Homer, Hollywood & Humor
The Coen brothers & Preston Sturges up close: A Talk About and Film Screening of "Sullivan’s Travels" (1941)…

The Coen Brothers received the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2000 for their comedy O Brother Where Art Thou?, which they claimed was based on Homer’s Odyssey. The film, which unfolds in the American South during the 1930s, contains suggestions of Homer’s epic, but the source is actually the 1941 comedy Sullivan’s Travels by the famous writer/ director of early film comedies, Preston Sturges. In this popular Hollywood comedy, a director of Hollywood comedies, Sullivan (played by Joel McCrea) sets out on an odyssey of his own; to discover the hard and sad times of America in order to make a dramatic film he wishes to call O Brother Where Art Thou?!
In his lecture, Andrew Horton will present his study of the two films and the stories of how they were created and how they are connected. At the same time, he will refer to Homer and also to the way Hollywood presents and interprets humor.
Andrew Horton is Jeanne H Smith Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma, an award winning screenwriter, and the author of 26 books on film, screenwriting and cultural studies. His films include Brad Pitt’s first feature film, The Dark Side of the Sun and the award-winning Something in Between (1983, Yugoslavia, directed by Srdjan Karanovic).
Information
Organizer | Hellenic American Union |
Venue | Hellenic American Union Theater |
Start Date | 19/11/2012 |
End Date | 19/11/2012 |
Starting Time | 19:00 |
Type | Talk - Presentation |
Participants | Andrew Horton |
Languages: | EN |
Interpretation Provided: | No |
Registration Required: | No |
Reservation Required: | No |
Admission Fee | Admission is free |
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