Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Inspired by actual events, motivated by its director’s fear of cinematic mortality, and made on a shoestring budget, Psycho (1960) would go on to become one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best-known films — and arguably his most influential. Always a skilled visual stylist who often walked the line between suggestive and salacious, Hitchcock pushed the envelope with Psycho, a film that frustrated censors, challenged critics, and enthralled audiences. And while the director’s name, his clever marketing and the film’s appealing stars (Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh) undoubtedly did much to entice moviegoers, what kept audiences coming — and Psycho alive in popular culture for over 60 years — are the bold techniques (even by Hitchcock standards) in editing, scoring, composition and more through which the themes of guilt, voyeurism and the danger of everyday places — like that motel shower — come to life.
This presentation is part of Andrew Douglas's Language of Film series.
Andrew J. Douglas
Andrew J. Douglas
Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., is the deputy director at Bryn Mawr Film Institute (BMFI), a nonprofit film center outside Philadelphia. Previously, he was BMFI’s founding director of education, having joined the organization in July 2005, four months after its opening. He also educates thousands of students about film each year through classroom visits and during field trips to BMFI, and he presents film lectures and programs to thousands of adults at a range of institutions and organizations in the region.
Douglas has spoken at several colleges and universities, including Bryn Mawr, Penn State, Muhlenberg, Johns Hopkins and Yale. He has also been invited to give talks before a few of Philadelphia’s artistic and cultural organizations, including University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Institute of Contemporary Art and The Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition, he has taught classes in partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Douglas greatly enjoys the films of Alfred Hitchcock, David Fincher, David Mamet and Michael Mann, and he counts among his all-time favorites The Awful Truth (1937), Strangers on a Train (1951), The Untouchables (1987), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), The Fugitive (1993) and The Social Network (2010). He has held a real Oscar, been used as an excuse for his grandmother to meet Robert Redford and was dressed down by Harrison Ford, whom Douglas still thinks is America’s greatest living movie star.
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