A Lecture with Respect to Thought-Provoking Images and Sounds Dedicated to Aaron Bushnell

Jalal Toufic: “If Hitchcock met with success, not only popular but also critical and academic, it was not, notwithstanding Godard (“if Alfred Hitchcock has been the only 𝘱𝘰è𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘵 to achieve success, it is because he was the greatest creator of forms of the twentieth century”), because he was the greatest creator of forms of the twentieth century—there have been many greater creators of forms among twentieth century painters (Francis Bacon, etc.), filmmakers (Tarkovsky, Parajanov, Sokurov, Bokanowski, Brothers Quay, etc.), etc.—but rather because he compromised, was not radical enough, thus made films that are partial artistic failures, as implied by the many remakes and other reworkings of his films by other filmmakers and artists, including me (𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘝𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘰 [2016]), and by the remake he did of one of his films, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘒𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘛𝘰𝘰 𝘔𝘶𝘤𝘩  (1934 and 1956)—one could view Gus van Sant’s Psycho (1998), largely a “shot-for-shot remake,” as unconsciously implying that Hitchcock’s 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰 is, exceptionally among his films, not a partial artistic failure since it did not require a revision in the form of a (significantly) variant remake.”

In his lecture, Toufic will elaborate on his explicit and implicit variations on some of Hitchcock’s films. 

With a passion for Hitchcock rivaling Scottie’s for Madeleine, Jalal Toufic strips and redresses five of the director’s films, weaving them together and plucking out unexpected insights at their crossroads. Not since Chris Marker’s 𝘓𝘢 𝘑𝘦𝘵é𝘦 has kleptomania yielded such rich invention.

Joan Copjec, Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, author of 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘺 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦: 𝘓𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 and 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘕𝘰 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯: 𝘌𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯