Hitchcock and Twentieth-Century Cinema

"Hitchcock and twentieth-century cinema looks at the work, influences, legacy and style of one of cinema's most famous directors. Alfred Hitchcock worked in Britain and America, in silent and sound films, and through and beyond the studio system, all the time appealing to mass audiences while employing his own distinctive style. This book examines how he produced films that challenged key notions of acting, sexuality, mise-en-scene and narrative convention. It contends that Hitchcock can be seen as a matrix-figure who absorbed much of the first decades of cinema and in turn greatly influenced film noir, the French New Wave, and directors as innovative as David Lynch, Roman Polanski and Wong Kar-Wai, and whose legacy is still evident in the work of contemporary filmmakers all around the world."--Jacket.