Sunday, 1:30-4:30 p.m.

January 19: The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959)

January 26: Breathless (Godard, 1960)

In the late 1950s and early 60s, a series of films exploded across theater screens, announcing something fresh and new in cinema history. The French New Wave or Nouvelle Vague was born and it forever changed how filmmakers make movies and how audiences see them. At the center of the movement were two young directors, Francois Truffaut and Jean Luc-Godard, both Cahiers du Cinema critics and passionate cineastes. 

Francine J. Sanders returns to lead a two-part series that will screen and discuss two of the groundbreaking films that launched the French New Wave as well as the historical and cultural context in which these films emerged. Ms. Sanders is a writer, film scholar, and educator. She teaches at Columbia College, Flashpoint, and Oakton Community College’s Emeritus Program. THE JANUARY 26 PROGRAM IS THE SECOND OF A TWO-PART SERIES. YOU ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND ONE OR BOTH CLASSES, BUT THE BEST EXPERIENCE WILL BE IF YOU ATTEND BOTH. NO REGISTRATION IS NEEDED.

This is a three-part discussion series that meets Tuesdays, 7:00-8:30 pm on February 4, 11, and 18

George Bernard Shaw wrote of Henrik Ibsen “the most effective way of shutting our minds against a great man’s ideas is take them for granted.” Not to do that will be our first aim as for three weeks, taking a new play at each meeting, we attempt to grapple with Ibsen’s ideas as they speak to us today.

Each play falls into a different stage of Ibsen’s career. Of A Doll’s House (1879), widely deemed In Ibsen’s first unqualified success, the writer and critic Edmund Gosse writes, “the paradox of life is presented without the least shuffling or evasion.” Hedda Gabler (1890) belongs to what Gosse calls Ibsen’s skeptical stage. In response to critics, Ibsen denied he had written a problem play; rather, he said, he intended to “paint human beings . . . against the background of some of the conditions and laws of society as it exists today.” The Master Builder (1892) marks the start of the last stage of Ibsen’s career. Scholar Charles R. Lyons considers it “the most successful realization of Ibsen’s basic drama.”

Please join us for this Big Books discussion series under the guidance of Joseph Alulis, a faculty member of North Park University. Dr. Alulis also teaches for the University of Chicago’s Basic Program of Liberal Education. 

Registration is required by February 3. Glencoe residents will have priority. Sponsored by the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library.

Art historian Maggie Taft is co-editor of Art in Chicago: A History from The Fire to Now, the first single-volume history of art in Chicago from the 19th century through the present day. Ms. Taft will discuss flash points in Chicago's art history and key themes that make Chicago’s art world unique. She’ll cover artists from Manierre Dawson to Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to Kerry James Marshall, topics such as the antagonism between modernists and traditionalist, and key institutions from the Art Institute to alternative spaces. 

SAMMY DAVIS, JR.

This is a three-part discussion series that meets Tuesdays, 7:00-8:30 pm on February 4, 11, and 18

George Bernard Shaw wrote of Henrik Ibsen “the most effective way of shutting our minds against a great man’s ideas is take them for granted.” Not to do that will be our first aim as for three weeks, taking a new play at each meeting, we attempt to grapple with Ibsen’s ideas as they speak to us today.

Each play falls into a different stage of Ibsen’s career. Of A Doll’s House (1879), widely deemed In Ibsen’s first unqualified success, the writer and critic Edmund Gosse writes, “the paradox of life is presented without the least shuffling or evasion.” Hedda Gabler (1890) belongs to what Gosse calls Ibsen’s skeptical stage. In response to critics, Ibsen denied he had written a problem play; rather, he said, he intended to “paint human beings . . . against the background of some of the conditions and laws of society as it exists today.” The Master Builder (1892) marks the start of the last stage of Ibsen’s career. Scholar Charles R. Lyons considers it “the most successful realization of Ibsen’s basic drama.”

Please join us for this Big Books discussion series under the guidance of Joseph Alulis, a faculty member of North Park University. Dr. Alulis also teaches for the University of Chicago’s Basic Program of Liberal Education. 

Registration is required by February 3. Glencoe residents will have priority. Sponsored by the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library.

MAIDEN

One of the year's most satisfying documentaries, Alex Holmes Maiden brings us the story of Tracy Edwards and the the Maiden, the first ship with an all-female crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race.  "Maiden concludes so movingly, with such perfect symbolism, that it rivals any scripted sports drama." -- Rafer Guzman, Newsday. 

97 Minutes.  Rated PG. 

MAIDEN

One of the year's most satisfying documentaries, Alex Holmes Maiden brings us the story of Tracy Edwards and the the Maiden, the first ship with an all-female crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race.  "Maiden concludes so movingly, with such perfect symbolism, that it rivals any scripted sports drama." -- Rafer Guzman, Newsday. 

97 Minutes.  Rated PG. 

This is a three-part discussion series that meets Tuesdays, 7:00-8:30 pm on February 4, 11, and 18

George Bernard Shaw wrote of Henrik Ibsen “the most effective way of shutting our minds against a great man’s ideas is take them for granted.” Not to do that will be our first aim as for three weeks, taking a new play at each meeting, we attempt to grapple with Ibsen’s ideas as they speak to us today.

Each play falls into a different stage of Ibsen’s career. Of A Doll’s House (1879), widely deemed In Ibsen’s first unqualified success, the writer and critic Edmund Gosse writes, “the paradox of life is presented without the least shuffling or evasion.” Hedda Gabler (1890) belongs to what Gosse calls Ibsen’s skeptical stage. In response to critics, Ibsen denied he had written a problem play; rather, he said, he intended to “paint human beings . . . against the background of some of the conditions and laws of society as it exists today.” The Master Builder (1892) marks the start of the last stage of Ibsen’s career. Scholar Charles R. Lyons considers it “the most successful realization of Ibsen’s basic drama.”

Please join us for this Big Books discussion series under the guidance of Joseph Alulis, a faculty member of North Park University. Dr. Alulis also teaches for the University of Chicago’s Basic Program of Liberal Education. 

Registration is required by February 3. Glencoe residents will have priority. Sponsored by the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library.

EL GRECO AND THE SPANISH RENAISSANCE

Popularly known as El Greco, Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541-1614)  established a reputation as one of Spain’s most important artists during the Renaissance era.  This presentation includes a selection of El Greco’s paintings,  including several that anticipate the special exhibition of his work that will run from March 8 to June 21 at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Art historian Jeff Mishur returns to speak about the Spanish master’s work in portraiture, landscape and religious subjects, as well as the place of his distinctive style in the greater context of art history.