How did a northeastern, non-driving, cosmopolitan, single, Rome-educated, opera-loving scholar not only survive for 27 years in the rural west but help run a thriving college program in, of all things, Classical languages and literatures, not to mention become a cult figure among students? Why would Idaho farm kids want to learn Latin and Greek? What can such dead subjects have to say to the world today? These are the themes of the 50-minute documentary, “Moscow Classics,” featuring recently retired (2008) University of Idaho Classics professor Louis Perraud.
For centuries, the Classics were the center of western education, including in the US, but since 1890 they have gradually faded to the edges, including at the University of Idaho. The surprise is perhaps not that Classics programs are slowly being eliminated, but that they have survived for so long. Was that because the Classics still have something to say? Or was it because of such extraordinary personalities teaching them as Louis Perraud? The rise and decline of the Classics is the film’s general theme, but it is given flesh and blood by a close look at the phenomenon of Louis Perraud himself.
Louis came to Moscow, Idaho in 1982, a place he never knew existed while growing up in suburban New Jersey. It was not an obvious fit by any means: Louis was educated in Rome and Indiana, and nourished at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. His tastes and inclinations were hardly ready matches with this small western town. And how would he deal with students, drawn largely from Idaho itself and thus from much different backgrounds from his own?
His ability to connect with students turned out to be his great strength, as he instructed thousands over the years both in smaller Latin and Greek courses and in his locally famous television course on Classical Mythology. Yet when Louis retired in 2008, as the sole remaining Classics professor at the University, it was soon decided to retire the Classics major as well, in keeping with wider trends in American higher education to focus resources on more modern languages. The film conveys a sense of these trends, but also of the unique qualities of Louis Perraud, and what drew him to the Classics in the first place.
To see a trailer of the film, click here.
