Our favorite moments in movies never leave us. In a 3-session film discussion series featuring film clips, Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and writer Sara Lukinson revisits more of our favorite movies and characters, the people who dreamed them up, and the lasting memories they made in our lives and our myths.
Please Note: Individual sessions are available for purchase.
November 15 Trouble in Paradise: Chinatown and LA Confidential
Los Angeles is their setting, where glamour, palm trees and official titles hide corruption and dirty doings, and the truth is another word for trouble. Brilliantly written films, stylish, sleek and full of intrigue, where no one is who they seem and the dazzling performances rivet us right through the unexpected endings. “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.”
November 29 The Network Newsroom as Light Comedy, Then Dark: Broadcast News and Network
One film gently poked at the newsroom where elements of show business—that good-looking anchorman—began to run the show, adding the romantic comedy of an office triangle. The other film, the blackest of comedies, exposed a network’s ruthless drive for profits by using the ravings of a deranged, mad-as-hell anchorman to turn news into a preposterous circus carnival. Memorable performances stand out in both movies.
December 13 Can This Really Be Love? Moonstruck and Notting Hill
Romance and comedy at its very best, when the most unexpected love turns everything and everyone upside down—one Italian style and the other British. Both films have a gallery of wonderful, unconventional characters, a family or family of friends. Sparkling and smart dialogue give the movies tons of heart, and roles that turned their young lead actors, Cher and Hugh Grant, into stars.
Lukinson, who has won three Emmys and seven Writer’s Guild Awards, now teaches at NYU and the 92nd Street Y. Her personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.
3 sessions
Patron Information
- If you register multiple individuals, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses so they can receive a Zoom link email. Please note that if there is a change in program schedule or a cancellation, we will notify you via email, and it will be your responsibility to notify other registrants in your group.
- Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
- Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of each session. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of each session, please email Customer Service for assistance.
- View Common FAQs about our online programs presented on Zoom.
