Fear of Falling
Introduction to the book 'Alfred Hitchcock. The Complete Films', by Paul Duncan
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He preferred to paint broad strokes when explaining his work - he said that The Birds was about "too much complacency in the world: that people are unaware that catastrophe surrounds us all." Many friends attribute Hitchcock's reluctance to talk in detail about his work as an indication that he did not understand his own films, that he lacked self-knowledge. Rather than analyse his own work, he delighted in titillating his readers with references to the sexual undertones of his films like the recurring fetish of handcuffs and the delicious sexual pleasures behind the icy exteriors of his blonde female characters. The copious interviews, including François Truffaut's reverential booklong interview, reveal little about Hitchcock's personal concerns. He expresses no spiritual or political opinions. I suspect that Hitchcock's innate need for privacy and control would have been compromised if he had revealed his innermost desires in the public arena, so he simply used his wit and store of anecdotes to deflect attention away from the substance of his life.
Hitchcock had three personas: public , professional and private. The public persona was the practical joker and cynical clown, who appeared on film posters, in cameos within the films and in introductions to his long-running TV show. John Russell Taylor, Hitc hcock's friend and offic ial biographer, wrote that Hitc hcock's professional persona 'turns all his energies to the preparation of a film, calculates everything in advance down to the last detail and throws himself totally into the meticulous realisation of his plans; the man of routine and strict discipline, the still centre of confident purposefulness on set, the man who never has to raise his voice, never show anger, to the extent that he believes he cannot even feel anger.' Hitchcock's private persona was a quiet family man, who went to church every Sunday with his daughter, who completely adored his wife, who collected original art by Paul Klee, Walter Sickert and others, who was proud of his wine collection and who tried out all the best restaurants before settling on one and sticking to it.
Although he worked with a restricted palette of emotions, Hitchcock mastered his film-making craft as only a few before him. His subject was suspense and he tried to construct plots so that the audience were kept in a state of suspense for as long a period as possible. He explained the mechanics of suspense quite succinctly: "If you touch off a bomb, your audience gets a ten-second shock. But if the audience knows that the bomb has been planted, then you can build up the suspense and keep them in a state of expectation for five minutes." Hitchcock was, without doubt, the best architect of anxiety the cinema has ever seen but does this skill alone merit his reputation?
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
He preferred to paint broad strokes when explaining his work - he said that The Birds was about "too much complacency in the world: that people are unaware that catastrophe surrounds us all." Many friends attribute Hitchcock's reluctance to talk in detail about his work as an indication that he did not understand his own films, that he lacked self-knowledge. Rather than analyse his own work, he delighted in titillating his readers with references to the sexual undertones of his films like the recurring fetish of handcuffs and the delicious sexual pleasures behind the icy exteriors of his blonde female characters. The copious interviews, including François Truffaut's reverential booklong interview, reveal little about Hitchcock's personal concerns. He expresses no spiritual or political opinions. I suspect that Hitchcock's innate need for privacy and control would have been compromised if he had revealed his innermost desires in the public arena, so he simply used his wit and store of anecdotes to deflect attention away from the substance of his life.
Hitchcock had three personas: public , professional and private. The public persona was the practical joker and cynical clown, who appeared on film posters, in cameos within the films and in introductions to his long-running TV show. John Russell Taylor, Hitc hcock's friend and offic ial biographer, wrote that Hitc hcock's professional persona 'turns all his energies to the preparation of a film, calculates everything in advance down to the last detail and throws himself totally into the meticulous realisation of his plans; the man of routine and strict discipline, the still centre of confident purposefulness on set, the man who never has to raise his voice, never show anger, to the extent that he believes he cannot even feel anger.' Hitchcock's private persona was a quiet family man, who went to church every Sunday with his daughter, who completely adored his wife, who collected original art by Paul Klee, Walter Sickert and others, who was proud of his wine collection and who tried out all the best restaurants before settling on one and sticking to it.
Although he worked with a restricted palette of emotions, Hitchcock mastered his film-making craft as only a few before him. His subject was suspense and he tried to construct plots so that the audience were kept in a state of suspense for as long a period as possible. He explained the mechanics of suspense quite succinctly: "If you touch off a bomb, your audience gets a ten-second shock. But if the audience knows that the bomb has been planted, then you can build up the suspense and keep them in a state of expectation for five minutes." Hitchcock was, without doubt, the best architect of anxiety the cinema has ever seen but does this skill alone merit his reputation?
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Alfred Hitchcock
Flexicover, 19.6 x 24.5 cm (7.7 x 9.6 in.), 192 pages
$ 19.99
$ 19.99
The perfect panic attack
Still from 'Marnie' (1964). Marnie (Tippi Hedren) must shoot her horse after it falls.