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

Alfred Hitchcock and the cinema grew up together. Born in 1899, four years after the first ‘official’ film showing in Paris, Hitchcock demonstrated an early fascination with the new art of the cinema. He entered the film industry in 1920, and by 1925, he had directed his first feature-length film, The Pleasure Garden. His subsequent film career paralleled the phenomenal growth of the film industry during the years 1925-1976, the year of his last film. In the same way, Hitchcock’s films are consonant with the revolutionary theories in the fields of physics and cosmology that were transforming the twentieth century, personified by the genius of Albert Einstein. Philip Skerry’s book applies the theories of dark energy, entropy, black holes, and quantum mechanics to Hitchcock’s technological genius and camera aesthetics, helping to explain the concept of ‘pure cinema’ and providing verification for its remarkable power. Including interviews with influential physicists, this study opens up new ways of analyzing Hitchcock’s art.

"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