RTF 370 Film Analysis and Criticism Topic: Hitchcock (Spring 2013)

Professor: Thomas Schatz (WWH 415; [email protected]) Office hours: Tuesday 11:00 – 12:30; Thursday, 3:30 – 5:00

Teaching Assistant: Paul Monticone ([email protected]) Office Hours: TBA

Course description: This course traces the career of , focusing on the films that he directed as well as the social, cultural and industrial context in which those films were produced. While the general approach of the course is historical (assessing 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; industrial analysis; 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 as well. This is a writing-intensive course, so the majority of your work involves critical and analytical writing. This includes a journal, a short critique (with a rewrite option), a term paper, and a final essay exam. All of your writing, including the final essay exam, will be graded for both substance and style. There are also regular reading assignment (roughly 20-30 pages per class meeting), and a required weekly screening. Please note that you are expected to keep up with the reading and to demonstrate your command of all the class material (readings, screenings and lectures) in class discussions and 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 repeatedly referenced in lectures and readings, as well as the countless films and filmmakers heavily influenced by Hitchcock’s work.

Requirements: • Attendance and class participation [20% of grade] • Online journal: 8 one-page (250-300 word) thought pieces submitted on 8 different weeks during the term, responding to a specific film and related reading assignment [20% of grade] • One 4-5 page (1,000-1250 word) critique – due March 7 [10% of grade] • 10-12 page (2500-3000 word) term paper [25% of grade] o one-page abstract due April 9 o paper due May 1 (last class) • Final 3-hour essay exam on May 13, 9:00am – noon [25% of grade]

Note: Detailed descriptions of the writing assignments will be provided in separate handouts.

Screenings: • Required screenings in CMA 3.116 on Tuesdays at 5:00 pm.

Required readings: At the University Coop: • Robin Wood, Hitchcock’s Films Revisited • Marshall Deutelbaum and Leland Poague, eds. A Hitchcock Reader

All additional readings are contained in a reading packet available at Jenn’s Copy & Binding, 2518 Guadalupe.

Recommended reading: Donald Spoto, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

------Schedule of class meetings, reading assignments, and screenings:

Tues 1/15 Intro course

1/15 screening: Blackmail (1929)

Thurs 1/17 Hitchcock in the 1920s: the making of an artist readings: Francois Truffaut, “Introduction to Hitchcock” [packet] Andrew Sarris, “Alfred Hitchcock” [packet] Wood, Hitchcock’s Films Revisited, ch 1, “Introduction” [skim]

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Tues 1/22 The Lodger, Blackmail and the emerging Hitchcock style readings: Poague, “Criticism and/as History: Rereading Blackmail” [AHR] Wood, ch 12, “Symmetry, Closure, Disruption: the Ambiguity of Blackmail”

1/22 screening: The 39 Steps (1935)

Thurs 1/24 Into the 1930s: Hitchcock’s mature British period readings: Weis, “Consolidation of a Classical Style: The Man Who Knew Too Much” [AHR] Yacowar, “”Hitchcock’s Imagery and Art” [AHR]

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Tues 1/29 Melding the espionage thriller and screwball comedy: The 39 Steps readings: Silet, “Through a Woman’s Eyes: Sexuality and Memory in The 39 Steps” [AHR] Wood, ch 13, “Norms and Variations: The 39 Steps and Young and Innocent”

1/29 screening: (1938)

Thurs 1/31 Assessing Hitchcock’s British “espionage cycle” readings: Williams, “Alfred Hitchcock and John Buchan: the Art of Creative Transformation” [packet]

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Tues 2/5 Identity and performance in The Lady Vanishes readings: Petro, “Rematerializing the Vanishing ‘Lady’: Feminism, Hitchcock, and Interpretation” [AHR]

2/5 screening: Rebecca (1940)

Thurs 2/7 Hitchcock, Selznick, and the woman’s picture readings: Wood, ch 11, “Plot Formations” Modleski, “Rebecca as Female Oedipal Drama” [packet]

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Tues 2/12 Rebecca, film noir and the Hitchcock’s “female Gothic” cycle readings: Schatz, “Selznick and Hitchcock: Balance of Power” [packet] Schatz, “Case Study: Film Noir” [packet]

2/12 screening: (1943)

Thurs 2/14 Hitchcock in Hollywood readings: Wood, ch 14, “Ideology, Genre, Auteur: Shadow of a Doubt” Schatz, “Authorship, Film Style, and the Rise of the Producer-Director” [packet]

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Tues 2/19 Shadow of a Doubt -- Hitchcock's "American Gothic" readings: McLaughlin, “All in the Family: Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt” [AHR]

2/19 screening: Notorious (1946)

Thurs 2/21 Spellbound and Notorious: recasting the female gothic readings: Hyde, “The Moral Universe of Hitchcock’s Spellbound” [AHR]

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Tues 2/26 Hitchcock's (and Hollywood's) postwar slide readings: Abel, “Notorious: Perversion par Excellence” [AHR]

2/26 screening: Strangers on a Train (1950)

Thurs 2/28 Doubling and male coupling in Rope and Strangers on a Train readings: Wood, ch 16, “The Murderous Gays: Hitchcock’s Homophobia”

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Tues 3/5 Return to form: Hitchcock in the 1950s readings: Wood, ch 2, “Strangers on a Train”

3/5 screening: (1954)

Thurs 3/7 Seeing, spying, and the logic of desire in Rear Window ***critique due*** readings: Curtis, “The Making of Rear Window” [packet] Kehr, “Hitch’s Riddle” [packet]

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SPRING BREAK

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Tues 3/19 Gender and spectatorship in Hitchcock’s later work readings: Wood, ch 3, “Rear Window” Stam and Pearson, “Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Reflexivity and the Critique of Voyeurism” [AHR]

3/19 screening: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Thurs 3/21 Dark comedy and male anxiety in ’50s Hitchcock readings: Naremore, “Hitchcock and Humor” [packet]

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Tues 3/26 Remaking The Man Who Knew Too Much readings: Wood, ch 17, “The Men Who Knew Too Much (and the women who knew better)”

3/26 screening: “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (misc. series episodes)

Thurs 3/28 Alfred Hitchcock Presents ... another side of Hitchcock readings: Schatz, “Epilogue: Into the New Hollywood” [packet]

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Tues 4/2 Hitchcock and the critics readings: Kapsis, “The Making of a Thriller Director” [packet]

4/2 screening Vertigo

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Thurs 4/4 Hitchcock’s masterpiece? – (re)assessing Vertigo readings: Wood, ch 4, “Vertigo”

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Tues 4/9 Hitchcock and the theorists ***term paper abstracts due*** readings: Keane: “A Closer Look at Scopophilia: Mulvey, Hitchcock and Vertigo” [AHR] Wood, ch 18, “Male Desire, Male Anxiety: The Essential Hitchcock”

4/9 screening: (1959)

Thurs 4/11 North by Northwest: reinventing the Hitchcock film readings: Wood, ch 5, “North by Northwest” Cavell, “North by Northwest” [AHR]

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Tues 4/16 Hitchcock as auteur, trademark, and Hollywood institution readings: Rothman, “North by Northwest: Hitchcock Monument to the Hitchcock Film” [packet]

4/16 screening: Psycho (1960)

Thurs 4/18 Psycho and modern American horror readings: Wood, ch 6, “Psycho” Poague, “Links in a Chain: Psycho and Film Classicism” [AHR]

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Tues 4/23 Genre, gender, and viewer identification in Psycho readings: Thomas, “On Being Norman: Performance and the Inner Life in Hitchcock’s Psycho” [AHR] Morris, “Psycho’s Allegory of Seeing”

4/23 screening: The Birds (1963)

Thurs 4/25 “Late Hitchcock” – the decline of an artist and emergence of an auteur? readings: Wood, ch 7, “The Birds” McCombs, “ ‘Oh, I See...’: The Birds and the Culmination of Hitchcock’s Romantic Vision” [AHR]

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Tues 4/30 Assessing Hitchcock readings: Orr, “Hitch as Matrix Figure: Hitchcock and Twentieth Century Cinema” [AHR] Wood, “Introduction (1988)” to Hitchcock’s Films Revisited (skim)

4/30 no screening

Thurs 5/2 Last class: review for final, etc. ***term papers due***

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Final exam – Monday, May 13, 9:00 am – noon

Please note:

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/.

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