ISD 625-Saint Paul Public Schools

Trace some of the artists who, in their own ways, tried to take up the mantle as Masters of Suspense. These descendants span decades and continents, but they each adopt the core narrative tensions and virtuosic showmanship of Hitchcock’s oeuvre. Weekly readings provided. No expertise required -- feel free to bring popcorn!

What does Vertigo’s spiral have to tell us about occupied Korea? What does rear window mean in the paranoid 1970s? And how were directorial suspense-ratcheting and showmanship leveraged to develop a smash hit brand of “social thriller” in the 2010s? As one of the most titanic film artists of the 20th century, Alfred Hitchcock had a degree of stylistic influence over many young directors, but he attracted very few genuine imitators. Whereas everyone wanted to use suspense as one of many filmmaking tools, only a handful of subsequent artists tried to become masters of the thriller, and follow the riveting (and sometimes perverse) logic of Hitchcock’s genre. Discover the artists who have applied Hitchcock’s themes towards their own ends, and in so doing, bathe their worlds in Hitchcock’s light. Weekly readings will be sent out via PDF in a weekly email.

All Community Education participants are required to follow SPPS COVID guidelines (https://www.spps.org/safelearningplan), and all other communicated health and safety expectations. Failure to do so could result in removal from the class/program.