There is nothing I could say about North By Northwest that hasn't already been said. Well, that's not strictly true, it has probably never been said that Cary Grant's stunt double was just a suit stuffed with pork sausages, but apart from absurd lies there is nothing I could say about North By Northwest that hasn't already been said. It was written by Ernest Lehman with the express intention of out-Hitchcocking Hitchcock. As such, it features all the director's hallmarks in spades; a case of mistaken identity, a sexy blonde, unsettling events in familiar surroundings, plot twists, suspense, murder and intrigue. And a few giggles along the way.

Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is an advertising executive leading a busy but fairly ordinary life, until he is mistaken for government agent George Kaplan by enemy spies. This happens because, whilst lunching with his high-powered businessman friends in a hotel, he calls for the bellhop who has been paging Kaplan. All Thornhill wants to do is send a telegram to his mother, but the spies make an ass out of you and me, ya dig? After being kidnapped, interrogated by someone claiming to be "Townsend" (James Mason), force-fed bourbon and left in a car to have a near miss with the edge of a cliff, Thornhill is arrested for driving under the influence. The police are skeptical about his kidnap story, as is his mother (Jessie Royce Landis), but he is determined to find the real Kaplan and clear his name. He tracks down Kaplan's unoccupied hotel room, but is again mistaken for him after foolishly answering the telephone and finding his captors on the other end. He is even blamed for the murder of the real Townsend, a United Nations representative who doesn't look a bit like James Mason. And all for a telegram!

On the run from the law and the spies, Thornhill hops a train and meets seductive "Hitchcock blonde" Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint). She knows precisely who he is, but she is happy to shelter him from the law. Her room only has one bed, what a shame. Eve helps Thornhill evade his many assailants but she isn't what she seems, and is in fact working for Phillip Vandamm (that's James Mason). Later on it transpires that, in fact, she isn't what she seemed to not be what she hadn't seemed to've been. Ahem. Anyway one thing leads to another, as things tend to do, and Thornhill is subjected to a vicious attack by a crop duster plane (how did he not see it coming? It's famous that bit!), a brawl at the auctioneer's and finally a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore.

North By Northwest is surely essential Hitchcock. Made between the deeply personal Vertigo and shocking slasher Psycho, this more lighthearted piece is a welcome addition to his catalogue. Unlike the aforementioned films, great as they are, North By Northwest's suspense is tempered with comic relief supplied by a witty script and realised by Cary Grant. The scene in which Thornhill breaks into a lady's hospital room and is told twice to stop, first in panic and then in desire, never fails to make me laugh. Another highlight is a scene in which he shaves with the minuscule complimentary razor from the railway men's room. When Eve asks why he was gone so long, he simply replies: "Big face, small razor." And the fact that Roger O. Thornhill's middle initial stands for nothing is a wry dig at Hitchcock's mortal enemy, producer David O. (also stands for nothing) Selznick: Raymond Burr was also made to look like Selznick as the villain in Rear Window.

Excuse me while I nerd-out for a moment, but the cast list is incredible. Obviously there's Cary Grant using his comic timing to great effect, and being rather dashing if you like that sort of thing. There's James Mason, who delivers his lines with a delightful dry wit, especially his final quip; "That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets." Henchman Leonard, played by Martin Landau, carries out his henching duties with appropriate menace and a touch of effeminacy, at one point referring to his "woman's intuition" - sadly only villains were allowed to be gay in them days. Composer Bernard Herrman demonstrates his versatility with a rousing score, a great contrast to his haunting music for Vertigo and the terrifying stabbing strings of Pyscho. Finally there's scriptwriter Ernest Lehman, who wrote one of my favourite films Sweet Smell of Success, as well as working on West Side Story and Billy Wilder's Sabrina. Oh and I think the director did a few other things too.

My friend Tom, after reading my review of God On Trial, asked me if I thought art was best if it wasn't manipulative. I had never really thought about it before, and it made me realise that all films are manipulative by their very nature. They are made to elicit a response from the audience, and usually the filmmaker has a specific reaction in mind. This is especially true of Hitchcock, who was famously quoted as saying he wanted to play his audience like a piano. The measure of a good film is not whether it manipulates you, because it undoubtedly does. Instead, it's like that cliché about good acting; it's most effective when you don't notice it. On reflection (pardon the pun... oh sorry, wasn't there one?), Hitchcock transforms me into an unwitting piano on a regular basis, and I'm glad for it. Play on, Hitch!

I can still remember the first time I saw Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo... and the strange effect it had on me. The visual effects highlighting Scottie's phobia and obsession were memorable, and the haunting score by Bernard Herrmann ran through my head for days. The dream sequence is brilliant, and the panoramic kissing scene where Scottie flashes back to the carriage house is truly unique.

So, if you had a Vertigo dream, what would be in it? What phobias, obsessions, preoccupations or memories would you relive?

I have generated my own Vertigo dream sequence to highlights from the original score. My special effects aren't quite as tripped-out as Hitchcock's, but use your imagination.

The Movies at 103 are Back!

The outdoor movies at 103 are back! Join us on the 103rd Street lawn for two entertaining Friday evenings of classic Hitchcock cinema. Free. Cartoons for the kids will precede the movie. Come early and bring a picnic.

Friday, September 5; 8 pm
North by Northwest starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint
Friday, September 12; 8 pm
To Catch a Thief starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly

Riverside Insider · 212-870-3070 · www.riversideparkfund.org

Y no sólo vuelve a Sé Lo que Hicisteis (que debido a circunstancias ajenas a mí misma he de ver en Youtube en vez de en la tele. ¡Gracias slqhonline! ¡Mis salvadores!), estrena una obra de teatro en Madrid. Y nada más y nada menos que una adaptación cómica de Los 39 escalones de Alfred Hitchcock. Que como sabréis, y si no os lo cuento yo, era un gran admirador de las rubias. (Suspiro), os mentiría si os dijera que nunca he fantaseado con ser una rubia de Hitchcock… O chica Almodóvar, pero esa es otra historia.

Vamos, que cuando esté menos ocupada (ya que ser mujer moderna y rubia de piernas bonitas es una tarea que nunca acaba) voy de cabeza a ver lucirse a La Tocayísima, que es así como denomino a la Conde. Y si se me pega algo, pues mejor que mejor. 

Para "abandonaros", utilizaré una despedida típica de rubia que he pillado de prestado:

Un beso corazones…

Añadiendo algo propio:

…conducid y fornicad con precaución.

Uma edição com entrevistas em que um inspirado Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)
fala sobre mistério, sexo no cinema, atores e o que o motiva a fazer filmes.

Quase sempre com um leve, muito leve, sorriso nos lábios.

***

Here it is: due to the abundance of LBJ’s POV shots in Rear Window our attention as viewers is constantly being directed out the window. However, these POV shots only work because of their counter-part, the shot of LBJ looking out the window himself. In affect, these interchanges are reverse shots, constantly cutting back and forth; LBJ staring out the window, then what he sees out the window, and on and so forth.

This isn’t ground-breaking stuff, but what I found really interesting was the sheer number of shots we see of LBJ looking out the window. I counted them and arrived at the figure of 221. This is a minimum figure, I discounted some shots and am certain I missed some. Therefore we can ascertain that there are at least 221 shots in Rear Window of LBJ staring off camera, out the window. Would you go to a film if you were told this fact in advance?

‘Hitchcock Satisfaction - cutting edge reverse shots in full opposite action! In the new thriller Rear Window, James Stewart sits in a wheelchair and gazes off screen every 41 seconds, guaranteed!’

Sounds rather dull, doesn’t it? Yet Rear Window is a classic, and I think this is because the POV shots are so attractive and informative. The film taps into a voyeuristic sentimentality and delivers the plot through the reverse shots that distract from any boredom we may have from watching James Stewart sit in a chair. He becomes part of the voyeurism and his actions justify our own watching. But that’s wavering into shaky territory.

So back to the 221 statistic; it proves a great formal audacity; the simple fact that this and related (e.g. pertaining to cuts and setting?) statistics exist in Rear Window is startling. Finding this kind of repetition in films being released today would be nigh on impossible, this route also begs further comparisons between then and now.

One way of reading the premise of Rear Window is that we have a sick man and a screen. LBJ is bored, so he takes to passive entertainment; watching. He watches the theatre taking place through his window and thus becomes embroiled in a dangerous and dramatic scenario that provides the plot of the film.

Now imagine if the film took place today. LBJ would not look out his window. He would watch DVDs all day, send TXT messages and surf the Internet. If he was a magazine photographer then he would have a wealth of gadgets such as a laptop and iPhone. The film would be much more difficult to make if it was set in 2008, it would take a completely different shape.

There’s so much to like about Rear Window. I really need to read more about it though, and until I do, I bid adieu.

• Even though I've been playing him every day and even though once I get his newest record I'll have heard all 54 (?) of his albums, I only GOT GOT GOT GOT GOT GOT Jandek the other day at the bus stop, listening to Six and Six, watching this really young kid try and light a match so he could smoke a cigarette. It was raining really hard and he kept putting his cigarette to his mouth and trying to look all cool and shit. I got on the bus and the fogged up windows and greyyyyyyyyyy everything made Jandek sound greater than ever. Lyfechangin moment.
• I was on the bus to go see Unfair Parents (best noise jazz band on urf)/ Medroxy Progesterone Acetate (epic Cherry Point-like power electronics)/ Walrus Machine (AWESOME free jazz (the saxophone bro played a quarter of his set with only his mouthpiece)) / ...Wind Swept Plains... (cool one man band thing and an even cooler dude)/ ambient laptop thing I'm forgetting. Then I went to the Unfair Parents house, watched a film I did not enjoy, and listened to Jandek's "Too Course" after everyone else passed out. Fun night.
• That fucking bird woke me up again recently.
• Coming home the other day I heard the following words, words that will stick with me as long as I live:

"You wouldn't need an abortion if you weren't smokin' that crack shit, ya dumb bitch!"

The guy was really serious too. I am so glad to live in a cultured city.

• I broke the fucking wammy bar on my fucking guitar today. = Dumbest thing I've ever written.
• Watched about 15-6 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. You Got To Have Luck is the highlight so far, with John Cassavetes' entrance being the best thing ever.

IMDB

AKA Ne le dis à personne

(Guillaume Canet, 2006)

Gripping French thriller in the tradition of a Hitchcock wrong-man story.

On initial viewing, it's confusing as all get-out, even with the helpful subtitles. It's definitely the intention of director Canet to keep the audience off-balance, and his star François Cluzet is the perfect vehicle for this tightrope act. His face is full of expression and wonderment without unnecessary dialogue, and his relentless search for the truth behind his wife's death draws viewers in while still keeping them guessing. One of the highlights of the film is a fantastic chase sequence on and around the Parisian highway system, which is Bourne-like in scope and energy.

Unfortunately, it drags on a bit too long, and gets increasingly cerebral toward its climax, where all is revealed in one long scene filled with dialogue and flashback. It's par for the thriller genre, but here strikes sort of a cinematic misstep, when the present action grinds to a halt, and really never ramps up again.

Seriously, catch it now before it almost surely gets remade into an American Nic Cage action movie.

3.5/5.0

On another note, last night was book club and while we were wrapping up, after dinner, we noticed that there was an unreal stench coming from Hitchcock.  Sure enough, he had some poop encrusted into his fur (gross, I know!!)  We decided that something MUST be done immediately to relieve the smell, so decided that it was bath time for Hitch.

If any of you have cats, you can understand their aversion to water.  I really had no idea how strong my 25 pound cat was until he needed to get wet.  He grabbed onto walls, reaching for anything that would free him from my grasp and the inevitable good scrubbing I was about to give him.  Thank God he doesn't have claws.  If he did, it would have been a terrible painful and unfortunate experience for me.

It took two people, one to hold him down, the other to get him wet, suds him up and rinse him off.  10 minutes later, he was clean, drenched and definitely NOT happy!  I think he actually got himself so worked up, that he had a mini asthma attack.  I've never heard a cat make those type of wheezing noises before.
We calmed him down, towel dried him and took to the blow drier.  That was more relaxing for him, and he actually sat on my lap and enjoyed the warm breeze for about 10 minutes.  After that he started squirming again and we eventually had to let him out of the bathroom to do his own thing, a.k.a. lick himself until he was satisfied that all his hairs were in the proper places, all the while giving me the death stare.

Oh well, now he's squeaky clean, and smells like cherries.  I wish I had taken some pictures of him in mid-bath or post-bath states, but it was too difficult to calm him down and dry him, there just wasn't time for me to get a camera.

I've already written about one of the films in the set, The 39 Steps, but the other eight will be on the way as I go through them. I've seen some of them, like The Lady Vanishes or the 1934 Man Who Knew Too Much, but a lot of them are in the never-seen category, like The Number 17, The Lodger, Secret Agent, Rich & Strange, Blackmail, and Sabotage. And despite the public domain/cheap DVD nature of the set, a quick look at some of them revealed that the print transfers are pretty good, and the sound, though a little hissy, is adequate. I mean, for two bucks, I could do worse!

So Hitchapalooza will be continued... :)

Dial M plays like an Agatha Christie whodunit or even a Columbo episode, in that we are presented an elegant upper class would-be murderer (Ray Milland) outlining what seems to us to be the perfect crime. The idea of the perfect crime and what small unnoticed details can unravel it all become the main plot elements that unfold, mostly as we watch the usual rather unemotional characters (I guess we're to expect them to be unemotional when they're so uppercrust and British, after all) go through their respective plotting or unwitting victimhood. There's really no suspense in the idea that we might think for a moment that Ray Milland will not get caught in the end, the fun is all in watching how he will, especially when the final trap is pulled off with unmistakable Sherlock Holmes-ian Brit charm by the wonderful John Williams as Inspector Hubbard. In this way, the film plays like a parlor game of Clue, and is about as much fun.

This was an early color film for Hitchcock, and color is used well here - especially in how Grace Kelly's wardrobe mirrors her function with other characters - she wears white around the husband she's cheating on, bright red with her lover played by Bob Cummings (great casting, since he's so blah that we catch ourselves identifying far more with the suave and elegant Ray Milland, despite his murderous intent), and in darker shades complete with lighting switching from red to black in a rather economical representation of her railroading at the murder trial. The film was also originally shot in 3-D at the studio's insistence, and while the only stereotypical 3-D shot of something flying into your lap is when Kelly reaches for the scissors in the murder scene, the rest of the 3-D effects would have been (I say would have since the DVD is in 2-D) quite subtle - merely moving the actors behind various foreground objects to add depth to the scenes, which only serves the purpose of reproducing the effects of an actual stage play - subtle, but effective.

Since 3-D films required both projectors in a given theater to be used simultaneously, there is an intermission in this film despite its 108 minute length! All this does, however, is add to the "stage play" effect by giving us an act break of sorts. And when Williams turns up at the start of Act 2, he becomes the real highlight. Williams was the go-to guy, it seems, whenever Hitchcock wanted a dogged no-nonsense British cop. He'd play similar roles mostly on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television show (along with a murderer in one of the dozens of episodes involving a husband killing his wife & burying her down in the basement - it's amazing how often the theme of a dysfunctional marriage winds up as a key element in so many of Hitchcock's films). You might also remember Williams from that series of commercials he did in the 1970s selling records with the "Did you know how many of today's popular tunes are based on the classics?" bit.

Ah, that gentlemanly air of authority! That's why he's perfect to play (both in the film and in the original stage production) the Inspector that OF COURSE knows who the real murderer is and sees to it that the guilty are punished and the innocent freed in a film that Hitchcock opens and closes with a shot of a bobby officer watching protectively over passersby? Police and governments, at least in Hitchcock's world, always work towards finding the truth and protecting the deserving protagonists. Just another one of those recurring themes to look for, along with the dysfunctional marriages, elegant talking killers, and wrongly accused everymen on the run. Yeah, they turn up over and over, but why mess with success?

Today, I found some odd places... Things I found interesting, stuff you won't you-know-where. I love the signs churches display - always have. The amusing anecdotes and whimsical rhymes that remind you where you are, and where you should be... Since we are NOT short on churches here, you will be seeing these from time to time, and already have if you've looked at previous slideshows.

Today's slideshow is brought to you by the Comfort Zone Washateria. :O) There's a few things you'll see in the slideshow that are very special to me, and some you'll see are just "unusual", in a Texas sort of way.. :O)

In the slideshow, you'll find Hitchcock Elementary School, well, it used to be HES... It was also the place my parent's church used to meet when I was a wee one. In the cafeteria we met, Sunday morning and evening, like all good Baptists. Eventually our numbers grew, and we began spending saturdays after breaking ground at another location, where my parents, their friends, and many others began building a church. I remember those times with great fondness. Hot summer and autumn afternoons, running and playing, eating your fill of good pot luck food, our bellies full of kool aid and sweat tea. Until you had to pee. As a child, I was NOT into the great out doors (even now, I prefer, when camping, STATE Parks (state parks have bathrooms!). Does a bear *(#@& in the woods? That's nice, Smokey, but I prefer to drive to town, even if it's 30 miles. Once, my mother brought this camping contraption to the work party (that's what we called them). It was a toilet seat on a fold up stool frame (no pun intended), and there was a bag... you get the picture. She constructed a sheet "tent" that hung from a tree. Ahhh, I knew life was good when I could pee in private. I could not have been more than five at the time... I even remember wondering who took care of the bag, and being glad it wasn't me.

Throughout this trip, it seems I've been exposed to more and more creative uses of a "Lowe's storage building" type structure. First the park in Moab, then in Aspen, and now, in Freddiesville, at God's Rainbow Baptist Church. Why God's Rainbow Church needs an 8' fence with barbed wire at the top, I'll never know... but they have a porta-potty, so they've been very efficient with the use of space in the church proper.

Freddiesville has always had it's share of problems. For those who DON'T know, Freddieville is just outside Hitchcock, a few miles before you reach Bayou Vista on HWY 6, heading to Galveston. When I was growing up, it was a community ridden with poverty, and rich with heritage. Greater St. Matthew's Baptist Church was there, and our congregation worshipped with them from time to time. GSM was a black congregation, and ours was all white. I'm sure to many, that move was outrageous and unforgivable. What a ground breaking thing for our churches to fellowship together. It was a very different world in the late 60s/early 70s. One I'm glad my children will never experience. I still remember the food from those fellowships - like manna, it surely came straight from heaven. Ahhhh

I also remember feeling glee as a child, because the GSM Church didn't have Sunday night services, they stayed on the grounds all day, eating dinner on the grounds, and having fellowship in song until late afternoon. This meant I could watch Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday night, right after Wild Kingdom. My lust for Disney as a child was terrible. I would feign stomach aches and malaria to stay home and watch that show. My neighbors, Lillian and Sharon, were catholic. They went to church on Saturday night. I was green with envy, how I wished I could enjoy their fate in life, sitting home and watching Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights... to the point I once asked my Dad if we could become catholic. I was six when I did this, and I remember it as if it were yesterday. My father, an ordained Baptist minister, and solid Christian man, looked at me puzzled, and asked why I wanted to be Catholic... His face is forever frozen in my mind... somehow he just could not digest the importance of being six, and wanting to see WWOD on Sundays... it was so easy, just become Catholic, and go to church on Saturday night - it doesn't get any easier than that... or so I thought. :O) Love you Dad.

BTW- did you know the headquarters for the Holy Ghost are at the LIving Word Community of Faith on HWY 6 in Hitchcock??? Neither did I! I don't think the Holy Ghost really has "headquarters"... do you? The sign probably raises many local eyebrows with it's forward attitude... Many think Texas is Heaven on earth, but I highly doubt, were it so, that God would pick Hitchcock as his home base... Fredricksburg, or Wimberly yes, but not Hitchcock...

Next to the tracks, two blocks from my house, was a Santa Fe RR Depot. Right next door to Tibaldo's Feed Store, and across the street from Slone's lumber, and Lack's Hardware. The intersection of HWY 6 and FM 646 (aka Main). As the town grew, the Depot was threatened, and so it was moved, just a few miles south on HWY 6 where folks could still drive by and see it... Can't go inside.. not sure why not. It does bear a Texas State Historical Marker. I like that we have historical markers all over the place, makes it easy to see why we're crazy about our state. The Gulf, Colorado, and santa Fe Railroads gained right of way through Emily Hitchcock's land by platting land and naming a town Hitchcock. Oddly, the depot was built on land that was Alta Loma, and later annexed and incorporated to the city of Santa Fe. Unincorporated portions fo Santa Fe are still referred to as Alta Loma, I believe (not sure).

Jack Brooks County Park is huge. It has THE most amazing mountain biking trails known to man! These trails, and the ones in Houston's Memorial Park used to be the shiznit of Mtn Bike trails. I still have scars from those trails. I remember one time, hitting a dry mud rut, that sent me flying end over down into a gully full of blackberries. I was so terrified to move, I almost cried. I was so scared of where I'd landed, I didn't even feel the pain of the thorns that had ripped my shirt, shorts and flesh. It was a boggy area, perfect for water moccasins and/or copper heads, or even a rattle snake... it was HORRID. I had two black eyes from that wreck. Oh, did I mention that I'd played hooky from work, feigning illness, so I could go ride bikes? (I was TOTALLY into biking then... Washington drivers squelched my desire to ride) I stayed out a week so my eyes and flesh could heal. It was still fun.

I also learned to drive on this property. Long before it was turned over to Galveston County, it was property of the Army Corps of Engineers. It had been used for something governmental a bazillion years ago, can't remember exactly what. Anyway, my dad had keys to every bit of govt land on the Gulf Coast, and he'd take me back there all the time in our '72 Pontiac Lemans (with AM radio and vinyl seats!). The roads were paved, and two lanes, I learned to do a mean 3 point turn on those roads. Dad was so cool, he'd let me speed, slam on the brakes, do all kinds of stuff Mom would've never let me do in a car... Dad's thought was the better you know what the car will do, the better you can handle it. Thanks Dad - to this day I am undaunted when driving, and I owe it all to you.

Years later, the county relocated the fair grounds from Runge Park to just outside this govt land and then the park was cultivated. I bet nobody else in Galveston county learned to drive on those roads before it was a parK! LOL (BTW - I think they relocated the fairgrounds because it just didn't get muddy and nasty enough at Runge Park! I mean, come on - hosting the county fair in April in Southeast Texas? Madmen, I tell ya.. Mad! It ain't the fair if 10" of rain doesn't fall the first two days (or two days prior) making it a veritable SWAMP)

Happy memories always bring a feeling of peace. Besides happy memories, one of the things that brings me a peace and comfort beyond words is photographing birds. I spend days photographing eagles near my house each spring during the extreme low tides, and am always racing to grab a camera and capture my yard bird collection digitally... Today i drove out to what used to be called Flamingo Isles. In the 60s, some big shot developer had the twinkle in his eye for mega bucks, and a schnitzy development called Flamingo Isles. The fact this land is like a giant sponge, where salt grass and peat grow in abundance, sitting in wait for a nice storm surge to make it the new shallows of Galveston Bay I'm sure had NOTHING to do with the failure of this business venture. That, or, he spent all his money on the fancy sign and the bridge over the RR tracks.

Speaking of fancy signs, well, Flamingo Isles' entrance was guarded by an ENORMOUS sign that consisted of a HUGE pink flamingo (100' tall) and wording that read: "FLAMINGO ISLES". As a child, I was mesmerized by the giant bird when we'd drive past on our way to Galveston to buy school shoes at Eiband's. I've not been out there since, well, since my late teens when we'd drive out there to throw rocks, fish and drink beer. Now they've put in a marina and "yacht club" (you'd have to see the area, you'd laugh too if you saw "yacht club"). Just a stone's throw from Tiki Island (BIG money homes right on the marsh edge of Galveston Bay). I pulled over, and enjoyed photographing some willing models: a Neotropic Cormorant, a pair of Green Herons, a Great Egret, some juvenile and adult Cattle Egrets. I was THRILLED to see a beautiful Ibis fly over late in the day, as well as a large flock of great egrets (20-30). Saving the best for last, I had the joy of watching Roseate Spoonbills feeding in the flats as the tide retreated. There is no bird more beautiful than a spoonbill, there is no bird more interesting to watch than a spoonbill. I remember living in Bayou Vista, and taking my kids out in the john boat in the evening. We'd eat dinner off paper plates, I'd sit back with a beer and a kid's story book, and after we ate, I'd read them stories. We'd drift in the marsh and salt grass as spoonbills would surround us. The few times my kids were quiet, we'd sit there bobbing in the water, mesmerized as the bird flock would surround us, their bills swooshing back and forth seining for food in the shallows.

It doesn't take money to make life beautiful. All it takes is a minute to stop and focus on something beautiful, to close your eyes and smell the air, to listen to the sound of a distant train, wind in the trees, or light from the setting sun as it's final goodbye illuminates the clouds. These are a few of my favorite things, and the reason I like being here.

[wpvideo pIKY7BoE]

As far as I can tell, there isn't much word yet on art or special features.

And, in related news, still waiting on definite word on the Borzage/Murnau set, concerning exactly what movies will be included, which features, and the cost.

I'll let you know as soon as I hear. And if you hear anything, let me know!

Eyes Wide Shut was on last night again. Like many Kubrick films, this one has the power to carry me away. I detach completely from my surroundings and enter the film. When the characters threaten to pitch over the railing, I go too.

• Helena Harford (if she straightened her hair)
• Amanda
• Domino
• Milich’s daughter (although that would be a stretch)

After all, Domino wasn’t there the next time Cruise showed up at her apartment, which could work with the timeline. This house-of-mirrors blondes effect is the same one used in Vertigo, where Kim Novak as Madeleine re-emerges as brunette-to-blonde Judy Barton. It’s really a shame that people keep insisting it was Amanda; it gets way more interesting when you consider the logistics of it being someone else.

Over the years, I’ve become more impressed with Tom Cruise in this role. He’s really quite awkward and bumbling, which is exactly what is required of the part. However, I just detest the casting of Nicole Kidman. In retrospect, I would have liked to have seen Renée Zellweger cast in the role of Alice.

First of all, I would like to point out that I never saw this movie (this will be the case for most of the other movies that will be screened [in this film and cultures class]...)and second...I am not that much of an Alfred Hitchcock fan. it is pretty much obvious if you know me--I am more into Guy Ritchie, Ridley Scott...and once in a while, I will satisfy my thirst for the macabre with Tim Burton.

I guess I am more inclined to watch movies because of who is in them...and a promising storyline [obviously]. Of course, it is not a crime, but it is why I chose this film class. To open myself up to other genres, styles and yes...other actors. LOL.

Alright, so...my first impressions on Vertigo were...well, to be honest, intrigue. It was odd watching it. Do not get me wrong, I loved Hitchcock for setting up the movie with a chase scene (!!!)...but then I thought the director became cruel when he juxtaposed that scene with the protagonist (Scotty/John) talking with Midge [it just seemed ridiculous and rather frustrating]. I guess I am used to sequence after sequence of action.

Anyway, what was interesting was the whole affair of Madeleine and Judy. For the record, I thought Madeleine actually killed herself and that was it. I thought that Hitchcock would have spent the last hour of the movie with the protagonist rehabilitating [from this ordeal]. I felt uneasy when Scotty revisited all the places he went to "watch over" Madeleine. It was sad and obsessive. But of course, Hotchcock was not crowned as one of the greatest directors for nothing. He managed to insert a twist to the narrative--a sort of extra treat for his viewers, I suppose. Nowadays, films take more time to build in suspense and it often becomes confusing. There are not many original movies out there now, but the build-up [however,] in The Departed came to mind as the second half of [Vertigo] the movie unravelled. The flashback that happened while Judy wrote the letter was useful to the audience since it dragged them into the big picture/grand scheme in the story. It also tied together the first and second half of the movie (and made us realize the importance of the late coming Judy shortly after Madeleine's death).

I sympathized with Scotty/John though after realizing the deception (Carlotta Valdes, the flowers, hair, the so-called first attempt of suicide, etc...). I felt this way since I believed myself to have been duped [say what? I used an old English word?].

Alas, this is the part where I talk about the end of the movie and my so-called sensible reaction. It was inevitable for the protagonist to return to the scene where Madeleine died. But in a way, I found it appropriate since things always [find a way] to come back with a 360° resolution. [I think I meant to say things come in full circle...so much for my English skillz...] Quite literally. The experience (or re-experience) of climbing the bell tower stairs was good. At this point, we can see Madeleine/Judy beginning to break under pressure (you would think that she would be wise enough to not wear that [same] necklace in the first place, huh?) and Scotty/John is acting without mercy, every once in a while, falling victim to his vertigo. What I did not expect though, was Madeleine/Judy's tumble from the bell tower. I was trying to stiffle my fit of laughter until I saw the nun making the sign of the cross and ringing the bell. It must have been the solemn and unaffected expression on her face that made me laugh. Well, that is my opinion and I am sticking to it!!

In all, I felt that the gradual building of the movie was like vertigo. We are just climbing higher and higher...at times evaluating where we are heading with all this information (and looking down...). The suicide attempts, the disappearing acts and that frightful image/painting of Midge (!!! what was she thinking!?) were our moments of looking down and catching us off guard. The extremely high points were the staircase chase moments. Basically, the title doe not just describe Scotty's weakness [and or shortcoming]--it is ours (the viewers) too. We fall victim to the high tension, which makes us at times, squeamish whenever we look down.

Rating: five creepy stealth nuns out of five.

Per fortuna, Hellzabloggin' ci ha messo una pezza.

Aggiornamento: pare che ora tutti si siano accorti dell'errore: qui si trova un resoconto della vicenda.

The Women (1939)

image source: guardian.co.uk

This George Cukor masterpiece is glamour defined. The film centers around the lives of New York City's society women and they just don't make 'em like this anymore. Even though the film is shot primarily in black and white, it boasts a fashion show scene shot in color; however, even in black and white, you can't help but be inspired by the luxurious furs, dramatic gowns and jewels brought to life by Norma Shearer, Joan Fontaine, and Rosalind Russell (Joan Crawford also stars in the film). This film, with its razor sharp dialogue, is so brilliant under Cukor's direction.

Sabrina (1954)

image source: dvdtimes.co.uk

Sabrina is a very, very special film for me because it was what started it all. The very first time I saw it, I was too young to really understand the plot and much of what was going on in the film, so I just took it all in visually, and it made such a huge impression on me that it has always stayed with me. Under the direction of Billy Wilder, Audrey Hepburn brought Hubert de Givenchy's creations to life as the naive chauffeur's daughter who goes to Paris and returns a sophisticated woman, which we are introduced to in that unforgettable scene with Audrey Hepburn waiting in a Givenchy suit with her luggage at the station upon her return to the States.

Vertigo (1958)

image source: imageandnarrative.be

It would be a crime to speak of fashion and film without mentioning a Hitchcock film. Every frame in Hitchcock's body of work is art, and Vertigo is one of the best examples of this. The film stars James Stewart as a San Francisco detective who suffers from acrophobia who is hired to spy on a mysterious woman, played by Kim Novak. The term "Hitchcock blonde" refers to the iconic, perpetually cool, self-possessed, and of course impeccably coifed blonde heroines in most of Hitchcock's films, and have been portrayed by the likes of Eva Marie Saint, Tippi Hedren, and Grace Kelly. Just as Stewart's character becomes obsessed with the Novak's icy incarnation of the "Hitchcock blonde", the viewer is entranced as well. Image and clothing plays a huge role in this film as Novak's character is seemingly defined entirely by the image that costume designer Edith Head helped to create, particularly with the iconic grey suit.

I came away from it with mixed feelings - there's some very good stuff here, and the film moves along briskly - but once again it seems Hitchcock became trapped by what he felt were his audience's expectations after the success of Psycho, and after his frustrations over the string of box office failures Marnie, Torn Curtain & Topaz, it struck me that the more graphic depictions of the sexual violence in Frenzy were the result of overcompensation by a director determined to win his audience back, as well as a way for him to take advantage of the looser censorship standards of 1972. The rape/murder scene is shocking, and goes on long enough to unnerve the audience, make us see how evil our villain is, and sympathize with all of his victims through this one representative - but ALL of these necessary effects would be possible without the R-rating-grabbin' graphic nature, complete with some brief nudity and simulated sex, as well as lingering on the moment of death and the twisted grimace of the corpse. He had overdone it even more at first. Hitchcock had shot drool and blood coming out of her mouth originally, and wound up cutting it to reduce the effect of the scene - he could have cut further without losing anything, really, especially when he's also giving you the usual doses of dark humor in portions of the film. The humor works, mostly, but would work much better without the deeper level of darkness in the serious portions. A second murder is handled far better, telegraphed to us with only a single line of matching dialogue from the first murder - "You're my kind of girl" - before a rather impressive trick tracking shot away from a closed door where everything is left to our imagination. Even when this particular murder is shown in flashback later with a series of quick cuts, it's only there for us to see a mistake the killer realizes he's made, leading to what is perhaps the best sequence of the film, where the killer (Barry Foster, doing a nice job with a rather generically written psycho killer role) has to retrieve his tie clip from his victim's death grip aboard a potato truck.

Another problem with Frenzy is that our innocent-man protagonist, played by Jon Finch, is rather an obnoxious and unsympathetic lout. Unlike the wrong-men played by Robert Donat or Cary Grant, he is without charm and the only emotion he ever displays is anger. Even when informed that his girlfriend has been murdered, he only discusses how he has an alibi that might now free him from police suspicion - he shows absolutely no emotion over the victim, one of the few people in the film who defends and believes in him earlier. There aren't too many characters in this film that come off positive, so what we wind up with is a very dark and dangerous world, one less elegant and adventurous in the fun sense that we've gotten in earlier Hitchcock films. And at times, it's a little too dark, to be honest.

So all in all - a mixed bag, and certainly not as good as I remember. A fun part of viewing is seeing those early '70s London locations and hairstyles, something that reminds me of any exterior shots from the Monty Python of the period, as well the English slang spread throughout the script. After years in Hollywood with big-name actors for his movies (Topaz notwithstanding) Hitchcock returned to England and had an all-British, mostly-stage actor cast this time, forcing us to concentrate on character. Unfortunately, those characters aren't all that developed or likeable for the most part. There are some good set pieces and a very odd linkage of appetites for food with appetites for killing (even some of the humor in the film revolves around eating - our police investigator must suffer his wife's bizarro meals resulting from her French cooking lessons), and some wonderful little technical tricks and moments that remind you that Hitchcock was still in command of his craft, even if I think he was locked in the Psycho box once that film defined him to modern movie audiences, trapping him into near-pandering with a similar story. Even the trailer is the same - Htichcock himself taking you on a tour of the movie's murder scenes with narration straight out of his television show intros.

Hitchcock would follow this with his final film (and the first Hitchcock film I ever saw!), 1976's Family Plot, where he returned to Hollywood and got some fairly well know stars, and it's an entertaining little trifle, but in the end something so light, so whimsical in parts - that it feels more like a Disney adventure film in the Escape From Witch Mountain mode than a Hitchcock thriller.

And speaking of Ray Milland, there's one last DVD on the stack - 1954's Dial M For Murder, which I remember liking very much back in college. Going beyond the yardsale bonanza, however, now that I've gotten into "the zone," I might make a consistent effort to hunt down any of my remaining unseen Hitchcock films for examination. Stay tuned.

I will keep this updated as I fill in the remaining gaps/change my mind about things, most likely adding reasons and such when time/energy permits.

10/10
Rope
Rear Window
Vertigo
Psycho

9/10
The Trouble With Harry
To Catch a Thief

8/10
The 39 Steps
Lifeboat
Rebecca
The Birds
Young and Innocent
Dial M For Murder
The Man Who Knew Too Much (34)

7/10
The Lady Vanishes
The Man Who Knew Too Much (56)
Strangers on a Train
Notorious

6/10
Saboteur
Marnie
Frenzy
Secret Agent
Sabotage
Torn Curtain

5/10
North By Northwest
I Confess
Stage Fright
Suspicion
Shadow of a Doubt

4/10
Rich and Strange
Foreign Correspondent
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Spellbound
Family Plot
The Wrong Man
Number Seventeen

3/10
Jamacia Inn

1/10
Topaz