It’s not every day students are immersedinto a universe where they are running awayfrom body-snatching aliens, defeatingmonsters from Mars, experimenting withchemicals on animals and taking trips tothe moon in a space capsule.
Instructor Glenn Lovell takes studentsbeyond the confines of earth into a worldlimited only by imagination. Lovell teachesF/TV-41, Film Genres, in room ATC 120and said that sci-fi is one of his favoritegenres. “Psycho,” by Alfred Hitchcock, ishis favorite. He grew up during the “sci-figeneration” when “critics fell in love withsci-fi and horror.”
Lovell, while a movie critic for theSan Jose Mercury News, interviewedgreat Hollywood directors and producersincluding Howard Hawks, George Lucas,Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino andRay Bradbury.
Lovell remembers a colorful Tarantinoduring his early days of filmmaking.In an article Lovell wrote for the MercuryNews in 1992, he quoted Tarantino: “I writelike an actor acts. What I do is just get thecharacters talking to each other and jotdown what they say. It’s like I’m playingthe parts. I’m good at dialogue. I like wordplays. I just have a good memory. It’s notso much jotting down the exact thingsI overhear at Denny’s, but the rhythm inwhich things are said.”
Lovell likes to teach at De Anza Collegebecause he is allowed to teach what he feelsis important, which he is not able to do atother colleges. “I like the fact that it’s anintimate campus,” Lovell said.
Lovell will teach film a class on filmartists in the spring quarter, F/TV-43.The class will probe deeply into theworks of two Hollywood directors, David”Sam” Peckinpah and Tarantino, whosecontroversial films use blood, gore andviolence. The course will not focus onmemorizing dates and terms but, instead,will focus on the personalities of thefilmmakers.
“I like to put a filmmaker in context andtake a close look at the filmmakers thatinfluenced him or her,” he said. Lovell iscompleting a book about John Sturges thathe has worked for roughly 10 years.”If you teach something you’repassionate about, it’s not work. It’s a goodtime,” he said.
