Alfred Hitchcock

Description

Regarded as "The Master of Suspense" and one of the most influential filmmakers of all time, Alfred Hitchcock is remembered for a long career, consisting of more than fifty films made in six decades. This volume discusses themes that make a film truly "Hitchcockian"-the plot twist, voyeurism, and the innocent man accused-and analyzes some of Hitchcock's best-known work, including Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Rear Window, and more. This inaugural volume in the Critical Insights Film series is intended to contribute to the ongoing discourse about the "Master of Suspense," his body of work, and his larger influence on world culture. All essay contributors have been selected from across the spectrum of Hitchcock enthusiasts, providing in-depth, versatile, and accessible coverage of all key issues and interpretations for the high school or undergraduate student. The text offers analyses of Alfred Hitchcock based on cultural and historical contexts, close viewings from particular critical standpoints (from traditional to postmodern), comparisons in the light of other films, and critical receptions over time. Contents About This Volume • Douglas A. Cunningham On Hitchcock • Douglas A. Cunningham Hitchcock’s Biography • Cole Smith Critical Contexts Mirroring a Century: Alfred Hitchcock and His Historical Contexts • Douglas A. Cunningham Hitchcock and His Women • Kerry Linfoot Hitchcock’s “Female Gothic” Experimentation in Spellbound and Notorious • Sheri Chinen Biesen Everyone’s a Critic: Hitchcock’s Evolving Prestige • Douglas A. Cunningham Critical Readings The Other Hitchcock: No Suspense, but (Re)marriage Instead (Three Early Films) • Julie Michot and Dominique Sipière The Traumatic Cultural Dimensions of Adolescent Girlhood in Champagne, Blackmail, and Young and Innocent • Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, Mariana Zárate, and Patricia Vazquez Rebecca: Auteur, Auteur • John Price Space in Rear Window Revisited: Questions of Spectatorship, Community, and Surveillance • Thomas Lubek The Uncanny Forests of Woman and Land in Vertigo • Kellianne H. Matthews Norman Can’t Leave the Nest: Freudian Theory and the Uncanny Use of Taxidermied Birds in Psycho • Erika Rothberg Foucault Takes Wing: Bodega Bay as Panopticon in The Birds • Douglas A. Cunningham The Murderer in the Garden: Something Rotten in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy • K. Brenna Wardell Performance and Textual Disjuncture: Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot • Justin Wyatt Between Cinema and Life: Biopics on Alfred Hitchcock • Ana Daniela Coelho American Modern Architecture as Frame and Character in Hitchcock’s Cinematic Spaces • Christine Madrid French Hitch Puts a Bird on It: Paul Klee’s Influence on the Master of Suspense • Joel Gunz Resources Chronology of Alfred Hitchcock’s Life Filmography Bibliography About the Editor Contributors Index