Hitchcock

Started by jmj, March 14, 2003, 01:28:28 PM

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(kelvin)

Quote from: MacGuffin
Quote from: chriskelvinAfter Psycho, Hitch just played around with sex and violence and tried to give the audience what it expected from him.

I disagree with that last part. If that were the case "Marnie" would have had more suspense, and not have been the complete psychological/character study that it is. He continued to go against audience's expectations and test them (along with himself). The aforementioned killing in "Torn Curtain" goes on and on and on, where Hitch wanted to show how hard it is to truly kill a person, as opposed to how easy it always looked. "Topaz" isn't really a typical Hitch picture either; it involves more politics than any of his films. It's because of the lack of audience connection, as noted by lack of box office, that he decided to let the studio influence his casting, etc., thus eventually leading him to go back to the UK. Hitch also not having his usual collaborators (his composer, his DP, his actors) let to his going back. This is why I think "Frenzy" is the best of the post-The Birds films. It's the only film that does give what the audience expects - the wrong man plot, the switch of POVs, empathizing with the killer.


You are right, I forgot Marnie and Topaz. Nonetheless, I think Hitch changed his style after Psycho, for his films became increasingly violent. I'm not criticizing this stylistic approach, I'm just trying to analyze it. I think this switch from the victim's view to the murderer's perspective is very important. In the first case, you intend to provoke fear, in the latter one, feelings of guilt. And in Marnie, the whole film is set around the perspective of the Connery character. The audience takes part in manipulating Marnie. That is extreme violence on a psychological level.

Indeed, in Torn Curtain, Hitchcock wanted to show how difficult it can be to kill a man. Yet the violence of this scene is even for Hitchcock paroxystic. And he earned quite some criticism because of his simplifying view of  East-West policies in Torn Curtain. For the same reason I don't consider Topaz as a "real" Hitchcock movie, it is an exception, a Hitchcock "bastard".

Gamblour.

Saw 39 Steps yesterday. Really really great, especially for the older Hitchcock. Hitchcock is always hit and miss with me, I love Rear Window, Psycho, 39 Steps, Rebecca, but I don't like Notorious, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train (mostly because of the ending), The Man Who Knew Too Much '56.

Anyhow, I still have plenty to see, I wanna see all the Criterions first. I was really happy with the 39 Steps, Donat was very fucking cool, the ending was so powerful, that question was just so loud! I loved it!
WWPTAD?

Vile5

"Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die." - Salvador Dalí

bonanzataz

i watched notorious again last night. there was a time when i held it lower in my position of hitchcock films, but i love it now and it is my favorite of his. what a beautiful, suspenseful, and moving piece of cinema. i love this movie. everything about it is just so perfect. i noticed lots of other people got this for xmas. want to comment?
The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil's rain we'll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, 'cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, 'cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put 'em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put 'em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

Chest Rockwell

Is the Criterion of Notorious going out of print?

MacGuffin

Quote from: Chest RockwellIs the Criterion of Notorious going out of print?

Rebecca, Notorious, Spellbound, and Straw Dogs Available For a Limited Time

Criterion's editions of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs will be available only through December 31, 2003. These titles will be out of print and unavailable come 2004. Wrong Men and Notorious Women: Five Hitchcock Thrillers 1935 - 1946 is also available only until the end of December.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Chest Rockwell

shit.....I need to get Notorious and Spellbound

cine

Hitchcock remake in works

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Screenwriter Robert Towne has struck a deal to develop a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic "The 39 Steps."

Towne, who wrote "Chinatown" and "Mission: Impossible 3," will write and direct the thriller for Carlton International Media, Daily Variety reported on its Web site Thursday.

"There is only a handful of individuals in our business with the talent, experience and insight to whom we would entrust a project of this magnitude, and Robert Towne is one of them," said Stephen Davis, Carlton America's president and chief executive officer.

Hitchcock's version of the spy film was made in 1935 and starred Robert Donat, Lucie Mannheim and Madeleine Carroll.

Carlton owns one of the world's largest catalogs of classic movies. The company's vault also includes the 1959 version starring Kenneth More and the 1978 version by Don Sharp.

godardian

As someone who thinks literal remakes (as opposed to stylisic homages like Far from Heaven) are fairly pointless and usually a bad idea, I think Towne is much too talented to be involved in one. He'll get his when they remake Chinatown, though.  :)
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Ernie

Well, I'm glad to hear he's finally going to direct, albeit something so potentially bad. He's a brilliant writer though, no question. I don't think he'll have much of a problem directing at all.

Gamblour.

Just saw Spellbound. Didn't think it was too great, I prefer when Hitchcock throws the romance aside, like Psycho, 39 Steps. Too much of that in Spellbound, I did like the dream sequence of course. Peck was damn good.
WWPTAD?

modage

Quote from: godardianHe'll get his when they remake Chinatown, though.  :)

shit the way his career is going, he'll probably be INVOLVED!  :roll:
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Chest Rockwell

I ordered the Hitchcock box set, right in time before it went out of print....boo yah

modage

Quote from: Chest RockwellI ordered the Hitchcock box set, right in time before it went out of print....boo yah

you and everyone else on this board.  now, if some of you criterion whores would get out there and pick up a few of his non-criterion superior works, we'd all be alright.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Quote from: themodernage02you and everyone else on this board.

Except those members that bought 'em separately when they first came out, and thus got shafted on the cool looking box they came in.

Quote from: themodernage02now, if some of you criterion whores would get out there and pick up a few of his non-criterion superior works, we'd all be alright.

Amen to that!
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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