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Patricia Highsmith on Screen pp 61–80Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Strangers on a Park Bench: From Patricia Highsmith to Alfred Hitchcock to Woody Allen

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture ((PSADVC))

Abstract

Critics of Woody Allen’s 2015 film Irrational Man have commented on its echoing of themes treated in his previous films, most notably Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Match Point (2005). Others have found the film to be reminiscent of the works of Patricia Highsmith and Alfred Hitchcock. This chapter explores the exact trajectories that allow us to read Allen’s Irrational Man against the backdrop of Highsmith’s novel Strangers on a Train as well as Hitchcock’s 1951 eponymous movie adaptation. While Allen’s film is not an adaptation of Highsmith’s novel in the narrow sense, Irrational Man reveals a subtle and intricate relationship to it.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Passau, Regensburg, Germany

    Klara Stephanie Szlezák

Authors
  1. Klara Stephanie Szlezák
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Correspondence to Klara Stephanie Szlezák .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Wieland Schwanebeck

  2. Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL, USA

    Douglas McFarland

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Szlezák, K.S. (2018). Strangers on a Park Bench: From Patricia Highsmith to Alfred Hitchcock to Woody Allen. In: Schwanebeck, W., McFarland, D. (eds) Patricia Highsmith on Screen. Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96050-0_4

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