Been working on this book for the past couple weeks.
I picked it up because I read somewhere that it was an extremely well researched and well written biography of Hitchcock, and if there's anything I like more than a good movie, it's a good biography. The "well researched" description is extremely true--at first I was freaked out by the level of detail in it. It seems like the author could tell you what Hitch did every day of his life from the age of 14. Reading it makes me feel like a voyeur peeking into someone else's life, almost like I'm a character in a Hitchcock movie. Whoa.
Originally I was worried that I was getting ahead of myself because I'm currently at 1920 in my project, and I had always connected Hitchcock with a later era in my mind. But my concern over continuity was for naught--Hitchcock's career spanned both the silent and sound eras and he directed films in 6 different decades. So, it's not a bad idea to read a Hitchcock biography while you're trying to learn about general film history. Hitch had quite a few movies under his belt before Britain switched to sound in 1929 (the first British sound production was a Hitchcock picture), so a lot of the things I'm noticing in my project have parallels in his life story. Plus, as an adolescent he was a prolific movie and theater fan, so chances are I am watching movies he saw as a young man when they were in theaters.
Later in life, Hitch would state that his greatest influence was "the Germans": The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, and Ernst Lubitsch. Hitchcock even directed some films in Germany during the 1920s. This explains a lot of his stylistic choices and why many memorable scenes from his movies are set to silence or near silence. He idolized the masters of scenery and atmosphere.
The only Hitchcock movies I saw as a kid are from later in his career, after he became the most famous and picked apart director in the world. There's a lot I haven't seen, and I look forward to diving into it with all this new knowledge I'm gaining.
My favorite quote from the book so far-
After being told by a writer that a certain plot wasn't logical:
"I'm not interested in logic, I'm interested in effect. If the audience ever thinks about logic, it's on their way home after the show, and by that time, you see, they've paid for the tickets."
It's all about effect, you see.
If you're interested in other great books about directors, this one about David Lean is fantastic. Highly recommended.
Originally I was worried that I was getting ahead of myself because I'm currently at 1920 in my project, and I had always connected Hitchcock with a later era in my mind. But my concern over continuity was for naught--Hitchcock's career spanned both the silent and sound eras and he directed films in 6 different decades. So, it's not a bad idea to read a Hitchcock biography while you're trying to learn about general film history. Hitch had quite a few movies under his belt before Britain switched to sound in 1929 (the first British sound production was a Hitchcock picture), so a lot of the things I'm noticing in my project have parallels in his life story. Plus, as an adolescent he was a prolific movie and theater fan, so chances are I am watching movies he saw as a young man when they were in theaters.
Later in life, Hitch would state that his greatest influence was "the Germans": The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, and Ernst Lubitsch. Hitchcock even directed some films in Germany during the 1920s. This explains a lot of his stylistic choices and why many memorable scenes from his movies are set to silence or near silence. He idolized the masters of scenery and atmosphere.
My favorite quote from the book so far-
After being told by a writer that a certain plot wasn't logical:
"I'm not interested in logic, I'm interested in effect. If the audience ever thinks about logic, it's on their way home after the show, and by that time, you see, they've paid for the tickets."
It's all about effect, you see.
If you're interested in other great books about directors, this one about David Lean is fantastic. Highly recommended.
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