By David Lee Simmons

For the AJC

Emory University Film Studies Chair Matthew Bernstein is a man in motion when it comes to motion pictures. Having completed his book “Screening a Lynching” on films about the Leo Frank case, Bernstein offers this fall two film series for the general public.

First up is the Atlanta chapter of the seasonal Sunday Cinema Club, in which Bernstein hosts a screening and discussion of an upcoming independent movie on select Sunday mornings at Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema.

Next up: Emory’s “American Film Classics 101: Changing the Way You Watch,” a five-week film-introduction course that runs Monday nights starting Oct. 12.

Q: How does the Sunday Cinema Club work?

A: After the screening, either I or a guest speaker talk for just 10 minutes about what we found meaningful and notable in the film.

The club is like a continuing education class in that I and my counterparts are able to discuss plots, characters but also visual style and use of sound, relate a given film to other films, or if it’s a historical film, compare it with the historical record. Then we open it up for questions from the audience and discussion.

Q: What’s the benefit?

A: We’ve been fortunate in having some extremely smart and perceptive club members — really insightful folks, many of them professionals, who speak up with their interpretations and insights and who are not shy about disagreeing with me or something I’ve said. Yet it’s never pretentious or snobbish. It’s about getting into the film, and a film worth getting into. I love taking films apart and putting them back together to see how they work — or don’t.

Q: How does this series offer a more intimate or intellectualized movie-going experience?

A: While movies are accessible experiences for everyone, they unfold so quickly and provide so much information that it is always helpful to think through what you’ve just seen. More discerning viewers means better films in the long run. A screening also creates community. The odd thing about a movie audience is that it ordinarily comes together so briefly for the shared experience and then it disperses. One feels connected to the others in the room because of a shared experience. It’s like going to a Falcons or Braves or Hawks game, or an Atlanta Symphony concert.

Q: What kind of feedback do you get?

A: Most of the memorable moments are actually some of the witty comments club members make on the reaction cards. I always share the best and funniest ones. Sometimes I feel like Jon Stewart with a team of gag writers. Someone described “I’ve Loved You So Long” as “Rachel Getting Married” on Quaaludes.

Q: What have you learned from others’ observations that you might have missed?

A: There’s an incomprehensible scene in “Waking Ned Devine” where a priest and a boy go to a cove and see and touch a dolphin. Someone from Ireland explained the folklore that the souls of the dead come back as dolphins. So that dolphin was the soul of the boy’s father, who turns out to be Ned Devine. There’s no way we’d know that without this club member’s input. No critic ever brought it up.

Q: On to the film class. Why is it important to offer a class that offers “a deeper awareness of film’s visual and aural techniques”?

A: Alfred Hitchcock wrote an entry for the Encyclopedia Britannica in the early 1960s, where he pointed out that the American movie audience understands plot and character, because they’ve been taught in school and college to analyze literature. But most people are not as familiar with choices in staging, lighting, camerawork, editing and sound. This is still true 36 years later, although I think the younger generation is far more visually aware than I was at that age. So I’m hoping anyone who loves movies, no matter what their age, would sign up for this.

Q: What’s the most fun aspect of having this kind of nontraditional class setting?

A: Well, the greater diversity is part of the fun. And also I think anyone who joins me in this venture will really want to learn. No matter how effective you are as a teacher, your class can only be as good as the students in it. I expect this class to be first rate. Plus, the fact that there are no assignments or grading makes it a sheer pleasure for all of us.

Sunday Cinema Club

Oct. 4, Oct. 18, Nov. 1, Nov. 15, Dec. 13 and Jan. 10 (showtime 10:30 a.m.) Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema. Membership: $110 (discount if paying by check: $105). Membership admits you to all screenings and discussions. www.thecinemaclub.com/

“American Film Classics 101: Changing the Way You Watch”

7-9 p.m. Mondays, Oct. 12 through Nov. 9. Registration: $350. Emory University, Rich Building. www.filmstudies.emory.edu/