The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock

Christine Madrid French’s cross-over exploration of film and architecture is the first to look at buildings as a character in Hitchcock’s most popular movies and the director as an architect himself. In Psycho, Rear Window, The Birds, and Vertigo, Hitchcock and his team featured American structures (both real and imagined) that captured the minds of people across the globe.  The fictional Vandamm House, designed for the iconic Mt. Rushmore scenes in North by Northwest, ingeniously established the prototype of the cinematic trope of the villain’s lair.

Hitchcock manipulated our collective memory and the language of building design to create constructed expressions of human emotions, including love, envy, and the killer instinct. He was driven by an intense engagement with location and architectural form, picturing buildings not only as scenic devices but as interactive participants. For Hitchcock, the parts of a structure represent humanity and all its complications: Windows are the eyes into the soul, a stairway is a spine between the heart and mind, and a door permits entry into subliminal perceptions. His buildings—including the maternal Victorian mansion and naughty motel along the old highway in Psycho, the avian-infested Bodega Bay schoolhouse in The Birds, and the deadly skyscrapers and towers of Vertigo—illuminate the uncertain relationships we hold inside our own minds, with the built world around us, and between each other.

Christine is a historian, author, and creative producer specializing in story telling and immersive experiences within documentary, historical fiction, suspense, horror, and true crime genres. Her book The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock,(University of Virginia Press, 2022), debuted at #1 for Architectural History books on Amazon and was featured in the Oct. 2022 issue of Vanity Fair.  A book signing will follow. https://madridfrench.com

The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock >> YouTube

This event qualifies for 1 AIA/CES Learning Units (LU).

$15

Things to Know
This event is for ages 12 and older.
The entrance to the Annenberg Theater is located behind the Annenberg Theater Box Office, adjacent to the Palm Springs Art Museum's North Parking Lot.
Ample free public parking is available in the multi-level public garage across from the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Handicap parking is available. This event is wheelchair accessible.
The organizer of this event is Modernism Week.

Event Check-in Location 
Annenberg Theater,  Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 N. Museum Dr., Palm Springs, CA 92262
View Map
 

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Author, Courtesy of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Courtesy University of Virginia Press, Illustration by The Red Dress, Screenrant, Dreamstime