Campus Celebrity: Matt Marshall, Film Professor

Matt Marshall is an avid film lover and professor of film at Hollins University.  I am currently enrolled in his Intro to Film as Art class, which encompasses everything from silent black and white films to present day movies.  Professor Marshall is a perfect candidate for Campus Celebrity because of his deep enthusiasm for film and passion for teaching.  These qualities immediately come out in the classroom in his inate ability to bring film to life.  

 What is your degree and what institution(s) have you attended? I have a Masters of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from Hollins as well as a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies, also Hollins,  where I focused more on music. For my undergraduate I studied film at  The State University of New York at Albany (S.U.N.Y) Albany, but transferred to Mary Washington College  in 1995 (now Mary Washington University) and focused on Film and Art History. I wanted to study the people who made art.

When did you realize that film was your passion?  Have you always wanted to teach film? My first movie theater experience was seeing the original Star Wars when I was 4. What could top that? I came home and immediately started acting out all the characters. I knew film was going to be my passion when at 8 years old I sat for 3 hours and watched “Gandhi,” and  was completely absorbed and engaged with it. I had a peculiar attention span for Drama as a child. I always preferred what the adults were watching.

What is your favorite film and why? Two answers. My fun “can watch anytime and never get sick of it,” film,  is James Whale’s “The Invisible Man,” (1933) staring Claude Raines as the Invisible One. This film is a brilliant blend of eeriness, action and dark humor. My second favorite, in the “serious” category,  is Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The film is like a spoken word opera.  Bernard Herrmann’s haunting music is so carefully woven into the drama that it truly tells you more about the characters than any of the dialogue does.

 How do you think current films compare to other eras of filmmaking (ex. Silent films, talkies, black and white vs. color)? There will always be flashes of brilliance out there no matter what the era, although we tend to be inspired by the past and are often suspicious of the present. I am all about strong images and stories that are visually driven. I love Wes Anderson’s films “Rushmore,” “The Darjeeling Limited.” They have a distinct look. In 20 seconds you know you are watching Wes Anderson. There is a consistent look and tone to his films.  Although I don’t particularly like looking at digital video over 35mm film, I do appreciate that the digital age is getting cameras into more hands. Filmmaking used to be almost impossible to do on your own. I like that it is more accessible now. One of my favorite filmmakers David Lynch, shot his last feature “Inland Empire,” on digital video and I felt it was very successful – another 3 hour film, not for the uninitiated. Inland Empire is in the new release section of Hollins library now.

Do you have a favorite genre of film?  If so, what is it? I was a kid who loved monsters, so I’d say classic horror. Seeing Bela Lugosi’s  Dracula when I was 11, changed my life. These classic films have a mythological quality to them. Horror films have strong imagery and allow us to explore the nightmare in the waking hours. I emphasize “classic horror,” because it is a genre that became decadent very quickly in the early 1980s. I also love subjective-reality films with unreliable narrators. Films that blur the line between fantasy and reality, what’s real and what’s imagined, are most interesting to me because these are the films that leave you with questions. I’d rather have questions at the end of a film than have everything wrapped up. That way you’ll want to go back to the film and notice new things every time.

Who is your filmmaking idol? Sounds pretentious but I’d have to say Orson Welles who yes, delivers this infamously fantastic first picture called “Citizen Kane,” then makes 10 more films that are rarely seen. I am a formalist and Welles is deliriously interested in exploring form, style, and composition in his work. Welles’ visual style is so bold it makes you laugh out loud sometimes.

How would you describe yourself in three words? Artistic, compassionate, teacher.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you reside? Almost anywhere in Europe. I feel a special connection to middle and Eastern Europe- Hungary, Romania, Germany & the Czech Republic. The art and music history is so rich there.