Love and Buildings: Deconstructing Hitchcock’s Architectural Infatuation
HtichCon '21: What’s It All about, Alfie?
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20m
For Hitchcock, the parts of a building represent humanity and all its complications: windows are the eyes into the soul, a stairway is a spine between the heart and mind, and a door permits entry into infinite subliminal perceptions. This presentation investigates Hitchcock’s own love for American landscapes and buildings and his translation of these sites into “characters” that forward the narrative in his films, leading to a more informed, contextual understanding of the metaphysical structure of architecture, human motivation, and people themselves.
Christine Madrid French is a historian, screenwriter and author of the upcoming "Alfred Hitchcock and American Architecture: Villain’s Lairs, Skyscrapers, Mansions, and Motels" (University of Virginia Press, 2022). Her unproduced screenplay, "Piney Croft," a paranormal horror feature set in Florida, was a semi-finalist at the Orlando Film Festival and selected by iHorror Film Festival, Northeast Film Festival Horror Fest, and the Madrid International Film Festival. She currently works as Director of Development with the California Preservation Foundation and is head of Creator Services at LoCo+, a streaming platform featuring local content creators.
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Saturday Afternoon–Part 2 Q&A
Sidney Gottlieb moderates audience Q&A with presenters Joel Gunz, Christine Madrid French, and Robert Bellissimo.
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Introduction to Trouble with Harry
Sidney Gottlieb gives an introduction to Hitchcock's "Trouble with Harry" (1955).
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