Alfred Hitchcock and the monstrous gaze

The films of the British-born director Alfred Hitchcock may be seen today as launching a radical and seminal exploration of many of the central existential and psychological preoccupations that came to dominate European cultural philosophy and avant-garde cinema in the second half of the twentieth century. Although often remembered (for the films he made in the United States)as a commercially successful Hollywood director, Hitchcock began his career making films in Britain and Germany,and later found his artistic genius first recognized by such French cinephiles as André Bazin, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut.