Seminar: The Killers (1946)

UMass Boston professor Sarah Keller leads this one-night seminar on one of the most important and memorable film noirs.

Emigré director Robert Siodmak came to Hollywood in the wake of a successful career first in his native Germany, then in France as he avoided the rise to power of Nazis and their interventions in the film industry. Once in the US, Siodmak became known for his film noirs—for their exquisite lighting and deft touch with narrative.

One of the most famous of these is his version of The Killers (1946), based on an Ernest Hemingway short story by the same name and starring (for the very first time) a brooding Burt Lancaster. This seminar explores Siodmak’s impeccable eye for conveying character, setting, and story with his mastery of film language within a popular genre. The Killers remains one of the most important and memorable film noirs from Hollywood’s heyday of innovations in that form.

About the Speaker

Sarah Keller is Associate Professor of Art and Director of Cinema Studies at University of Massachusetts-Boston. She co-edited Jean Epstein: Critical Essays and New Translations (Amsterdam University Press, 2012), and her book Maya Deren: Incomplete Control examines the role of unfinished work through Maya Deren's oeuvre (Columbia University Press, 2014). She is currently at work on a book about anxiety and the history of cinephilia.

About Coolidge Education Seminars

Want to learn more about some of your favorite classic films? Before select Big Screen Classics events register for the Coolidge Education seminar, which includes a 30 minute lecture before the film from an expert and a reserved seat at the screening of the film.