09/05/2026
Transylvania Arts Council is excited to be continuing our Classic Cinema Appreciation series with Mark Hall, who will lead us in an exploration of three very different films by Alfred Hitchcock. Each class will meet on the second Wednesday of the month from 6:00 to 8:30 PM.
This Wednesday, September 9, Mark will discuss Hitchcock's 1946 masterpiece, Notorious, made three years after Shadow of a Doubt in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Ingrid Bergman plays the daughter of a convicted N**i agent, recruited by the American government to infiltrate a circle of her father's old associates in Rio de Janeiro. Cary Grant is the man who recruits her. Claude Rains is the man she is sent to charm, in a performance that earned him an Academy Award nomination. What begins as a spy story becomes something far more uncomfortable - a love story in which the person who loves her most actively pushes her into mortal danger because of duty. It also contains what many people consider the single most famous camera movement in Hitchcock's work, and we will take our time with it.
Participants are encouraged to watch the complete film independently before or after the class. These evenings will be structured as cinema appreciation classes, not film screenings or movie nights. Mark will use selected scenes as the basis for teaching, analysis, and discussion, examining Hitchcock’s visual storytelling, camera placement, editing, use of suspense, character psychology, and recurring themes.
No prior knowledge of Hitchcock or film studies is required - only curiosity and an interest in how films create meaning through images, sound, performance, and editing! Donations are optional but appreciated. To reserve your seat, please contact the Arts Council at 828-884-2787 or [email protected].
Wed, September 9: Notorious (1946)
Wed, October 14: The Trouble with Harry (1955)
❤️
