Great Movies: Children and Their Families

Leo Tolstoy wrote, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Come see and then discuss three extraordinary movies about children and their families—both happy and unhappy, biological and adopted. In Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” Oliver is adopted by Fagan who trains him to be a thief. In Henry James’ “The Heiress” a plain woman falls in love with a man who her father believes wants her only for her money. Our last movie is Betty Smith’s touching “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” about a girl in a poor New York family who dreams of being a writer.

Lynda Tisdell saw “Peter Pan” at the age of six and has never forgotten it. Passionate about movies, she has studied them, endlessly discussed and dreamed about them. She has previously taught Great Movies courses, recently “Monsters and Villains,” “The Way We Used to Be,” “Unexpected Love,” Deception I, II, and III,” “Christmas Movies,” “Movie Classics,” “Oscar Winners” and “Feel-Good Movies.”