Just in case you’re a little unclear about a prequel, the idea is that a film or book about an earlier stage of a story is released because a later part of it has already been successful. Many of you will realize how the title of the class evolved: Michael Gavin has taught a variation of this class three times previously (and yes, the last one was titled FILM NOIR: THE FINAL CHAPTER!).
Because of the popularity of the classes, Dr. Gavin, a retired physician, 
has been asked to teach it again with different films. With myriad interests during his retirement, he hasn’t taught the class recently because of an all-important interest: a new granddaughter! The Gavins have been living on the East Coast in order to help care for their granddaughter, whose mommy (their daughter) had been working in government administration and is now our ambassador to Botswana.
Now if you’re thinking of film noir as dimly-lit lighting, private eyes and femme fatales, you are partly right. If movies like “The Maltese Falcon,” “Double Indemnity,” and “The Blue Dahlia” come to mind, you’re partly right, too. But there is much more—and that’s what Dr. Gavin will continue to explore in this class. In the two-and-a-half hour class, a film will be shown and the discussion of it will include, among other things, a mini-course in how to watch a film. Only a person who has watched each movie at least five times (and that would be Dr. Gavin) can bring enlightened and fascinating knowledge to the many aspects of these films.
The first film is “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Another is “Too Late for Tears,” a movie released in l949, which is about the middle of the “classic period” of film noir (and starring Don DeFore, Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea). This genre continues to be produced and a third movie is a 2008 example from Denmark, “Terribly Happy.”
So there you have it: knowing what a prequel is gives you a “thumbs up” on a worthwhile class!
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSULB
Building HS&D, Rooms 100 & 101
1250 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840-5609
Phone: 562-985-8237 Fax: 562-985-8213
Web site: www.csulb.edu/centers/olli
Email: olli@csulb.edu
The Brothers Karamazov
Cheryl Clark
Confessional Poetry of the English Romantics
Lim Paulino Jr, Emeritus Professor
The Fabric of Life in Cinema
Yoko Pusavat & Teresa Ross
Folk Guitar
Michael Meckna, Ph.D.
History of Sea Warfare
Ken Velten
The Personal, Powerful, Practical Side of Dreams
Janice Baylis, Ph.D.
Wisdom of the Ages, through Latin Sages Celestin Ebegbulem,Ph.D.
Women of Ireland
William Fitzpatrick, Ph.D.
