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20 Films That Went From Bombs to Beloved

Not every cinematic bomb remains forgettable. Sometimes, a failure is just a gemstone in disguise that will only reveal itself well past the release date.

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Film

Stop Laughing: A Difference of Laughter Between British and American Hitchcock

While Alfred Hitchcock is famous for the humor that he injected into his thrillers, there are striking differences in the humor between his British and American periods.

Film

Hitchcock 101: 1935-1938 - 'The 39 Steps' to 'The Lady Vanishes'

In Day Two of our Director Spotlight series on the Master of Suspense, we revisit the four strongest films of Alfred Hitchcock’s British period.

Film

Hitchcock's 'Blackmail' and the Birth of the British Talkies

Originally conceived as a silent film, Blackmail was quickly converted to sound, making it the first British talkie. To accommodate theaters that were not equipped for sound, it was reissued as a silent film. The differences in the two versions are here compared.

Michael Curtis Nelson
Film

Director Spotlight: Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock helped to create the modern horror genre, the modern thriller, and the modern black comedy. He changed film, even as he was inventing new ways to approach it. Stay tuned through October as we present our collection of essays on the Master of Suspense.

Film

'Psycho': The Mother of All Horrors

Psycho stands out not only for being one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest films, it is also one of his most influential. It has been a template and source material for an almost endless succession of later horror films, making it appropriate to identify it as the mother of all horror films.

Francesc Quilis
Film

Hitchcock 101: 1927 - 1934 - 'The Lodger' to 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'

In today's installment of our retrospective survey of Alfred Hitchcock's singular career, we revisit his first major statements. Thrillingly, all of Hitchcock's trademark themes and signature moves are visible in these early masterpieces -- an uncanny talent, Hitch arrived, it would seem, fully formed.

Film

Get Out of the Shower!: The Shower Scene and Hitchcock's Narrative Style in 'Psycho'

In Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock subverts the narrative expectations laid out in the early parts, producing something very different from the suspense film that we anticipate.

Despina Kakoudaki
Film

Hitchcock Breaks the Sound Barrier in Early Films 'Blackmail' and 'Murder!'

Hitchcock's motif of treacherous toying with filmgoers is intriguing to spot in his early silent-to-talkie thrillers, Blackmail and Murder!

Film

Outsmarting the Auteur: Reassigning Power in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Marnie'

A contemporary viewing of Alfred Hitchcock's 1964 film, Marnie, makes it clear: we must understand the inner workings of the male gaze and subsequently annihilate it.

Film

Film Geeks Know That Hitchcock's 'Under Capricorn' Is So Much More Than Merely a Costume Drama

For viewers into the techniques of mise-en-scène, Kino Lorber's 4k digital restoration of Hitchcock's first Technicolor film, Under Capricorn, is one dazzlement after another.

Film

The Three Faces of Hitchcock

The culture has shattered AlfredHitchcock's legacy into separate identities. We must view him as the brilliant, horrifying, innovative, monstrous composite he authentically was.

Film

Hitchcock, 'Psycho', and '78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene'

"... [Psycho] broke every taboo you could possibly think of, it reinvented the language of film and revolutionised what you could do with a story on a very precise level. It also fundamentally and profoundly changed the ritual of movie going," says 78/52 director, Alexandre O. Philippe.

Film

The Outer Beauty in Hitchcock's 'Rebecca'

British elegance and American money combined make Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca a visual delight.

Books

'Reinventing Hollywood' Educates, Illuminates and Connects Films Past and Present

David Bordwell effectively argues that the change in the era of bold, different, sometimes difficult films from the '40s made a permanent mark of cinematic storytelling that resonates to this day.

Books

Alfred Hitchcock May Be a Moralist, but He Does Not Moralize

Hitchcock’s Moral Gaze argues that Hitchcock examined the darkest edges of his characters to help his audience understand their connection with the act of watching, gazing, and sometimes not connecting.

Books

Is the Author Gaming Hitchcock? or Is He Getting Gamed by Hitchcock?

“Often when I watch a Hitchcock film in this too-close manner... I am exhausted by the strain of so much scrutinizing… my task has turned me into a freak!”

Film

Cannes 2015: 'Hitchcock/Truffaut' Looks at Great Directors' Careers

Even people familiar with both directors will find elements of Hitchcock/Truffaut surprising, especially a moment where Hitchcock seems haunted by the question of whether he might have been looser behind the camera.

Kenneth Turan
Books

Hitchcock àla Carte

Alfred Hitchcock's reputation for meticulousness in conceiving his thrillers also extended to his kitchen.

Jan Olsson
Film

The 13 Greatest Horror Directors of All Time

In honor of Halloween, here are 13 fascinating fright mavens who've made scary movies that much more meaningful.

Film

Warning! These Films Contain Madness

Attempts to update horror icons by recasting them as mere 'mistreated monsters' risk bringing them too far out of the paradoxical isolation that fuels their monstrosity.

Film

No Texas, No Chainsaw, No Massacre: The True Links in the Chain

With Texas Chainsaw 3D's release, the question of what the "True Story" (if any) really was, is catching the buzz, again.

Reviews

Mercifully, No One Sings 'Que sera, sera' in the 1934 Version of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'

Alfred Hitchcock's first take on The Man Who Knew Too Much is a marvel of cinematic economy, and full of characteristic Hitchcockian touches.

Film

Which Hitch is Which?

Perfectionist or pariah, cad or creative genius, Alfred Hitchcock is, was, and remains a cinematic legend... one that's perhaps too big to encase in a single, celluloid statement.

Film

The Pragmatic Anarchy of the Long Take

The Long Take can at once be subtle enough to be missed by the audience and astounding enough to entrance that same audience... depending on who is paying attention.

Television

'The Girl': Hitchcock's Horrors on the Set

It's helpful that Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) is so articulate when she describes her relationship with Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones). But it's also acutely disconcerting.

Film

Sight & Sound-Off: #8 - 'Man with a Movie Camera' and 'Vertigo'

Hitchcock believed in the power of images, of mixing light and shadow, color and composition to provide subtext to his characters' concerns. Dziga Vertov wanted, way back at the dawn of the artform, to push the boundaries of what the medium could be.

Books

Reshaping the Stories: 'Scripting Hitchcock'

How did Hitchcock do it, particularly considering that the sources for Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie all began as literary works that were not particularly “Hitchcockian?”

Film

Rear Window's Courtyard, Emphasized in a Short Film

As if performing careful, clinical cuts with a scalpel, visual artist Jeff Desom deconstructed the iconic backdrop of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window for a short film essay that has been shortlisted for the 2012 Vimeo Awards.

Reviews

In 'The Lady Vanishes', Hitchcock Mines Plenty of Tension from the Fairly Simple Premise

Alfred Hitchcock presents a sharp contrast between the early comic scenes at the hotel and the violent finalé. The stakes rise slowly and deliberately, which increases the ultimate effect by the end.

Film

The 100 Essential Directors Part 4: Samuel Fuller - John Huston

On our fourth day, this journey through the 100 Essential Film Directors continues to twist and turn in unexpected ways. From bold, opinionated Hollywood voices to those who essentially created the language of cinema, today will shed light on kings of genre like Samuel Fuller, through lions like the legendary John Huston.

Film

ReFramed No. 5: Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy' and 'Family Plot'

This week the Reframed crew casts its critical gaze on the late career of thriller auteur Alfred Hitchcock, finding unexpected greatness in largely uncelebrated works.

Jordan Cronk and Calum Marsh
Film

Images of Faces and Hands in 'North By Northwest'

While hand imagery in North By Northwest has a practical aim, being to show the main character’s emotional state at a given moment, the film’s face imagery has more to do with expressing an idea, the loss of identity.

Film

Insufferable Human Drama as Catalyst in 'The Birds'

Setting off even the most explosive powderkeg of human emotion would not make a flock of birds go insane and start attacking, much less this smoldering controlled burn. But such is the only line of causation the film allows its viewer.

Books

Hitchcock, Piece by Piece

Hitchcock, Piece by Piece [$45.00]

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