From gods and heroes to empires and apocalypse, epic stories have always pushed the limits of what the imagination can see. This class explores how cinema took up that challenge, tracing the evolution of epic film across three pivotal moments in film history: the silent era (1910–1927), the postwar spectacle (1952–1964), and the digital age (1995–present).

We begin far from Hollywood, with the visual power of ancient epic—The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid—and their ability to make the vast, the violent, and the divine vividly present in the mind’s eye. From there, we follow filmmakers’ century-long quest to bring these monumental visions to the screen. Along the way, we’ll see how changing technologies, cultural values, and artistic ambitions shaped what “epic” has meant in cinema—and how the genre itself offers a sweeping history of film culture, told at its grandest scale.

Thursdays | 6 classes, April 30 - June 11 (skipping May 28) | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM | $220
In person and simulcast