βOrson Welles lists 'Citizen Kane' as his best film, Alfred Hitchcock opts for 'Shadow of a Doubt', and Sir Carol Reed chose 'The Third Man' and I'm in all of them.β
Joseph Cotten.
I had placed five cotton threads around Karen Dor's dress which were handled by five men placed off-camera. As she collapsed, the men pulled the threads and her dress unfolded like a flower blooming.... Although it was a death, I wanted it to be very beautiful.
Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitchcock once wrote in an essay that βan art director must have a wide knowledge and understanding of architecture.β
Architecture was critical to Hitchcock.
Filmmakers today don't realize the craving of the audience simply to look and to admire the beauty of a woman on the screen. They don't realize you can simply let the camera linger on the person.
Alfred Hitchcock.
"A woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing donβt want to go to the movies to watch a film about a woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing."
Alfred Hitchcock.
Godard describe a Hitchcock como βel ΓΊnico, aparte de Dreyer, que sabΓa cΓ³mo filmar un milagroβ.
En Falso culpable (1956), Fonda reza y una figura aparece caminando a su encuentro, su cara se superpone a la de Fonda: es el verdadero ladrΓ³n con el que Fonda ha sido confundido.
On this day, June 16 in 1960, film history was made.
Alfred Hitchcockβs legendaryΒ PsychoΒ had its world premiere at the DeMille Theatre in New York City.
"Now we get him off the bus and we stand him, a little tiny figure, showing, establishing very clearly the complete wasteland everywhere⦠the mind of the audience says: Well, this is a strange place to put a man."
Alfred Hitchcock.
Due to the success of Hitchcock's "Rebecca" in Spain, the specific jackets that Joan Fontaine wore during the movie began to be known as "rebecas". The word "rebeca" is still used nowadays to refer to this item of clothing.
Hitchcock knows exactly how to draw in the audience. The camera not only guides the eye of the audience butΒ becomesΒ the eye of the audience, tracking across the neighbourhood and settling along the way on small details.
James Stewart was born on this day (May 20) in 1908.
Filmography with Hitchcock:
β’ RopeΒ (1948) cast:Β Rupert Cadell
β’ Rear WindowΒ (1954) cast:Β L.B. 'Jeff' Jefferies
β’ The Man Who Knew Too MuchΒ (1956) cast:Β Dr. Benjamin McKenna
β’ VertigoΒ (1958) cast:Β John 'Scottie' Ferguson
Hitchcock knows exactly how to draw in the audience. The camera not only guides the eye of the audience butΒ becomesΒ the eye of the audience, tracking across the neighbourhood and settling along the way on small details.
"In Rear Window, Miss Lonely Hearts always dressed in emerald green.
To make sure that that came off, there was no other emerald green in the picture, because we had to follow her very closely when she went across the street.
So I reserved that color for her".
Alfred Hitchcock.
Eva Marie Saint said that Hitchcock only gave her three simple instructions for her character:
"Lower your voice, do not use your hands, and look directly at Cary Grant in your scenes with him, look him straight in the eye."
Hitchcockβs use of mirrors in Psycho is a truly remarkable tool. He not only foreshadows events by also allows the audience to see much deeper into the characters and who they truly are. They allow us to see the psychotic split personality and deranged mind of Norman Bates.
βItβs the American Thirty-Nine Steps. Iβd thought about it for a long time. Itβs a fantasy. The area in which we get near to the free abstract in movie making is the free use of fantasy, which is what I deal in. I donβt deal in that slice-of-life stuff.β
Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitchcock always tried to tell the story in cinematic terms, not in endless talk. He was a purist and believed that film is a succession of images on the screen; this in turn creates ideas, which in turn creates emotion, which only seldom leads to dialogue.
"What is reality? I don't think many people want reality. Whether it's in the theater or in films, I think it must look real... but it never must be. Because reality is something none of us can really stand. At any time."
Alfred Hitchcock.