Talking Pictures: The Screenplay
Sponsored by the Ed Berkowitz Film Education Fund
When people say a movie was well-written, they usually mean that they enjoyed the dialogue or appreciated a particularly shocking plot point.
But a screenplay is responsible for so much more than that.
Why do we love a certain movie? Because we liked the story it told, what happened, where it went, and how it got there. The script is the chief reference point for the director and all the creative collaborators on a film, who use it when they’re planning everything from costumes and sets to lighting schemes and camera angles. The better-written the script, the more specific and internally consistent the craftspeople can be in creating a believable world on screen.
In TALKING PICTURES: THE SCREENPLAY, Washington Post Chief Film Critic Ann Hornaday will help filmgoers discern what it means to say a movie’s been well-written, beyond snappy one-liners and surprise twists.
Series Events
Talking Pictures: The Screenplay
Fri, Dec 9, 12:30 am – 3:00 am
In this entertaining, clip-filled talk, Washington Post Chief Film Critic Ann Hornaday will present the first chapter (‘The Screenplay’) from her upcoming 2017 book Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies. Drawing upon her years of experience as a critic and engaging interviews with actors and filmmakers, Hornaday will help the audience see movies in a whole new light – not just as fans, but as film critics in their own right.
Tickets: $18 / $15 Avalon members
Series Curator
Ann Hornaday grew up in Des Moines, Iowa and graduated cum laude with a degree in Government from Smith College. After working at Ms. magazine as a researcher and editorial assistant, she became a freelance writer in New York City, where she eventually began to write about movies for the New York Times Arts & Leisure section and other publications. In 1995 she became the movie critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Austin, Texas, where she stayed for two years before moving to Baltimore to be the movie critic at the Baltimore Sun. She left the Sun in 2000 and began working at the Washington Post in 2002, where she is currently Chief Film Critic. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2008.