Danger, Suspense and Deception: The Best of Alfred Hitchcock - a ZOOM 4-week joint course with Penobscot Valley Senior College (PVSC) and Acadia Senior College (ASC)
Thursdays January 9, 16, 23, 30 10:00 - 11:30 AM
Minimum: 10 Maximum: 50
This course cannot be recorded due to copyright law.
In his legendary career as a director, Alfred Hitchcock created dense, suspenseful films filled with flawed heroes, charming villains and moral ambiguity. In this four-week online course, we’ll consider some of Hitchcock’s very best films, focusing on two films each week that share a common theme. Students should watch the films on their own; in class, we’ll look at brief film clips and discuss key elements. Whether you’ve enjoyed Hitchcock films for many years or you’re just discovering them, this is a chance to go deeper into the mind of a brilliant, complicated man and the surprising, confounding, entertaining world he created on film.
Instructor: Jay Sherwin
PVSC welcomes back Jay Sherwin, who taught for PVSC and ACS on Zoom
Jay Sherwin is a write and consultant who has been watching, studying and enjoying Hitchcock films for decades. He created a walking tour of Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco that attracts Hitchcock fans from around the world, and he loves to share his obsession with fellow film lovers everywhere. Jay has taught this online course for adult learning programs nationwide.
List of themes and films:
Week 1: Good and Bad Alter Egos
Shadow of a Doubt and Strangers on a Train
Week 2: Victims of Circumstance
The 39 Steps and North by Northwest
Week 3: "Bad Girls" and Redeeming Heroes
Notorious and Marnie
Week 4: The Trouble with Mothers
Psycho (plus a revisit to Notorious and Marnie)
From : Jay Sherwin
I hope that many students will watch the films on their own, before we discuss them in class. However, if students don't have time to watch all of them in advance, that's okay -- I've tried to design the course to be fun and interesting, even if people haven't seen the films or haven't seen them lately.
As I mentioned, all seven films are available to rent online through Vudu or Amazon Prime Video. The rental price is around $3.99 per film. Two of the films (The 39 Steps and Notorious) are also available to watch for free (with ads) on Tubi. All seven films are on DVD. For folks who need subtitles, they can choose that option when they rent the films online or watch them on DVD.Some of these movies are also available through the Minerva interlibrary loan from various libraries in the state.