Nathan Seckinger

Esoteric Realism in Three Masters of Suspense: Hitchcock, Kubrick and Lynch

This presentation proposes that Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch were all engaged in a shared philosophical project: exploring the problem of evil through encoded cosmologies implicit in their work. Through distinctive constructions of narrative, symbol and mise en scène, each director proposed a different manner by which the natural universe might impose moral expectations, suggesting forms of natural justice woven into reality’s fabric without necessary reference to conventional theology or religious doctrine. Employing the language of cinematic realism to grapple with transcendental concerns—agency, causality and moral consequence—their films create an intertextual space that invites reflection on a counterbalance to the problem of evil: a cosmic dimension of hope for the possibility of moral order amidst darkness. This approach encourages a reconsideration of their legacy as metaphysicians of image and sound, whose works probed the ethical architecture of a mysterious and possibly sentient universe.

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