Early Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense in the U.K.

Instructor: Andre Puca

Wednesdays at 6:30pm (please note that this is an evening class)

Wednesdays, August 1—August 29 (5 sessions)

Cost: $120/members and students, $150/public

Most people, even cinephiles, know Alfred Hitchcock as the pioneering director behind American cinematic classics like Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds. But perhaps less familiar to the same people are the masterpieces of his British career. If you are such a person, or if you’ve been meaning to give Hitchcock’s British films a watch but haven’t yet, then this is the course for you. Over the span of 5 weeks, come chart the evolution of Hitchcock's style during the first phase of his career when he became the most famous director in the UK. The course addresses Hitchcock’s most well-respected British silent and sound films, including the classic The 39 Steps, before he immigrated to the United States to work in Hollywood. Join professor Andre Puca at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and familiarize yourself with a selection of Hitchcock’s masterworks from the first 20 years of his career to discover exactly why/how the “master of suspense” earned this enduring and well-deserved title.

About the Instructor

Andre Puca received his B.A. in English from Cornell University, after which he earned his MFA in Film Studies from Boston University. He is a Senior Affiliated Faculty member at Emerson College, where he teaches courses on film and media studies. He has also taught film studies courses at Babson College as a Visiting Lecturer and presented papers at a number of film studies conferences in the U.S. As a citizen of Italy and a fluent speaker of Italian, Andre has spent a great deal of time travelling back and forth between the United States and his home country. As a result, he brings an intimate knowledge of Italian dialects, language, culture and history to the course. And while his primary research interest includes the history of American independent cinema, his most recent publication featured in The Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies was about the sadly overlooked Italian comedian and director, Massimo Troisi. This is his second Coolidge Education class.