Who was Hitchcock? A fat man who played practical jokes on people? A control freak who humiliated others to make himself look better? A little boy afraid of the dark? One of the greatest storytellers of the century? He was all of these and more--20 years after his death, he is still a household name; most people in the Western world have seen his films, and he popularised the action movie format we see every week on the cinema screen. He was both a great artist and dynamite at the box office.
Three Philosophical Filmmakers - Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir
Although Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, and Jean Renoir do not pontificate about "eternal verities or analytical niceties," as Irving Singer remarks in Three Philosophical Filmmakers, each expresses, through his work, his particular vision of reality. In this study of these great directors, Singer examines the ways in which meaning and technique interact within their different visions.
The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in 1930s Britain
The period between the two world wars is often named "the golden age of the cinema" in Britain. This definitive and entertaining book on the cinema and cinema-goers of the era is herewith reissued with a new Introduction. Jeffrey Richards, described by Philip French as "a shrewd critic, a compulsive moviegoer, and a professional historian," tells the absorbing story of the cinema during the decade that produced Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, the musicals of Jessie Matthews and Alexander Korda's epics.
Phobias are common, an intrinsic part of growing up. But severe adult phobia contains something intensely irrational - the anxiety at the sight of a bird's feather, the thought of crossing a bridge. Using everyday experience, horror stories, Hitchcock's cinema, and the cultural history of racism, Phobia illuminates the individual and social nightmare world of phobic phenomena.
It's Only a Movie - Alfred Hitchcock A Personal Biography
As almost all of his actors and collaborators note in this well-reported biography, Hitchcock (1899–1980) was never particularly forthcoming on the subject of himself. Through canvassing a broad swath of now-deceased major stars (Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Cary Grant), Hitchcock's longtime technicians, his daughter, wife and the filmmaker himself, veteran Hollywood writer Chandler (Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder; etc.) quotes several insights into Hitchcock's technical genius, creative worldview and personality.
