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Tea and Scones Suspense: Hitchcock's "English" Movies of the Early 1940s
Although Hitchcock left Great Britain for the United States in 1939, his first two films -- Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941) -- nonetheless remained set firmly in English culture. His depictions helped craft perceptions of English life for decades to come.
Farisa Khalid
17 Oct 2019
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.
15 Oct 2019
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.
15 Oct 2019
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
15 Oct 2019
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.
14 Oct 2019
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
14 Oct 2019
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.
14 Oct 2019
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
13 Oct 2019
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!
11 Sep 2019
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.
08 Feb 2019
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.
13 Jul 2018
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.
24 Apr 2018
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.
18 Dec 2017
Film
The Outer Beauty in Hitchcock's 'Rebecca'
British elegance and American money combined make Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca a visual delight.
09 Nov 2017
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.
06 Nov 2017
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.
11 Apr 2017
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!”
21 Dec 2016
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
26 May 2015
Books
Hitchcock àla Carte
Alfred Hitchcock's reputation for meticulousness in conceiving his thrillers also extended to his kitchen.
Jan Olsson
19 Mar 2015
Reviews
Truffaut Channels Hitchcock and Chabrol in 'The Soft Skin'
This is a cold film where it's clear something is always wrong, but no one can quite piece together what it is.
12 Mar 2015
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.
13 Jun 2013
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.
04 Feb 2013
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.
17 Jan 2013
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.
19 Nov 2012
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.
08 Nov 2012
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.
20 Oct 2012
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.
22 Aug 2012
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?”
19 Jun 2012
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.
03 May 2012
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.
12 Jan 2012
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.
11 Aug 2011
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
13 Jul 2011
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.
30 Mar 2011
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.
18 Jan 2011
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