For most film scholars and movie critics, Alfred Hitchcock continues to be regarded as one of the most influential and significant filmmakers in the history of world cinema. New Canaan Library is pleased to welcome Yale University Senior Lecturer of Film & Media Studies, Marc Lapadula, who will present an in depth and look at the consummate ‘master of suspense’ by focusing on his psychological thriller masterpiece Psycho (1960). The live webinar will take place on Thursday, April 14 at 7 PM EST. Please register at newcanaanlibrary.org for Zoom information.
Professor Lapadula recommends watching the film prior to the talk if possible but if not, there will be several film clips shown during the presentation.

Cultivating a career that spanned six decades, Alfred Hitchcock found himself anointed the undisputed “Master of Suspense” with a slew of gripping films that quite literally glued audience members to the edges of their seats. So it may come as a surprise to many that beneath the shocking surface images lurked a multi-dimensional artist who went out of his way to devise complex and richly layered subtexts in all his movies. These subtexts masked a sophisticated and daring artistic ambition that he has never been given full credit for.
Marc Lapadula is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at Yale University where he runs and teaches the screenwriting program. He is a playwright, screenwriter and an award-winning film producer. In addition to Yale, Marc has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate Film School and created the screenwriting programs at both the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins where he won Outstanding Teaching awards. He has lectured on a wide range of classic and contemporary films nationally as well as in Canada, England and Mexico. His presentations have been held at many notable venues such as The National Press Club, The Smithsonian Institution, The Commonwealth Club, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Toronto Jewish Film Festival, The New York Historical Society and The Festival of Ideas in Mexico City among others. He produced the film, ANGEL PASSING, starring Hume Cronyn and Teresa Wright, which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival and won, among many other awards, the grand prize at Worldfest Houston. Other movies he produced include MENTOR, starring Rutger Hauer, which premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival.