“Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, appreciation, encouragement and the occasional hearty meal.”
-Alfred Hitchcock, March 7, 1979
Alfred Hitchcock changed the face of film all over the world. He elevated horror and mystery from typical genre to artistic genius.
How did he do it?
For one thing, more than any director before him, he was in charge of everything while making a movie: plot, costumes, script, music, and cinematography. He never looked through the camera while shooting a movie, because he knew exactly how the scene should look. He always paid careful attention to detail.
For example, in Vertigo, when he told the costume designer that the character of Madeleine in Vertigo had to wear gray, the costume designer explained to him that blondes don’t wear gray, because it doesn’t look right. Hitchcock simply told her that was exactly what he wanted.
Hitchcock was born in London on August 13, 1899. He went to a Jesuit school, the St. Ignatius College, and then to the School of Engineering and Navigation, because at the time he wanted to be an engineer. He and his family went to the theater often. Hitchcock always preferred the American movies to the British ones, because the American films were more light-hearted than the British.
Hitchcock’s greatest impact on modern film was his handling of suspense. Hitchcock said that mystery is seldom as suspenseful as it could be. He thought that the audience could feel suspense for the villain if the villain was in danger. Hitchcock always thought of the audience when he made his movies.
Hitchcock directed his first “Hitchcock Movie,” a first bona fide thriller, in 1926. It was called The Lodger, based on the novel by Belloc Lowdes. Blackmail was Hitchcock’s first major British talkie, made in 1929.
Hitchcock directed fifty-three films in his lifetime and, despite the fact that he directed some of the most famous movie classics, he never received an Oscar.
Roger Ebert described Vertigo as one of the best films Hitchcock ever made. Vertigo, which was released in 1958, is about a man who falls in love with a woman who does not exist. He finds another woman and tries to mold her into the woman he desires. When he discovers he was tricked into participating in a murder plot, the universal emotions that Hitchcock brought to all his movies – fear, guilt, passion, grief and lust – are brought together in his unique, dynamic style to create edgy, suspenseful drama.
Ebert believed Hitchcock to be one of the most controlling director, especially of female characters. His heroines were usually icy, remote and ultimately humiliated.
Robin Wood also wrote about Vertigo in one of his books, Hithchcock’s Films, in which he claims that Hitchcock’s controlled directing of Kim Novak, as Judy, is flawed because she is too unemotional. But besides that one flaw, Wood says that Vertigo is an almost perfect movie, using form and technique to represent the tragedy of the human condition.
According to Francois Truffaut, also a famous film director, Hitchcock excelled at filming fear, because he himself was a fearful person. In order to create the perfect films he had in his mind, he made sure that he knew everybody else’s job even better than they did. In a way, his fears and insecurities made him a perfectionist.
Although reviewers and writers try to interpret Hitchcock and his films, it is impossible to know what Hitchcock was truly like. Seeing the variety of his movies, one gets the picture of a complex man. Though he is known to direct shocking thrillers and mysteries, many of Hitchcock’s films are humorous. Why, for instance, does he sign every one of his movies with his brief appearance, sometimes so brief he can hardly be recognized? This could be because of profound egotism, psychological disturbance, or just for laughs.
Tags: alfred hitchcock, roger ebert, vertigo