Hitchcock: Master of Suspense
A Film Lecture Series with Librarian Doug Swiszcz
Wednesdays October 7 - November 4 at 1 pm

Hitchcock: hear the name, even just the surname, and you know exactly what kind of film to expect. Films of mystery, suspense, of beautiful women in peril, of men who find themselves wrongly accused or pursued. Films that show the very thin line that separates good from evil. Films that exploit the voyeuristic nature of watching movies, that make those sitting in the cinema complicit in the crimes committed, the compulsions unable to be repressed up on the screen.

Hitchcock began by making silent films in England. He keenly understood the purely visual aspect of storytelling that is such an intrinsic part of movies, one which carried over to his "talking pictures." He meticulously planned each shot long before filming began, and there was little to no deviation from this blueprint once the cameras started rolling.

For my Fall 2015 film lecture series, I've chosen five Hitchcock movies from his Hollywood era--a career trajectory that began when he was signed by producer David O. Selznick and made Rebecca. Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, this Oscar-winning Best Film explored the strong grip that the past can exert on the present. A new bride comes to live with her husband at his Cornish estate, where the memory of his deceased first wife hangs as thickly and oppressively as dense fog. Just who was Rebecca, and what are the secrets surrounding her?

Strangers on a Train was based on a book by Patricia Highsmith, who is probably best known for creating the character of  the murderous, amoral Tom Ripley in a series that included The Talented Mr. Ripley. The anti-hero in Strangers on a Train, Bruno Anthony, is no less morally compromised--and just as murderous. Bruno suggests to famed tennis player Guy Haines that he would be happy to kill Guy's promiscuous wife, if Guy would return the favor by killing Bruno's despised father. Only Bruno is (pardon the expression) dead serious, and soon Guy is in over his head.

Hitchcock's penchant for voyeurism was never better exploited than in Rear Window, in which a photographer convalescing with a broken leg peers through his binoculars to watch his neighbors. Soon he becomes convinced that one neighbor, who bickers with his wife, has killed her. Just like a movie audience, the observer suddenly finds himself complicit in the transgressions of those being observed.

The object of the gaze also figures prominently in Vertigo, in which a retired police detective is asked to tail a friend's wife--and becomes mesmerized with her to the point of obsession. Even after the woman is gone, the ex-cop feels the need to try to bring her back, to recreate her, even as his blurring of fantasy and reality sends him reeling towards a nervous breakdown.

Finally, The Birds ostensibly looks at the onslaught by hundreds of birds on a small Pacific Coast town. Is the film making a comment on the human race's arrogant belief that it is in control of nature, or is all of this man-versus-nature terror merely a pretext for exploring the relationships between a widow, the grown son that she fears losing, and the pretty young heiress to whom he has become attracted?

Hitchcock's films are like onions: peel off one layer, and another is revealed. His movies can be dense, inscrutable, revealing new facets with each viewing, yielding new secrets with each coaxing.

I invite you to join me so that we can discover anew the joys and complexities of Alfred Hitchcock's work. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Here's the lineup:

October 7 - Rebecca (1940) - Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson, George Sanders. B&W - 130 min. - unrated

October 14 - Strangers on a Train (1951) - Farley Granger, Robert Walker.  B&W - 101 min, - unrated

October 21 - Rear Window (1954) - James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter.  Color - 112 min. - unrated

October 28 - Vertigo (1958) - James Stewart, Kim Novak.  Color - 128 min. - unrated

November 4 - The Birds (1963) - Color - 119 min. - rated PG-13 for violence involving bird attacks, some disturbing images, and brief language