Table of Contents

Introduction; 1: Science, Technology and Hitchcock; 2: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Physics; 3: Neurocinematics and Hitchcock's theory of suspense; 4: Three "Princes of Dark Energy": Uncle Charlie, Bruno, and Norman Bates; 5: Space and Place; 6: Vertigo and Psycho - The shower and the bell tower; Conclusion; Filmography; Bibliography; Index

Promotional Information

Applying theories from science and technology, this innovative study of Hitchcock's art seeks to explain the extraordinary power of his films.

Promotional Information

Applying theories from science and technology, this innovative study of Hitchcock's art seeks to explain the extraordinary power of his films.

About the Author

Philip J. Skerry is Professor Emeritus at Lakeland Community College, Ohio, USA, and is the author of Psycho in the Shower: The History of Cinema’s Most Famous Scene (2009), as well as numerous articles for scholarly journals. He lives with his wife Amy, a therapist, in Beachwood, Ohio, USA.

Reviews

In the end, Dark Energy has the considerable virtue of raising questions not only about the value of the particular scientific analogies he develops but of the value of argument by analogy in general.
*Hitchcock Annual*

Throughout the book, Skerry's enthusiasm is obvious, both for Hitchcock and for popular cosmology. Aficionados of Hitchcock will find new language with which to marvel, and those humanists with an interest in physics will find inviting ways to engage landmark theories of the last century.
*Cinema Journal*

To link Einstein with cinema and Hitchcock with modern physics is a daring experiment, and works on many levels. It is delightful for a physicist (and Hitchcock fan) to see terms like spacetime, antimatter, dark energy, black hole, entropy, etc. turn up as metaphors in a Hitchcock study. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
*Nandor Bokor, Lecturer in the Department of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary*

The 20th Century scientific theories of relativity, quantum mechanics and cosmology substantially changed the way we view the world. In interweaving these revolutions and their implications with the concurrent emergence of moving images as the predominant means of cultural expression, exemplified by their arguably greatest artist and innovator, Phil Skerry does much more than find a fresh angle on the depth in light and dark, the order and chaos in Hitchcock’s visual storytelling. Always careful to emphasize that his approach implies the application of universal scientific truths only as metaphors to the most comprehensive (and, as Skerry argues, indeed spatiotemporal art form), he yet paints a bigger and most intriguing picture on how the 20th century zeitgeist was shaped through seeing the world differently, both in science and cinema. A most engrossing read, admirably aiming to bridge the regrettable modern gap between sciences and arts, via the genius of the likes of Einstein and Hitchcock, and finding nothing less than philosophy therein.
*Ulrich Ruedel, Conservation Technology Manager at British Film Institute National Archive, UK*