Gene Siskel Film Center offer a series of 14 programs entitled Inside Hollywood, with weekly lecture/discussions by Virginia Wright Wexman, Professor Emerita of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of numerous writings on cinema including A History of Film. This film/lecture series will look at the history of the Hollywood studio system from all angles, uncovering the forces that shape movies from behind the scenes, including cutthroat business practices, financial desperation, technological upheaval, labor strife, sex and censorship, political pressure, and more recent factors such as digital technology, marketing blitzes, and globalization.

Featured Works:

Queen Kelly (Erich von Stroheim, 1929); American Madness (Frank Capra, 1932); 42^nd St. (Lloyd Bacon, 1933); Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933); A Star Is Born (William A. Wellman, 1937); Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950); Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952); On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954); River of No Return (Otto Preminger, 1954); Nickelodeon (Peter Bogdanovich, 1976, pictured); The Player (Robert Altman, 1992); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000); Timecode (Mike Figgis, 2000) 

Program information: 

Inside Hollywood