Hitchcock - master of suspense

[crystal75]

What's your favourite Hitchcock film?

For me, it has to be Rear Window, followed by Psycho.

His themes were far ahead of their time and watching them now, you get the feeling they must have been pretty risque for the time.

It's shameful that he never won an Oscar.

[Jonesy]

Unfortunately it's the automated swear blocker. You have to write Hitchc0ck like this, however daft it looks. I'll try and edit your title for you.

Vertigo is my favourite, followed closely by The 39 Steps. Hitchc0ck's films never age. His best are superb pieces of cinema.

[Roba Fett]

I was lucky enough to catch The 39 Steps at the cinema recently which was a delight. Vertigo is my favourite too with Psycho and Rear Window close behind. I also have a soft spot for Rope which is very well made and holds your attention despite the whole film being set in one apartment.

[peterraul]

i have a 'soft spot' for 'The Trouble with Harry'
well ahead of its time

[samjeffrey]

Im doing a piece of work for my A2 film presentation and im looking for opinions with reasoning to your answers. I decided to investigate this question because i look at different directors of the same era, such as Billy Wilder, and i cant help but prefer their work and feel they deserve more respect than Alfred Hitchcock.

so what do you think...is Alfred Hitchcock overrated?

[drg40]

As no-one else has answered I offer you my two-pennorth.

I would say he was not overrated. I think some of the scenes from his films are enduring masterpieces: the huge feeling of emptiness in the aircraft scene from N by NW, for example, with straight roads stretching away to infinity and a sense of total isolation; the seedy tawdriness of assignations in scruffy hotel rooms and dirty motels and the sense of threat from diving for mile after mile through the cold rain in Psycho; the imprisonment of a man with a broken leg trapped in a small hotel room with only a small window for entertainment, through which he imagines murder; the Mount Rushmore climb scene.

Of course Hitch**** overestimated his special effects in the birds, some of which simply doesn't work, but in a period where the mafia or the McCarthy/NIxon hearings frequently dictated who worked and who didn't, as well a innumerable highly vaunted actresses whose major skill was associated with the casting couch or sleeping with the studio boss, Hitch**** seems to have led a fairly ordinary life. He also largely avoided making films which were simply lies told on behalf of this pressure group or that part of governemt, which has to be a major point in his favour.

[drg40]

sorry diving=driving, and of all the words in my note, I would have thought Hitchcoack (misspelt to get through), was the mildest.:-)

[SuperCherry75]

I think it could be worthwhile you exploring the possibility that some may think he is over rated simply because he was popular. It doesn't however, detract from extremely innovative film making that was Hitchcoock's (new spelling there) trademark.

Good luck with your assignment

[bg110]

Hitch****, along with Scorsese, Spielberg, Fellini, Bergman, Coppola, Welles, and Wilder, is the film equivalent of Shakespeare.

He helped change the grammar of film by inventing/innovating camera angles, editing techniques (Psycho is a case study by itself), creating countless memorable set pieces, and breaking down action sequences to create suspense. He also dealt with many complex themes. In Vertigo, for example, he deals with romantic obsessions and sexuality within the context of a murder mystery.

And let's not forget that he was great with actors (even though he didn't respect them as much as his contemporaries). James Stewart, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Eva Marie Saint, Grace Kelly, James Mason, and many other legends delivered some of their best performances in Hitch****'s films.

Cinema would not be the same without him.

[Jonesy]

Which genre? Hitchcock filmed a variety of genres.