The Films of Alfred Hitchcock

Professor Carl Freedman Department of English

Enjoy the many varieties of murder—political, personal, serial—in about two dozen of the greatest films by Sir Alfred Hitchcock, “the Shakespeare of cinema,” and the undisputed Master of Suspense. We will do close readings of such masterpieces as The 39 Steps, Rear Window, North by Northwest, and Psycho, and we’ll see how this master of cinematic fear was also—almost incredibly—a master of comedy and romance too. We’ll pay careful attention to both the narrative and the visual elements of Hitchcock’s work. And we’ll also look at a couple of fairly recent films about Hitchcock, and read some of the most brilliant Hitchcock criticism.