The Hitchcock Romance: Love and Irony in Hitchcock's Films / Edition 1

by Lesley Brill

Overview

Was Alfred Hitchcock a cynical trifler with his audience's emotions, as he liked to pretend? Or was he a profoundly humane artist? Most commentators leave Hitchcock's self-assessment unquestioned, but this book shows that his movies convey an affectionate, hopeful understanding of human nature and the redemptive possibilities of love. Lesley Brill discusses Hitchcock's work as a whole and examines in detail twenty-two films, from perennial favorites like North by Northwest to neglected masterpieces like Rich and Strange.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691002866
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/21/1991
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

	Frame Enlargements	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	xiii
1.	North by Northwest and Romance	3
2.	Young and Innocent: Comic Romances of False Accusation (Young and Innocent, The 39 Steps, Saboteur, To Catch a Thief)	22
3.	Mixed Romances (Strangers on a Train, The Lodger, I Confess, The Wrong Man, Frenzy)	70
4.	Do Not Presume: Irony (Blackmail, Rich and Strange, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Topaz)	147
5.	"I Look Up, I Look Down" (Vertigo and Psycho)	199
6.	Bygones be Bygones (Spellbound, Under Capricorn, Marnie)	238
7.	"Love's Not Time's Fool" (The Trouble with Harry)	283
	Index	293

Editorial Reviews

"Deserves a place alongside the most provocative and incisive Hitchcock criticism of the decade."

Choice

Brill argues his case persuasively in a knowledgeable analysis of Hitchcock's work.

American Cinematographer - George L. George

Brill argues his case ingeniously and goes a long way to explaining why Hitchcock was such a tease: he loved to scare us before leading us by the hand back to a world where dragons do not exist—except in the dark of the cinema....

The [London] Times Literary Supplement - David Coward

Brill argues his case persuasively in a knowledgeable analysis of Hitchcock's work.
— George L. George

American Cinematographer

Brill argues his case ingeniously and goes a long way to explaining why Hitchcock was such a tease: he loved to scare us before leading us by the hand back to a world where dragons do not exist—except in the dark of the cinema....
— David Coward

The [London] Times Literary Supplement

"Brill argues his case ingeniously and goes a long way to explaining why Hitchcock was such a tease: he loved to scare us before leading us by the hand back to a world where dragons do not exist—except in the dark of the cinema."—-David Coward, The [London] Times Literary Supplement

"Brill argues his case persuasively in a knowledgeable analysis of Hitchcock's work."—-George L. George, American Cinematographer

From the Publisher