9. Alfred Hitchcock

MIT 21L.011 The Film Experience, Fall 2013
View the complete course: ocw.mit.edu/21L-011F13
Instructor: David Thorburn
Hitchcock's style dovetails with the Hollywood system's imposed constraints. Survey his career (Silent Era through the 1960s), method as a fastidious technician. Key themes, such as confinement and authority, demonstrated in Strangers on a Train clip.
00:00 OCW Intro
00:25 Hitchcock and "the genius of the system"
12:16 An anecdote
18:14 Hitchcock's career
34:05 Hitchcock the technician
40:32 Themes ("the double man") and Strangers on a Train
License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
More information at ocw.mit.edu/terms
More courses at ocw.mit.edu

[@rajaradi802]

The way he talks is tempting me to take this course

[@itsmeinparis]

There is no Michael Caine in Frenzy, though. The actor is called Barry Foster.

[@David-mg1yj]

Regarding Hitchcock's preparation and fastidiousness. Surely that is down to the idea that if a director plans everything in advance, and only shoots what he/she needs, then no Producer or Studio can ever recut their film (as happened to so many other directors), because there is no other way to cut the film. Only the way that was planned out in advance.

[@arthur2588aspm]

Rope is tedious? Really? REALLY? It's an awesome movie, and very suspenseful, thrilling in fact

[@Rocketscienceshorts]

This professor is too good

[@tomdrowry]

This looks like a cool course to do.

[@David-mg1yj]

Regarding the genius of the system. The counter argument might be to look at Spaghetti Westerns. Italian film makers didn't know the American Studio rules and the likes of Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef weren't ever going to correct Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci et al, so we end up with a new, refreshing, exciting take on what was, by then, a very tired, formula behind most American Westerns. If 'Frenzy' can be held up as an example of why the system worked, then surely 'A Fist full of Dollars' is a great example why occasionally film makers and audiences were better off without it.

[@danielrojaspardo]

Wow!

[@aleschonfeld]

This students don't deserve him. He's awesome and they want to leave early.

[@jacksoncoates5742]

I couldn't yell "newspaper" into my phone loud enough😂

[@7somekindofsomething]

Is there any way you can pay to get a certificate from the course?

[@mitocw]

Sorry, currently there is not. Maybe someday it might be offered on MITx with a certificate.

[@7somekindofsomething]

@@mitocw That would be great :) Thanks a mill for sharing all this great info though.

[@Waferdicing]

💗

[@voteforno.6155]

47:55 How could anyone want to leave a lecture about Hitchcock EARLY??

[@bf2625]

vote for no. 6 cuz its probably a bunch of horseshit.jk

[@katepriest346]

As someone who has been in mesmerizing film lectures and had to leave early - to get to work on time.

[@trfyhrghty4222]

👍👍

[@williamstevenson8518]

I'll bet this guy is a big Brian DePalma fan.

[@faridehfardjam8637]

6

[@Larkinchance]

I'm having an anxiety attack...

[@MrSiloterio]

Just an observation: He tends to interchange the terms 'paradox' and 'irony' a lot..

[@gattopardodilampeduza3211]

Matthew's Couch So?

[@lakshmanmardi9667]

He looks like Modi

[@bhavykhatri2669]

yaha pe politics na la

[@abhinavabhinav112]

Hahaha , a more thick beard would do