VERO BEACH — A new season of movies at the Vero Beach Museum of Art begins Tuesday, October 5 when its second decade of film studies classes gets underway. The season opener is entitled “The Magical World of Orson Welles” and features five motion pictures by or about the controversial actor and filmmaker who is widely considered to have been a cinematic genius.
Classes are held Tuesdays beginning on October 5 and continuing through November 2. Students may sign-up for either the afternoon session at 1:30 p.m. or the evening session at 7 p.m. as part of the five-week film studies offering.
The contributions of Welles to film, theater, radio and even literature were almost unparalleled, according to Warren Obluck, the museum’s film studies coordinator. “Welles was as comfortable playing a crooked cop as Hamlet,” he said. “He believed that the stage and screen helped people live in the magical world of their imaginations, and he thought of himself as a master of illusion.”
FIlms to be examined in the course will be RKO, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, F for Fake, and Me and Orson Welles.
Classes are moderated by Obluck, former cultural attaché at the American embassies in Rome, Tokyo, and Manila. He is also the 2010 winner of the Indian River County Cultural Council’s Laurel Award for cultural/professional achievement.
Since the early 1990s, film studies courses have grown to become the most well-attended of the Museum’s humanities/education class offerings with an average of 2,000 film-lovers attending annually. Classes are offered in the Museum’s state-of-the-art Leonhardt Auditorium with its 20 x 30 foot big screen and surround-sound audio. Each Tuesday, a classic or contemporary motion picture is put into context by the Museum’s film studies coordinator Warren Obluck, who also moderates an optional film discussion after each screening.
Tuition for the five-week course is $55 ($45 for Museum members). Students may register in-person, by phone, or online at www.verobeachmuseum.org.
To register by phone, call Education Assistant Angela Fallon at (772) 231-0707 ext. 136.