Sorcha Ní Fhlainn is returning to HOME after her popular Back to the 80s course to do a follow up eight week course Back to the 90s! Exploring American Independent cinema, Hollywood cinema, as well as 90s politics /culture, the eight week course will include six lectures and two screenings.
This course follows the sold-out and highly successful ‘Back to the 1980s’ course at HOME in early 2022. Leading on from the developments of the 1980s, we will explore the historical, industrial, and social underpinning of multiple film genres that became popular during the 1990s in American and Hollywood cinema.
Transitioning from industrial shifts that defined 1980s film, the 1990s saw the rise of independent productions and new modern auteurs. Numerous filmmakers leaned heavily into the practice of looking back over the twentieth century through ‘new historicism’ alongside the onslaught of new technologies from morphing to the ubiquity of ILM’s digital magic.
During the decade, we witnessed several interconnected strands dominate popular culture, including the cultural crisis of masculinity, the rise of the erotic thriller, screenwriters becoming the newest superstars, and the powerful resurgence of the postmodern horror film.
We will examine the legacy of the 1990s, from the indies that stormed Hollywood to the $100 Million-dollar modern blockbuster, sowing the seeds for the contemporary film and TV multiverse.
This eight-week course, which includes two feature-length film screenings, will take you back (in time) to where (and when) it all began…(again).
Beginners’ level, no prior knowledge necessary. The course includes six sessions with the course tutor, two course screenings and a week’s break for Easter. The course runs from 28 February to 24 April 2024.
Led by Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Reader in Film Studies and American Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Wed 28 Feb, Week 1 – Film Culture in the 1990s – texts, contexts and subtexts
Wed 6 Mar, Week 2 – Masculinity in Crisis and 1990s (post-) Feminism
Wed 13 Mar, Week 3 – Let’s Talk About Sex – Censorship, Erotica and Stardom
Wed 20 Mar – Break
Wed 27 Mar – Screening 1 – Clueless (1995)
Please note, this screening will start at 18:15 with no ads or trailers.
Wed 3 Apr, Week 4 – Puzzles and Paranoia – Thrillers, Science Fiction, and New Hardware
Wed 10 Apr, Week 5 – ‘Do you like Scary Movies?’: 1990s Horror
Wed 17 Apr, Screening 2 – Heat (1995)
Please note, this screening will start at 17:30 with no ads or trailers.
Wed 24 Apr, Week 6 – 1999: Best Movie Year Ever? The (Odd) Apex of 1990s culture at the Fin-De-Millennium
