Historic achievement

Last night was the last night of David Stratton's monumental History of World Cinema course at the University of Sydney. I call it monumental because it was a TEN YEAR course covering the history of movies chronolgically, from the very earliest days through to the 1980s. I started attending 6 years ago (in 1949, so to speak) and it has been a wonderful experience; educative, fun and constantly surprising.

Stratton has a phenomenal knowledge of cinema. He knows as much about the soundtracks of the Czech New Wave as he does about the big Hollywood stars, and will often follow a film screening with a self-deprecating anecdote about the time he met the director at a film festival. More prosaically, the course has been a titanic effort of organisation, and he didn't miss a single week in the entire decade.

The feature that screened on my first week was All The King's Men, and we ended last night with Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (if you've seen it, you'll know why he chose it).

The best thing of all is that the whole course starts again next semester, which will account for my Thursday nights until Spring 2018. Huzzah!