Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980)

the UK Cinema Course by Arash Fathipour for Dr. Shokrkhah University of Tehran June 2009

• Iconic and highly influential British filmmaker and producer, who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres • Being harshly treated as a child is often reflected in Hitchcock's films • He had a successful career in the United Kingdom • In 1956 he moved to Hollywood

• Directed his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in 1925 • Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films, in a career spanning six decades, from the silent era, through the invention of sound films, and far into the color era • His last collaboration with Graham Cutts led him to G Germany i 1924 in • The film Die Prinzessin und der Geiger (UK title The Blackguard, 1925), directed by Cutts and co-written by Hitchcock, was produced in the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin • In 1926 he made his debut in the thriller genre

• Directed classic films such as Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds in the late 50’s and early 60’s • Psycho is considered by some to be Hitchcock's most famous film • The violence of the shower scene, scene the early demise of the heroine, the innocent lives taken by a disturbed murderer were all hallmarks of Hitchcock copied in many horror films that followed

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Hitchcock the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, in 1967 • His other Oscar nominations were: Best Director 5 times, and Producer for Best Picture • In 2008, four of Hitchcock's films were named among the ten best mystery films of all time in the AFI's Top 10

• While Hitchcock did a great deal of preparation for all his movies, he was fully cognizant that the actual film-making process often deviated from the best laid plans and was flexible to adapt to the changes and needs of production as his films weren't free from the normal hassles and routines that face many other film productions.

• Hitchcock would generally shoot in chronological order. A practice which he notes often sent many of his films over-budget and over-schedule and more importantly differed from the standard operating i procedure d off Hollywood H ll d in i the h Studio S di System Era.

• Hitchcock usually told his stories through: – Intelligent plots – Witty dialogue – A spoonful of mystery and murder

• 1950-1960 was an amazingly productive decade for Hitchcock. He made several films that would become minor classics (Dial "M" for Murder, To Catch a Thief, Strangers on a T i ) and Train) d four f masterpieces: i R Rear Wi d Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho.

• One of inventive aspects of Hitchcock's devices is incorporating the number 13 into scenes for its superstitious nature. For example, in Psycho, Norman Bates first chooses h cabin bi 3, 3 then h turns to cabin bi 1, 1 for f Marion Crane. She is spotted driving in a car where the license plate numbers add up to 13

• Hitchcock appears as a character in the popular juvenile detective book series, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. The longrunning detective series was created by Robert A h Arthur, who h wrote the h first fi severall books, b k although other authors took over after he left the series

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Further Reading: J. P. Company, (Mar 14, 1963). Jet. Jet Magazine , 64. N. Y. Company, (Dec 4, 1978). New York Magazine. 176. Duncan, P. (2003). Alfred Hitchcock: architect of anxiety, 1899-1980. Taschen. New York Media, L. (May 13, 1985). New York Magazine. 176.