The director of such classic Hollywood films as Rear Window, Vertigo,
North by Northwest, and Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock is perhaps the most
written about film director in both scholarly and popular presses in
the U.S. Beginning his career in England in the 1920s and gaining
fame in this country between the 1940s and 1970s, he is regarded as
one of the most technically exciting, narratively savvy, and
thematically complex of Hollywood directors. In this course we will
look at his career from beginning to end, including his work in
television (on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”). We will concentrate on
the development of his visual style and thematic preoccupations, as
well as on the relationship of his work to both British and American
culture. In addition, we will look at the influence and legacy of the
Hitchcockian style on such directors as John Carpenter and Brian
DePalma.

While we consider Hitchcock’s career, we will also study the special
place he has occupied in film theory and criticism, discussing
propositions about the meaning of his films offered by diverse
schools of interpretation over the last fifty years in film studies
(e.g., Hitchcock as Catholic director, as “Master of Suspense,” as
subversive of American ideology, as perverse portrayer of women).
Thus, the course will reflect not only on the history of Hitchcock’s
filmmaking, but also on the history of the relationship between
Hitchcock as author and film criticism.

There will be three exams in the class and a paper.