Christina Brennan
Dr. Christina Brennan is a British film historian with a particular love of classic cinema, thrillers, and international film. She has written and spoken widely about film history, including Alfred Hitchcock, film noir and European cinema, and is the author of a book on the acclaimed 1988 thriller The Vanishing. Her work has appeared in a range of film publications and for organisations including the British Film Institute and the British National Science and Media Museum.
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Alfred Hitchcock: The Master Of Suspense
Few filmmakers have shaped cultural experiences of suspense in cinema as profoundly as Alfred Hitchcock. This lecture traces Hitchcock’s career from his early British films, including The Lodger (1927) and The 39 Steps (1935), to Hollywood classics including Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), and Psycho (1960). Along the way, this lecture will explore Hitchcock’s fascination with guilt, voyeurism and the ordinary person suddenly caught up in extraordinary danger. We will also look behind the camera at Hitchcock’s distinctive visual style, which helped make him one of the most recognisable directors in film history.
Shadows And Secrets: An Introduction To Film Noir
Film noir is a genre that has created some of Hollywood’s most distinctive images, including private detectives prowling rain-soaked streets and shadowy nightclubs to uncover dangerous crows. This lecture explores the emergence of noir during the 1940s and 1950s through formative films such as Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon and Sunset Boulevard. We will look at the genre’s morally ambiguous characters and its connections to the anxieties of wartime and post-war America whilst also considering how film noir tropes travel beyond Hollywood.
Women Who Made Classic Hollywood
The history of Hollywood is usually told through its famous male directors and studio bosses, but women were central to the development of American cinema from the early 20th-century. This lecture introduces pioneering filmmakers, writers, and stars whose work helped shape the movies that audiences came to love. From silent-era director Lois Weber (1879-1939) and screenwriter Frances Marion (1888-1973) to figures such as Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) and Ida Lupino (1918–1995), this lecture will uncover careers that offer a different way of looking at Hollywood history and at women who created the dream factory.