Course Description

Instructor: Colin Mackey

Alfred Hitchcock is known to many as the Master of Suspense, but this sells his importance as a filmmaker short. Starting his film career in the silent era and working through the 1970’s, Alfred Hitchcock was a groundbreaking innovator who helped develop the language of film and the narrative techniques that are standard today. In this four-part course, we will trace the career of Alfred Hitchcock by discussing one or two films a week. We will examine each film in the context of other films of the time, the growth of Hitchcock as a filmmaker, and the influence each film had on future directors. In Part 3, we will explore the beginning of Hitchcock’s Golden Era where he finds the balance between popular entertainment and art.

Week 1 - Strangers on a Train

Week 2 - I Confess

Week 3 - Dial M For Murder

Week 4 - Rear Window

Week 5 - To Catch a Thief

Week 6 - The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Week 7 - The Wrong Man

As we will be watching key clips in class, it is not essential to view each film in its entirety. This is especially true in the early weeks as we are covering the silent films and early “talkies” as we will be discussing two or three films a week, and that can be quite a burden of “homework”.  I have also tried to front-end the multiple film weeks to give participants a bit more time to view the films.