Episode 5: Einstein vs. Bergson
Alfred Hitchcock—Master of the Surreal
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16m
In the early part of the 20th Century, two titans of modern thought—physicist Albert Einstein and philosopher Henri Bergson engaged in a years-long debate over the meaning of time. Hitchcock films touch on this debate and advocate for an elevated view of life, politics and human nature.
Source material covered in this episode:
Films:
• The 39 Steps (1935)
• Torn Curtain (1966)
Books:
• Matter and Memory, Henri Bergson
• Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson and the Debate that Changed Our Understanding of Time, Jimena Canales
• Hitchcock and Poe: the Legacy of Delight and Terror, Dennis R. Perry
• The Colloquy of Monos and Una Eureka, Edgar Allan Poe
• Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, J. F. Martel
• The World Set Free, H. G. Wells
• Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo
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Spellbound (1945) achieved quick and lasting notoriety by means of its dream sequences designed by the great Surrealist Salvador Dalí. Ironically, howeve...
