Since the beginning of motion pictures, making audiences laugh has been one of the film industry’s chief box office attractions. Skilled acrobatic comedians like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin were enormously popular in the silent era, as were their more verbally dexterous talking picture successors the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields. Comedy exploded once movies could talk, from screwball to romance to social satire to musicals, and in recent decades dozens of new variations have appeared from over-the-top dark comedy to gross-out teen comedy. 

In this fun filled virtual presentation, lecturer Brian Rose will look at the major highlights of screen comedy over the last 125 years, illustrated with more than 40 examples from Hollywood’s funniest films.

Brian is a Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University’s College at Lincoln Center, where he has taught since 1982. He’s written several books on television history and cultural programming, and conducted more than a hundred Q&A’s with leading directors, actors, and writers for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Directors Guild of America.

The program is open to all and registration is required.

Registered attendees will be emailed the Zoom link the day before the event.

The program is made possible with the support of The Friends of the Livingston Public Library