STORY, LANGUAGE , LEGACY

"Self plagerism, is STYLE"

-Alfred Hitchcock

Push play if you want to listen to the score, 

i feel Bernard Herrmann´s music is appropriate.

(Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He also composed scores for many other movies, including Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Cape Fear, and Taxi Driver.)

The Alfred Hitchcock STORY

Alfred Hitchcock was the second son and the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock and Emma Jane Hitchcock. His parents were both of half-English and half-Irish ancestry. He often described a lonely and sheltered childhood worsened by his obesity. Around age five, Hitchcock said he was sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for five minutes as punishment for behaving badly.This incident not only implanted a lifetime fear of policemen in Hitchcock, but such harsh treatment and wrongful accusations would be frequent themes in his films.

After leaving school, at age 15 (when his father died), he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company called Henley's. During the First World War, Hitchcock was rejected for military service because of his obesity

Hitchcock became intrigued by photography and started working in film production, working as a title card designer for the London branch of what would become Paramount Pictures. In 1920, he received a full-time position at Islington Studios with its American owner, Famous Players-Lasky, and their British successor,Gainsborough Pictures, designing the titles for silent movies

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock,  was Born 116 years ago ( 1899-1980) is undeniably the world's most famous film director. His name has become synonymous with the cinema, and each new generation takes the same pleasure in rediscovering his films, which are now treasures of our artistic heritage. If you want to learn the cinematic language. See all his BODY OF films.

Hitchcock knew why people are drawn to a darkened theater to absorb themselves for hours  with images on a screen. They do it to have fun.

"I ve never been a believer in violence, I deliberatrely made PSYCHO in black and white to avoid showing blood running down the bathtub"

-Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock started out in the British silent cinema of the 1920s, which reached its peak with successful thrillers such as :

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934), "Sabotage" (1936) and "The Lady Vanishes" (1938). Recognized as a 'young genius', Hitchcock moved to Hollywood and set about reinventing cinematic tradition,combining the modern with the classic in films such as "Vertigo" (1957), "North by Northwest" (1959)and "The Birds" (1963). 

Hitchcock gave talented actors such as James Stewart and Cary Grant the chance to play enduring antiheroes and imprinted the public imagination with the myth of the 'blonde', as embodied by Grace Kelly, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren.

The Alfred Hitchcok LANGUAGE

We don´t give him the credit he deserves, he pushed film language, a bit further than Welles,that is the main reason why he spawned a whole other generation of filmakers( spielberg, coppola, allen, lucas, scorsese, de palma, lynch, jarmusch, tarantino, fincher,  etc ) He taught them how the camera felt a relationship with the audience.

"In the early days Griffith... he used to cross cut during a chase with the rescuer on the way, i try to avoid that and stay either with one or the other, that makes the audience sweat. I did that on The Birds."

-Alfred Hitchcock

"During my american period i became very audience  conscious."

-Alfred Hitchcock

"Suspense relates entirely to calls in a audience to go through  emotion. It is an intelectual excercise."

-Alfred Hitchcock

"Sometimes a strange angle above an actor will heighten the dramatic meaning."

-François Truffaut

Hitchcock used this theory of proximity to play with the audience!

The Alfred Hitchcok LEGACY

To me Hitchcock is a master storyteller and forever will live as a monumental piece of popular culture reference. His iconic movie shots, the sounds, the silences, the way he made the camera a character or an eye witness. His work is not dated. 

"if you look at a book, and you try to translate it, its very hard to do....good literature does not make good film, thats been shown again and again."

-Alfred Hitchcok

"I am a puritan, i am a believer in visual , FILM schools should teach the history from the beggining"

-Alfred Hitchcok

He became a house hold name, because of his kept pushing the boundries.

"It was a challenge, there were no british directors in hollywood, except  for James Whale ( Dir. Frankenstein (1931) Bride of Frankenstein (1935)Invisible Man (1933) "

-Alfred Hitchcok

"I´m not keen to be scared"

-Alfred Hitchcok

"Everything you need to know about technique is in a Hitchcock film, the way he handeled comedies and romantic scenes, suspense and fear."

-Willilam Friedkin

(Director of The Exorcist)

His work often features fugitives on the run alongside "icy blonde" female characters. 

Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of murder and other violence.
Often nicknamed "The Master of Suspense"