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This volume is dedicated to the elusive category of the Hitchcock Touch, the qualities and techniques which had manifested in Alfred Hitchcock's own films yet which cannot be limited to the realm of Hitchcockian cinema alone. While the first section of this collection focuses on Hitchcock's own films and the various people who made important artistic contributions to them, the subsequent chapters draw wider circles. Case studies focusing on the branding effects associated with Hitchcockian cinema and its seductive qualities highlight the paratextual dimension of his films and the importance of his well-publicized persona, while the final section addresses both Hitchcock's formative period, as well as other filmmakers who drew upon the Hitchcock Touch. The collection not only serves as an introduction to the field of Hitchcock scholarship for a wider audience, it also delivers in-depth assessments of the lesser-known early period of his career, in addition to providing new takes on canonical films like Vertigo (1958) and Frenzy (1972).
List of contents
1. Introducing the Hitchcock Touch.- 2. Facing the Past as Well as the Future: Music and Sound in Hitchcock's Early British Sound Films.- 3. Between Caméra Stylo and the Making of Images: Hitchcock's Cinematographers.- 4. Hitchcock's Plotting.- 5. Hitchcock's Brunettes: Visualizing Queerness in the 1940s and 1950s.- 6. Gazing and Constructing: Imag(in)ing Madeleine in Vertigo.- 7. "If I Won't Be Myself, Who Will?": The Making of a Star Persona in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.- 8. Alfred Hitchcock: Cinematic Seducer. Frenzy and the Seduction Theory of Film.- 9. The Visual Peak: Saul Bass as Hitchcock's 'Pictorial Consultant'.- 10. Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators Series.- 11. Jack of All Trades: Alfred Hitchcock's Apprenticeship in Neubabelsberg, 1924/25.- 12. Hitchcock--Powell--Ford.- 13.Uncommon Dangers: Alfred Hitchcock and the Literary Contexts of the British Spy Thriller.- 14. Jaws: Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
About the author
Wieland Schwanebeck is Assistant Lecturer in the Institute of English and American Studies at TU Dresden, Germany. His research focuses on impostor characters, gender, film history, and adaptation. He is the author and co-editor of books on impostors, con men, and masculinity studies.
Summary
This volume is dedicated to the elusive category of the Hitchcock Touch, the qualities and techniques which had manifested in Alfred Hitchcock’s own films yet which cannot be limited to the realm of Hitchcockian cinema alone. While the first section of this collection focuses on Hitchcock’s own films and the various people who made important artistic contributions to them, the subsequent chapters draw wider circles. Case studies focusing on the branding effects associated with Hitchcockian cinema and its seductive qualities highlight the paratextual dimension of his films and the importance of his well-publicized persona, while the final section addresses both Hitchcock’s formative period, as well as other filmmakers who drew upon the Hitchcock Touch. The collection not only serves as an introduction to the field of Hitchcock scholarship for a wider audience, it also delivers in-depth assessments of the lesser-known early period of his career, in addition to providing new takes on canonical films like Vertigo (1958) and Frenzy (1972).
