Event—Scholarly Seminars

Charles Palermo, College of William and Mary

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Meaning Marnie

How did Alfred Hitchcock think about meaning in Hollywood film? There are several challenges to consider. Are such works as commodities—work for hire, produced to appeal to an audience, rather than to express authorial intention? What about the author’s absence in the final product. Film’s photographic basis indexes the world it projects, but maybe not the filmmaker’s intention. Hitchcock’s Marnie has been held up as an epitome of auteurism and of his thematization of the enunciation. This paper reads photographic and economic themes in Marnie that show Hitchcock reflecting on Hollywood cinema as a vehicle for expression.