GUNS, KNIVES AND L’AMORE: A Film Course with Dr. Peter Weller

Описание: Dr. Peter Weller is joined by Jordan Ledy to introduce their online film course “GUNS, KNIVES AND L’AMORE: Four Spaghetti Westerns and Italian Giallo Films“ hosted by ‪@RockyRuggiero‬Making Art and History Come to Life.

Link to register: https://rockyruggiero.com/shop/online...

Course Description:
This course delves into two bombastic Italian genres: The Spaghetti Western and Giallo. Through four seminal films: “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,” “A Fistful of Dollars,” “Blood and Black Lace,” and “Once Upon a Time in the West,” we will explore the unique stylistic elements, thematic depth, and cultural impact of these genres.

Dates: November 10, 17, 24 and December 1, 2025
Schedule: Mondays
Time: 2:00 – 3:15pm ET | 11:00am – 12:15pm PT | 7:00 – 8:15pm London

Course Objectives:

To view social transformation through the lens of Italian film.
To grasp the contribution of Italian cinema to our modern film narrative.
To enjoy movies beyond plot, effects, stunts, and good vs bad people.
Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings and syllabus, and reading list.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ONLINE FILM LECTURES

Complete syllabus will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE COURSE HAS ENDED.

Instructors:
Peter Frederick Weller (born June 24, 1947) is an American film and stage actor, television director, and art historian.
Weller has appeared in more than 70 films and television series, including RoboCop (1987) and its sequel RoboCop 2 (1990) (in which he played the title character), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He has also appeared in such films as Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite (1995), the Oliver Stone-produced The New Age (1994), and David Cronenberg’s adaptation of William Burroughs’s novel Naked Lunch (1991).

Aside from a Saturn Award nomination for his RoboCop role, Weller received an Academy Award nomination for his 1993 short Partners, in which he also acted. In television, he hosted the program Engineering an Empire on the History Channel from 2005 to 2007. He also played Christopher Henderson in the fifth season of 24, Stan Liddy in the fifth season of the Showtime original series Dexter, as well as Charles “Charlie” Barosky in 11 episodes in the sixth season of Kurt Sutter’s Sons of Anarchy. From 2012 to 2017, Weller was involved in the A&E (now Netflix) series Longmire both as a director and an actor. In 2017, Weller appeared on The Last Ship as Dr. Paul Vellek.
While enrolled at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), he played trumpet in one of the campus bands. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and began his acting career after attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (class of 1972). In 2004, Weller completed a Master of Arts degree in Roman and Renaissance Art at Syracuse University, and occasionally taught courses in ancient history at the university.

In 2007, Weller began a Ph.D. at UCLA, in Italian Renaissance Art History. In October 2013 he filed his dissertation, entitled “Alberti Before Florence: Early Sources Informing Leon Battista Alberti’s De pictura“, and was awarded his doctorate in 2014.

Jordan Ledy is an award-winning writer, director, and producer from New York City with an MFA in Film Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Inspired by time studying in Italy, he spent a summer in Rome filming Italian doppiatori, the voice actors that dub English language films into Italian. The resulting film It’s Better In Italian won Palm Springs International Shortfest’s Best Student Documentary and Best Student Film. He also directs the branded music video LA Sessions for the clothing brand All Saints and his most recent short film, Rewinder, played at this year’s LA Shorts International Festival. When he’s not making or watching movies, Jordan plays a mean guitar and cooks a meaner spaghetti carbonara.