The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock

We will watch about 20 of Hitchcock’s films with an eye toward understanding why contemporary film directors consider his films exemplary of the greatest cinematic artistry: Hitchcock always finds new ways of telling a story visually by the way he uses his camera especially the subjective camera. We will learn his rules for cinema, such as “the bigger the emotion the bigger the close-up.” We will also define his recurring themes, images, and motifs, such as obsessive love, the wrong man, dangling over the abyss, and a man and a woman saving one another by clasping hands. Among the films we will analyze are his masterpieces, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. 3 hrs. lect./disc./screening