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After 25 years as a Hollywood studio executive and producer, Dori Weiss ran away to Steamboat Springs. As fate would have it, she moved next door to veteran film director Chris Nyby, a friend she'd known in Hollywood.

The two have joined forces to teach a Steamboat summer film session packed with insight, interpretation and quite possibly some Hollywood insider scoop.

"The Language of Film, Part II" is the sequel to Weiss and Nyby's first sell-out series last fall. Neither a background in film nor having attended Part I is required -- just an appreciation for film, Weiss said.

"We wanted to make it a fun night out -- a classy, fun, city-night out in the greatness of Steamboat," Weiss said. It's a film class for grown-ups, complete with drinks, discourse and gourmet snacks in the private room upstairs at Harwig's.

"This was a really fun addition to what there was to do and something that hadn't been done in Steamboat before," Weiss said. "We're up there trying to be as entertaining as can be."

Last fall, the class took a close-up look at script, cinematography, production design, score, acting and directing. This time around, Weiss and Nyby will spend eight weeks leading discussions about four contemporary directors and those directors' greatest cinematic influences.

"We're choosing directors who have a wonderful body of work," Weiss said. "They have a style that is very much their own that has been honed in film after film."

Weiss and Nyby will lead two weeks of analysis of each director, starting each session with a road map for what to look and listen for during that week's film. During the first week featuring a director, students will watch and discuss one of a director's "very brilliant but less-known works." For the follow-up week, the group will watch and analyze a film that was of great influence to the featured director.

Some of the directors Weiss and Nyby are contemplating for class discussion include Robert Altman, Lasse Hallstrom, Billy Wilder, Mike Nichols, Wes Anderson, Howard Hawks, Peter Weir and Milos Foreman.

As Hollywood veterans, Weiss and Nyby will tell anecdotes about each film, analyze the actors' and directors' styles, reveal how technical shots are made and tell "whatever it is we know about that particular picture," Weiss said.

Because Weiss and Nyby had very different roles in film production, they will be talking to the group from two different perspectives when they present each film, Weiss said.

"The Language of Film, Part II" is sponsored by the Steam boat Springs Arts Council, and the first cinematic session meets Tuesday.