Sir Alfred Hitchcock - British and American filmmaker mastodon, director, screenwriter, producer. His unmatched film works “Lady is disappearing”, “39 steps”, “Shadow of doubt”, “Rebecca”, “Dizziness”, “Window into the yard”, “Birds” and the unsurpassed “Psycho” inexorably changed the thriller genre. The maestro, like a puppeteer managing the threads of spectator emotions, created a unique author's style, for which he was called the world cinema community a master of suspense. After the release of his creations in the lexicon of film critics, the term "Hitchcock" was firmly entrenched.
Song for followers
Traditionally, horrors of the beginning and the middle of the twentieth century evoke a condescending viewer-contemporary only a condescending smile. Unlike most of these paintings, Hitchcock’s creations still cope with their immediate task, preserving the tense atmosphere in the audience while watching, pushing the nerves of the watchers to the maximum.
Alfred Hitchcock, whose films are revered by the most eminent directors of our time, such as William Fridkin, David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann and Guillermo del Toro, influenced the formation of the creative style of more than one generation of directors. Moreover, he influenced the development of cinema as a whole. The projects of Hitchcock sought to play the brightest talents of the Dream Factory: Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, James Stewart, Anthony Perkins, Sean Connery and many others.
The result of the creative journey
At the end of his creative career, the director was awarded the prize of the American Film Institute and received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. The 55 full-length films that have become classics of the global film industry are a valuable legacy that Alfred Hitchcock left behind. The filmography of the King of Horrors also includes 21 episodes of the television series “A. Hitchcock presents ”, 2 unfinished projects and two documentary films shot back in 1944.
The father of the modern thriller Hitchcock is called not by chance, during the demonstration of his films, many viewers left the auditorium in a hurry, some individuals even lost consciousness. His canonized soul attack scene from Psycho is still positioned as one of the most horrific movie scenes. Only Alfred Hitchcock could achieve this effect.
Biography. Childhood
The future founder of the genre was born in the suburbs of the capital of Great Britain in the last month of the summer of 1899. Parents, being ardent supporters of Catholicism, sent their son to study at Jesuit College. According to the researchers of the biography of the maestro, it was precisely this period that decisively influenced the formation of his worldview and perception of the world around him.
Alfred Hitchcock survived another shock in his childhood. Once, at an early age, he dared to disobey his father. He called a police patrol and asked for a lesson from a negligent offspring. The police took the boy to the police station and locked him in solitary confinement for a short period. The experienced shock condition left its imprint on the psyche of the child: as an adult, he felt fear of law enforcement officials and the law. In the plots of individual paintings, the motive of the characters' panic fear of an unfair accusation is clearly traced.
Youth
Having survived the period of study in college - the strictest discipline, oppression and constant fear - Alfred Hitchcock entered the School of Engineering in 1914, where he preferred the study of navigation, engineering, mechanics and acoustics. In parallel, he attends a course of lectures on art history. After the outbreak of World War II, the future luminous director was trying to join the ranks of volunteers, but was credited to the reserve because of his obesity.
Hitchcock began his career in the advertising department of one of the companies producing electric cables. Once he received a standard order for the production of posters for TB. An amusing surprise awaited Alfred's boss: on ready-made posters, the usual power cable was presented by Hitchcock as a murder weapon. Having appreciated the substandard decision of the subordinate, the chef recommended the inventive employee to try himself at the film studio. So, unexpectedly for himself, the future director gets into the film industry.
The first steps
Initially, Alfred Hitchcock, whose photo is currently decorating the lobby of the studio, was accepted to the post of electrician. Later he was entrusted with the writing of titles of finished films. Plunging headlong into the creative atmosphere, the magical world of cinema, Alfred soon took up writing scripts for films and got a job as an assistant director. The debut work of the director is the tape “The Garden of Delights”, which Hitchcock filmed in 1925. However, he was able to win the attention of the cinema community a year later by the painting “Mountain Eagle”, shot in the style of a classic detective story. From the first sound films of the author of film-makers, the creative style and authorial style, which was demonstrated by Alfred Hitchcock, was striking. The films "Call of Elstri", "Blackmail", "Murder" were the first projects in which he used his authorial technique, later designated by the term "suspense".
Of the first paintings by Hitchcock, “Lady disappears” and “39 steps”, which became commercially successful and were warmly received by film critics, are considered the most successful. The first of these films was awarded the New York Film Critics Guild Award; such a high rating motivated the director to create other masterpieces.
"American" period
After world recognition, Alfred Hitchcock receives a tempting offer from the then-famous producer David Selznick to move to Hollywood. The first Hollywood film directed by Rebecca justifies itself at the box office and receives the coveted Oscar. Recognition allows the director not to fulfill the orders of the producers, but to shoot what he wants. In Hollywood, he releases almost a film for a year, among which are uncomplicated detective films, thrillers and ideological paintings. In almost all genres Alfred Hitchcock tried himself. The filmography (including short films) of the director also has films recognized as failed. For example, “Fear of the scene”, after the release of which the film community hastily decided that the director had exhausted himself.
Peak of creativity
The 50-60s of the twentieth century are considered the peak of Hitchcock's work. During this period, the films “Vertigo”, “Window to the Courtyard” and “North through the Northwest” were released, which became the standard of the Hitchcock author's style.
However, the film “Psycho” is considered the most important picture in Hitchcock’s work - the most terrible, famous, not losing its relevance, innovative and remaining unique despite repeated attempts to reproduce his triumph. In the movie, the notorious suspense is brought to the borderline, a fine line, beyond which there is an abyss of madness. It honed to the ideal all cinematic means, techniques of artistic expressiveness, ranging from unsurpassed editing to oppressive musical accompaniment by Bernard Hörrmann and innovative directing, which Alfred Hitchcock brilliantly introduced.
The innovator’s filmography (the best films) includes one of the most exciting film projects called Birds. The birds in the cinema are a typical metaphorical Hitchcock image of an incomprehensible evil, inexorable rock pursuing the main characters. This picture serves as further confirmation of the fact that Hitchcock, having received his elementary education at a Jesuit college, was a Puritan who honored Christian commandments.
At the end of the road
After the triumph of “Birds,” Alfred Hitchcock shot several more films, but they did not have such a resounding success. The maestro’s last work is considered the painting “Family Conspiracy”, which was released in 1976. According to rumors, after that, Hitchcock simply dismissed the entire staff, shut down production and left.
Hitchcock was in the habit of appearing in his film works in a cameo, appearing in the frame in the form of a street onlooker or a casual passerby. At the end of his career, the director intentionally created a mystical atmosphere around himself, surrounding his life with a mysterious halo.
All his life, Hitchcock was faithful to a single woman - his wife Alma Reville, who became a reliable support to her husband. After her death, the director could not recover, addicted to alcohol. The king of horror died in 1980, reaching the age of 80. His corpse was cremated, and the ashes, according to the will, scattered over the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.