PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Alfred Hitchcock made films about murder and madness. Pablo Picasso saw the world in sharp angles and jarring images. And composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wove light and dark musical passages into symphonies and operas.
All were geniuses who transformed the world of music, painting and film, said speakers at Sunday's "One Day University," a half-day series of lectures at the Rhode Island Convention Center.
Deep into his Hollywood career, Hitchcock mortgaged his house to make "Psycho," a risky black and white film about a killer dominated by his dead mother.
The director of "North by Northwest," "Vertigo" and "To Catch a Thief" had earned wealth and fame. "Yet he was not satisfied," said Bard College Prof. Joseph Luzzi.
"He lived in his films," said Luzzi of Hitchcock, whose career spanned more than half a century. "And when he stopped making films, he died."
The sold-out program was sponsored by The Providence Journal and One Day University.