The Sound of Music

  • Saturday, November 3, 2018 / 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (PDT)
  • Pollock Theater
  • Screening Format: DCP (172 Minutes)
  • With Caryl Flinn (Film, Television and Media, University of Michigan)
  • Director: Robert Wise
    Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn

The Carsey-Wolf Center was proud to present beloved musical The Sound of Music (1965) in stunning digital projection. The film was adapted from a 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, and based on a memoir by Maria von Trapp. The story of aspiring nun Maria (Julie Andrews) and her appointment as governess to the seven von Trapp children, her romance with the widowed Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), and their flight from Austria in the wake of the rise of Nazism has become one of the highest-grossing U.S. films.

Caryl Flinn (Film, Television and Media, University of Michigan) joined Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, Patrice Petro for a discussion of the film and its legacy. In a departure from our usual format, the Q&A session took place in advance of the screening.

Biographies

flinn

Caryl Flinn (Film, Television and Media, University of Michigan)

Caryl Flinn is a professor of Film, Television and Media, and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of the 2015 BFI Film Classics volume on The Sound of Music. Flinn’s scholarly interests include film music, film musicals, and the concepts of kitsch and camp. Her work explores different functions of film music and is especially interested in its social ideological functions over different historical periods. Her first book, Strains of Utopia, examined Hollywood’s studio days, and her second, New German Cinema: Music, History and the Matter of Style, addressed postwar Germany, where music enjoyed an active role in exploring the country’s difficult relationship with its past and its quest for renewed identity. She has also published a biography of Ethel Merman: Brass Diva. She is the recipient of grants from SSHRC and DAAD, and has also been Scholar in Residence at the Museum of the City of New York.

Patrice Petro, the Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, appears against a background of green leaves and pink flowers. She has long black hair and is smiling.

Moderator Patrice Petro

Patrice Petro is Professor of Film and Media Studies, Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, and Presidential Chair in Media Studies. She is the author, editor, and co-editor of twelve books, including The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Gender (with Kristin Hole, Dijana Jelaca, and E. Ann Kaplan, 2017), Teaching Film(2012), Idols of Modernity: Movie Stars of the 1920s (2010), Rethinking Global Security: Media, Popular Culture, and the “War on Terror” (2006), and Aftershocks of the New: Feminism and Film History (2002). She served two terms as President of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the largest U.S. professional organization for college and university educators, filmmakers, historians, critics, scholars, and others devoted to the study of the moving image.

 This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center.

CWC Classics

The CWC Classics program celebrates cinema’s rich history, bringing classic films back to the big screen for critical viewing and discussion. These events feature filmmakers, academics, and professionals who can contextualize the production and historical impact of the films. The series occasionally presents classic films in their original 16 or 35 mm formats. CWC Classics events celebrate the history and significance of cinema’s enduring legacy.