OP here,
I was also surprised by the professor and his lack of memory about this film. My daughter has appreciated his enthusiasm and love for Shakespeare, even for the tragedies thus far, which is saying something, coming from her. And FYI, he is a tenured professor who has taught Shakespeare Lit classes for decades. She originally planned to sign up for his Intro to Shakespeare class, which was cancelled shortly before registration for this semester, and then this class showed up.
Due to this conversation, I thought I’d dig a little more.
Checking out previous years’ classes, I suspect that perhaps he took over this class last minute for another professor who has taught Script to Screen for at least the past 5 years, using her syllabus, which might explain why he was a little blindsided by the content of the movie, not having seen it in over a decade. He is well versed in the *literature for sure, and I’m definitely willing to extend grace, particularly if my suspicions are correct.
Thankfully, this is the last of the tragedies/histories for this class, and they are ending with the Tempest, so that will be fun. 