Courses in London & Online

Already a director of note, the critical reception of The Lodger and Blackmail saw Hitchcock recognised as a major filmmaker, one whose style was best demonstrated in the suspense film, the cinematic form with which he would subsequently always be associated. Explore two key early works from the 'master of suspense', their striking use of montage and, in one, a bold to approach to sound.  

Defining cinema in the 1940s, the film noir style is usually associated with the crime and detective thriller, but the style can also be found in many horror films of the period. Explore horror-noir classics such as The Wolf Man (1941), Cat People (1942), I Walked With a Zombie (1943) and many others, and the ways in which they reveal an intersection of these generic and stylistic traditions.

The noir style had dominated the American crime thriller during the 1940s, but by the late 1950s it was clear that the industry was no longer interested in producing such films. Explore how, after 1960, the dark thriller reconfigured its look and themes in films such as Cape Fear (1962), Point Blank (1967) and Chinatown (1974) in response to both evolving production strategies and audiences.