RTF 370 Film Analysis and Criticism Topic: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock (Spring 2021)
Professor: Thomas Schatz (CMA 6.120; [email protected]) Office hours: Monday and Wednesday, 3:30 - 5:00 pm, and by appointment.
Teaching Assistant: Alex Brannan ([email protected]) Office hours: Tuesday, 12:00 - 1:30pm and by appointment
The general plan for the class in the time of COVID: This is a “hybrid” course that initially is being conducted online (via Zoom) and in a “synchronous” mode – that is, with our class meetings held at the scheduled time (TTH, 9:30 - 10:45). We may convert to in-person class meetings later in the term, should the COVID situation improve and permit that much-desired adjustment. During this online phase, I expect you to attend (with your cameras on, please) and to participate. I will record our sessions for back-up purposes, but please plan to approach this as you would a regular on-campus UT class in terms of attendance and participation. All of the weekly screenings – both the required and recommended screenings – are available to you online. I also will be posting clips that I plan to use in class, which I will encourage you to screen before our class sessions. I’m also expecting you to conduct research for your final paper online, recognizing the obvious constraints due to the coronavirus. We will discuss research strategies throughout the semester, and especially during the latter half of the term.
Course description: This course examines the career of Alfred Hitchcock, focusing on the films that he directed as well as the social, cultural and industrial conditions under which those films were produced. While the general approach of the course is historical (dealing with Hitchcock’s films in chronological order), the main thrust is critical and analytical, combining various approaches – principally auteur and genre analysis; narrative, textual, and stylistic analysis; industry history; and theories of gender and sexuality – to assess Hitchcock’s films and his distinctive filmmaking style. In the process, we will trace Hitchcock’s development through nearly a half-century of filmmaking in England and the U.S., his changing status within the British and American film industries, and his changing stature within the critical and scholarly communities. This is a writing-intensive (Writing Flag) course, and the majority of your work will involve critical and analytical writing. This includes two 4-5 page critiques, a 10-page term paper, and a final take-home essay exam. All of your writing, including the final essay exam, will be graded for both substance and style. (See note on the last page about the UT and Moody College writing centers.) There are also regular reading assignments (roughly 30-40 pages per class meeting), along with the required weekly screening. The recommended screenings include films that I will be covering in lectures and discussion, and I encourage you view these if possible.
You are expected to keep up with the reading and to demonstrate your command of that material (as well as the screenings and previous lectures) in class discussions and in your writing assignments. You are also encouraged to supplement the required screenings with additional movie viewing on your own – particularly the Hitchcock films not screened for class that are referenced in lectures and readings, as well as the countless films and filmmakers heavily influenced by Hitchcock’s work. (See the list of recommended Hitchcock films at the end of the syllabus.)
Requirements: • attendance and class participation [25% of grade] • two 4-5 page critiques [25% of grade] – assignment on separate handout o due dates: February 11 and March 11 • term paper (10 pages) [25% of grade] – assignment on separate handout o abstract due April 6; paper due May 6 (last class day) • Final take-home essay exam [25% of grade]
Readings: • Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock (rev. ed., Simon & Schuster, 1985) • Robin Wood, Hitchcock’s Films Revisited (Columbia Univ. Press, 2002) • Marshall Deutelbaum and Leland Poague, eds. A Hitchcock Reader. 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) • Jonathan Freedman, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Hitchcock (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)
Additional assigned readings will be posted on Canvas (as indicated below).
Highly recommended readings: • Tania Modleski, The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory • William Rothman, Hitchcock – The Murderous Gaze • Donald Spoto, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock
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Schedule of class meetings, reading assignments, and screenings:
[Please note: The assigned readings from the Alfred Hitchcock Reader are designated AHR; and those from the Cambridge Companion to Hitchcock CCH.]
Tues 1/19 Intro course
Thurs 1/21 Intro Hitchcock readings: Francois Truffaut, “Introduction” to Hitchcock [Canvas] Andrew Sarris, “Alfred Hitchcock” [Canvas]
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Screening(s) for week two: required: Blackmail (1929) recommended: The Lodger (1927)
Tues 1/26 The Lodger, Blackmail and the emergence of an auteur director readings: Truffaut, Chapters 1–3
Thurs 1/28 Blackmail as proto-“Hitchcock film” readings: Poague, “Criticism and/as History: Rereading Blackmail” [AHR] Wood, ch 12, “Symmetry, Closure, Disruption: the Ambiguity of Blackmail”
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Screening(s) for week three: required: The 39 Steps (1935) recommended: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Tues 2/2 Into the 1930s: Hitchcock’s mature British period readings: Truffaut, Chapters 4-5 Weis, “Consolidation of a Classical Style: The Man Who Knew Too Much” [AHR]
Thurs 2/4 Melding the espionage thriller and screwball comedy: The 39 Steps readings: Yacowar, “”Hitchcock’s Imagery and Art” [AHR] Silet, “Through a Woman’s Eyes: Sexuality and Memory in The 39 Steps” [AHR]
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Screening(s) for week four: required: The Lady Vanishes (1938) recommended: Sabotage (1936)
Tues 2/9 Identity and performance in The Lady Vanishes readings: Petro, “Rematerializing the Vanishing ‘Lady’: Feminism, Hitchcock, and Interpretation” [AHR] Schatz, “Hitchcock and the Studio System” [CCH]
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Thurs 2/11 From Britain to Hollywood ***first critique due*** Freedman, “Introduction” [CCH] Staiger, “Creating the Brand: The Hitchcock Touch” [CCH] Schatz, “Authorship, Film Style, and the Rise of the Producer-Director” (skim) [Canvas]
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Screening(s) for week five: required: Rebecca (1940) recommended: Suspicion (1941)
Tues 2/16 Hitchcock, the “woman’s picture,” and feminist theory readings: Truffaut, Chapter 6 Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” [Canvas] Modleski, “Introduction” [Canvas]
Thurs 2/18 Rebecca, film noir and the Hitchcock’s “female gothic” cycle readings: Modleski, “Women and the Labyrinth: Rebecca” [Canvas] Schatz, “Case Study: Film Noir”
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Screening(s) for week six: required: Shadow of a Doubt (1943) recommended: Lifeboat (1944)
Tues 2/23 Shadow of a Doubt – Hitchcock's American debut readings: Truffaut, Chapter 7 Wood, ch 14, “Ideology, Genre, Auteur: Shadow of a Doubt”
Thurs 2/25 Shadow of a Doubt – Hitchcock’s American gothic readings: Freedman, “American Civilization and Its Discontents: The Persistence of Evil in Shadow of a Doubt” [CCH] McLaughlin, “All in the Family: Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt” [AHR]
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Screening(s) for week seven: required: Notorious (1946) recommended: Spellbound (1945)
Tues 3/2 Hitchcock and the Hollywood star system readings: Truffaut, Chapter 8 Wood, ch 15, “Star and Auteur: Hitchcock’s Films with Bergman”
Thurs 3/4 Spellbound and Notorious: recasting the female gothic readings: Hyde, “The Moral Universe of Hitchcock’s Spellbound” [AHR] Abel, “Notorious: Perversion par Excellence” [AHR]
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Screening(s) for week eight: required: Strangers on a Train (1951) recommended: Rope (1948)
Tues 3/9 Doubling and male coupling in Rope and Strangers on a Train readings: Truffaut, Chapter 9 Wood, ch 16, “The Murderous Gays: Hitchcock’s Homophobia”
Thurs 3/11 Return to form: Hitchcock in the 1950s ***second critique due*** readings: Truffaut, Chapter 10 Wood, ch 2, “Strangers on a Train” [HFR]
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March 15-20 Spring Break
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Screening(s) for week nine: required: Rear Window (1954) recommended: Dial M for Murder (1954)
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Tues 3/23 Seeing, spying, and the logic of desire in Rear Window readings: Truffaut, Chapter 11 Modleski, “The Master’s Dollhouse: Rear Window” [Canvas] Curtis, “The Making of Rear Window” – skim [Canvas]
Thurs 3/25 Gender and spectatorship in Hitchcock’s later work readings: Wood, ch 3, “Rear Window” Kehr, “Hitch’s Riddle” [Canvas] Stam and Pearson, “Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Reflexivity and the Critique of Voyeurism” [AHR]
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Screening(s) for week ten: required: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) recommended: The Wrong Man (1956)
Tues 3/30 Dark comedy and male anxiety in ’50s Hitchcock readings: Kapsis, “The Making of a Thriller Director” (read pages 16-42) [Canvas]
Thurs 4/1 Remaking The Man Who Knew Too Much readings: Pomerance, “Looking Up: Class, England, and America in The Man Who Knew Too Much” [CCH] Wood, ch 17, “The Men Who Knew Too Much (and the women who knew better)”
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Screening(s) for week eleven: Alfred Hitchcock Presents [misc. episodes]
Tues 4/6 Another side of Hitchcock: Alfred Hitchcock Presents ***term paper abstracts due*** readings: Naremore, “Hitchcock and Humor” [Canvas] Spoto, The Dark Side of Genius, excerpt of Chapter Twelve (pages 359-380) [Canvas]
Thurs 4/8 Hitchcock as auteur, trademark, and Hollywood institution readings: Kapsis, “The Making of a Thriller Director” (read pages 42-68) [Canvas]
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Screening for week twelve: Vertigo (1958)
Tues 4/13 Hitchcock’s masterpiece? – (re)assessing Vertigo readings: Truffaut, Chapter 12 Wood, ch 4, “Vertigo”
Thurs 4/15 Hitchcock and the theorists (revisited) readings: Keane: “A Closer Look at Scopophilia: Mulvey, Hitchcock and Vertigo” [AHR] Wood, ch 18, “Male Desire, Male Anxiety: The Essential Hitchcock”
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Screening for week thirteen: North by Northwest (1959)
Tues 4/20 Reinventing the Hitchcock film readings: Cavell, “North by Northwest” [AHR] Nadel, “Expedient Exaggeration and the Scale of Cold War Farce in North by Northwest” [CCH]
Thurs 4/22 Into the New Hollywood readings: Wood, ch 5, “North by Northwest” Rothman, “North by Northwest: Hitchcock’s Monument to the Hitchcock Film” [Canvas] Schatz, “Epilogue: Into the New Hollywood” [Canvas]
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Screening for week fourteen: Psycho (1960)
Tues (4/27) Psycho, sexuality and modern American horror readings: Truffaut, Chapter 13 Wood, ch 6, “Psycho” Tifft, “Mrs. Bates’s Smile: Psycho and Psychoanalysis” [CCH]
Thurs (4/29) Genre, gender, and viewer identification in Psycho (and North by Northwest) readings: Thomas, “On Being Norman: Performance and the Inner Life in Hitchcock’s Psycho” [AHR] Greven, “Hitchcock and Queer Sexuality” [CCH]
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Screening for week fifteen: The Birds (1963)
Tues 5/4 “Late” Hitchcock – the decline of an artist and the making of an auteur readings: Truffaut, Chapter 14 Wood, ch 7, “The Birds” McCombs, “ ‘Oh, I See...’: The Birds and the Culmination of Hitchcock’s Romantic Vision” [AHR]
Thurs 5/6 Last class: review for final, etc. ***term papers due***
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Final essay exam – procedures TBA
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Please note:
The University Writing Center: If you need help with a writing assignment, I strongly encourage you to use the Writing Center, PCL 2.330, (512) 471-6222, uwc.utexas.edu). The Writing Center offers free, individualized help with writing for any UT undergraduate, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. They work with students from every department on campus, for both academic and non-academic writing. This service is not just for writing with "problems." Getting feedback from an informed audience is a normal part of a successful project. The UWC consultants are trained to work with you on your writing in ways that preserve the integrity of your work and help you become a stronger, more independent writer.
Moody College Writing Support Program You might also want to check out the Moody College writing center, located in BMC 3.322. Appointments daily and drop-ins welcome. ([email protected] (512) 471-3717)
Regarding Scholastic Dishonesty: The University defines academic dishonesty as cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, falsifying academic records, and any act designed to avoid participating honestly in the learning process. Scholastic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or an extension on a test, quiz, or other assignment, and submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without the prior permission of the instructor. By accepting this syllabus, you have agreed to these guidelines and must adhere to them. Scholastic dishonest damages both the student's learning experience and readiness for the future demands of a work-career. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. For more information on scholastic dishonesty, please visit the Student Judicial services Web site at http://www.utexas.edu/depts/dos/sjs/.
About services for students with disabilities: The University provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471- 6259, 471-4641 TTY.
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