Robert Kapsis

Hitchcock's Worldwide Reception 

This panel draws on the new book, edited by Kapsis, Re-Viewing Hitchcock: New Critical Perspectives (February, 2026), which examines Alfred Hitchcock’s prolific career in film and television from a reception perspective. Spanning his oeuvre, the book traces how critical discourse over time—in the United States, Great Britain and worldwide—has shaped the “meaning” of Hitchcock’s works in relation to larger cultural forces. Essays address the uneven fortunes of Hitchcock’s films, from enduring classics such as The 39 Steps, Notorious and Rear Window to once-controversial works like Sabotage, Marnie and The Birds. The volume also highlights Hitchcock’s television output and expands the frame beyond Anglo-American contexts to explore reception across Europe, Asia and Latin America. By foregrounding historical reception, this collection offers a fresh lens on Hitchcock’s career, showing how shifting critical perspectives—from auteurism to feminist and queer film theory—continue to shape our understanding of his legacy.

About
Robert E. Kapsis is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Film Studies at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation (The University of Chicago Press, 1992); the e-book version was published in 2022. Shortly after its release, Kapsis created “Multimedia Hitchcock,” an innovative, interactive software project. Originally designed as a teaching tool for his college courses on Hitchcock, the project expanded into an interactive kiosk shown at MoMA, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and other museums and nonprofit organizations celebrating the Hitchcock Centennial in 1999. Kapsis is also the editor of Nichols and May: Interviews, Woody Allen: Interviews, Revised and Updated Edition (2016), Jonathan Demme: Interviews, Charles Burnett: Interviews, and Conversations with Steve Martin; and coeditor (with Kathie Coblentz) of Clint Eastwood: Interviews and Woody Allen: Interviews (2006). Kapsis’s work on Hitchcock and “the Hitchcockian” has been featured in many publications and venues, including the New York Times, Oxford University Press’s American National Biography, American Film, The Sociological Quarterly, Hitchcock Annual, Cineaste, The Nation, and the Village Voice. It also influenced the production of documentaries about Hitchcock, including those for the BBC, PBS’s American Masters series, Universal’s Dial H for Hitchcock: The Genius Behind the Showman, and promotional materials for a Hitchcock stamp from the United States Postal Service. Kapsis’s latest book, Re-viewing Hitchcock: New Critical Perspectives, is an anthology conceived and edited by him, sponsored by the BFI, and scheduled for publication by Bloomsbury in February 2026. He is also working on a book about Hitchcock’s posthumous reputation, which Bloomsbury will publish. Leland Faust, his co-author, has been the Chief Executor and Trustee of the Hitchcock Family Trust since 1980.