Today I watched Shadow Of A Doubt (1942), Alfred Hitchcock's beautiful suspense thriller starring Joseph Cotton as 'Uncle Charlie' and Teresa Wright as his namesake niece. This is a wonderful piece of filmmaking; it is simple and vastly brilliant in its complex relationship puzzle. This film is the heart of 1940's Americana.
According to Hitchcock's daughter, Shadow Of A Doubt was the director's favorite among his films. Hitchcock supposedly loved the element of evil--Joseph Cotton--subtly invading and attempting to destroy a small town family. If you haven't seen this film, you truly should! It is amazing how many directors today use cues Hitchcock created and you see many of them in this film: Camera angles, light/shadow, use of stressful close-ups.
I watched this film again on the heels of the new book release Hitchcock: Piece By Piece by Laurent Bouzereau (available at Amazon and Turner Classic Movies). This book is fascinating with a forward by Hitchcock's daughter Patricia and pull-out faux memorabilia like photos and letters.
Alfred Hitchcock is such a fascinating element of film history and--especially as we see/think of his films around Halloween--deserves to be appreciated regularly!
I highly and especially recommend his films (aside from Shadow Of A Doubt) Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, Strangers On A Train, North By Northwest and the ever underrated Rope. And of course Psycho!
(Note: it is very interesting to watch Hitchcock's Psycho followed immediately by a viewing of Van Sant's Psycho just to see how far films and society have come and just how truly innovative and long-reaching Alfred Hitchcock and his film style are!)
Hitchcock leads us down twisty and turny paths, allowing us to think we know just where we are headed, only to shock us with a jolt into a whole new, even scarier direction!
HAPPY HITCHCOCKING!!!!!!!
3 comments:
Hitchcock was truly ahead of his time. He was one of "the good ones" Truly a master at his art and everyone who enjoys any kind of scary or just plain out freaky movie owes him a debt of gratitude.
I'm glad that you're talking about Alfred Hitchcock, as he is one of my favorite directors (along with Scorsese and Wilder). I remember the first time that I saw Vertigo - I was amazed. I believe Rear Window to be one of his triumphs as well, even though I know of Hitchcock purists that aren't huge fans of that movie.
A question, NoirDame: Given Hitchcock's infamous disrespect for actors (he called them "cattle"), do you think that he would have trouble making movies with the ego-driven performers of today?
I believe Hitchcock would have fled (back)to Europe and left his American filmmaking behind! I do believe many actors of today would clamor to work with Hitch despite his less-than-decent treatment and thoughts toward actors; after all, many an actor who worked with John Huston would say they were abused mercilessly while working with Huston but that the final product the director put out was worth all the pain & heartache (including his daughter)!
Post a Comment