’s great subjects is filmmaking itself. That might seem narcissistic, but behind-the-scenes films are a great way to figure out how movies work. In these five films, we’ll examine some of the great “movie-movies” of all time. We’ll consider both how these films work and how these moviemakers think they work. We’ll pay special attention to the star-making process, and to the question of how film thinks about its media “rivals” like radio and television.