Early Hitchcock (his "British period") was awesome.
Hitchcock was like John Woo and Paul Verhoven, in that he was a foreign director working on very small budgets who got the attention of Hollywood because his stuff was so amazing-looking, so they brought him over (like with Woo or Verhoven) to see what he could do with real Hollywood resources. The immediate result was Rebecca (A David O. Selznick extravaganza -- Selznick had just made Gone With The Wind and was basically the Joel Silver of the late 30s) with Olivier and Joan Fontaine; Olivier got an Oscar. Then Hitch had nowhere to go but up and he became basically the proto-Spielberg, making perfectly-crafted smash-hit popcorn movies with the biggest stars of each decade that were beloved by critics and picked apart in academia.
But go back before all of that to the Brit movies and you get absolute gems like The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes which show you his early pictorial and narrative genius in its raw, black-and-white form.
(I'm a big Hitchcock fan in case this wasn't clear. But who isn't?)
Also check this After Effects Rear Window assembly; pretty mind-blowing.
http://vimeo.com/37120554
April 05, 2012 9:49 AM
[Image] Alfred Hitchcock in his apprenticeship on the set of The Mountain Eagle (1926). Also in the photo is his future wife, Alma Reville. Image Credit: guardian.co.uk
This early photograph of Alfred Hitchcock makes me laugh because he just looks so enthusiastic.
"Hitch"
2 Comments -
Early Hitchcock (his "British period") was awesome.
Hitchcock was like John Woo and Paul Verhoven, in that he was a foreign director working on very small budgets who got the attention of Hollywood because his stuff was so amazing-looking, so they brought him over (like with Woo or Verhoven) to see what he could do with real Hollywood resources. The immediate result was Rebecca (A David O. Selznick extravaganza -- Selznick had just made Gone With The Wind and was basically the Joel Silver of the late 30s) with Olivier and Joan Fontaine; Olivier got an Oscar. Then Hitch had nowhere to go but up and he became basically the proto-Spielberg, making perfectly-crafted smash-hit popcorn movies with the biggest stars of each decade that were beloved by critics and picked apart in academia.
But go back before all of that to the Brit movies and you get absolute gems like The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes which show you his early pictorial and narrative genius in its raw, black-and-white form.
(I'm a big Hitchcock fan in case this wasn't clear. But who isn't?)
April 05, 2012 9:37 AM
Also check this After Effects Rear Window assembly; pretty mind-blowing.
http://vimeo.com/37120554
April 05, 2012 9:49 AM