Posted on 01/09/2012 2:20:30 PM PST by nickcarraway
2012 marks the 90th anniversary of what is believed to be Alfred Hitchcock’s first directorial effort: an unfinished, now lost silent film called No. 13. I’ve been holding my own private Alfred Hitchcock festival at home for several weeks, using DVDs, streaming video, even a VHS. I’m not aware of any other, official celebrations out there, but Hitchcock doesn’t really need any: His work is never out of circulation, and he’s often in the news for one reason or the other.
Image by AFP via @daylife
For instance, it was recently reported on LiveScience.com that scientists believe they’ve ascertained the inspiration for Hitchcock’s film The Birds. The article, “Blame Hitchcock’s Crazed Birds on Toxic Algae,” describes how a mysterious incident in 1961 in which birds became crazed–crashing into walls, getting disoriented and dying for no apparent reason–almost certainly prompted Hitchcock to make The Birds; he was living in the area of the occurrence at the time, North Monterey Bay in California. Scientists now believe the birds had consumed domoic acid, a toxin found in algae that had gotten into their diet.
The Birds is one of Hitchcock’s films that resonates in your mind forever; whenever I see more than a few avians collecting on a telephone wire, I immediately flash back to it. It’s also the rare Hitchcock film where the mystery is never resolved; as the protagonists drive away at the end, the birds are still ominously bunching together, poised to attack for no apparent reason. Now science has provided a plausible explanation for the craziness, although in the real-life incident the birds didn’t target humans. An allegory that’s barely an allegory, The Birds was prescient in showing nature in murderous revolt against us.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
We’ve got a collection of his early stuff from 1926 and beyond...he got better as he aged. Don’t we all, though?
About 24 Hitchcock trailers:
http://www.archive.org/details/HitchcockTrailers
Alfred Hitchcock presents a featurette about PSYCHO
http://www.archive.org/details/Psycho-Featurette
After 1960, however, I think the quality was not the same. He didn't focus on the core themes as much.
I just got every Hitchcock film in DVDs for my wife this Christmas. Took some research as there were four different studios involved with various rights but I was able to find every film on Amazon.
We’ve started our own Hitchcock festival!
So far we have watched “I Confess”, “Suspicion” and “Strangers on a Train”.
Was surprised to learn that we’re only about 1 mile away from his old summer place.
Yup. Right across the freeway, with great huge iron gates. His daughter lived there for years, maybe still does.
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