Alfred Hitchcock

United Kingdom
1899 – 1980




The Thriller Modernist.


The touchstone for thrillers has to be Alfred Hitchcok. He was the original slayer with the unforgettable, and for those times, shocking scene of the shower in Psycho. Even the term hitchcockian is referred for movies influenced by this extremely clever and manipulative director. One particular thing about Hitchcock is that he was also a romantic. The element of romance was usually present in his movies along with suspense. The result was often a mixture of emotions and twists making the movies stay in the audiences minds.

It is important to mention the tremendous technical ability he had as a director. In 1924 he was in Berlin working as a set director for one of F. W.Murnau's movies. Subsequently, Hitchcock became influenced by Murnau while working with him in another film at Universum Film AG, better known as Ufa or UFA, which was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945. This experience would prove invaluable in his future career as one of the most prestigious Hollywood directors.

IMPACT

Hitchcok virtually invented the Psychological Thriller genre.
Among the many influenced by Hitchcock are directors like Francois Truffant, Claude Chabrol, Brian De Palma, John Carpenter and Wes Craven.

Notorious (1946)


HIS MOVIES


The Silent Years The Pleasure Garden The Mountain Eagle The Lodger Downhill Easy Virtue The Ring Champagne The Farmer's Wife The Manxman
The British Classics Blackmail Juno and the Paycock Murder! The Skin Game Number Seventeen Rich and Strange The Man Who Knew Too Much Waltzes From Vienna The 39 Steps Sabotage Secret Agent Young and Innocent The Lady Vanishes Jamaica Inn Foreign Correspondent

Hollywood Rebecca Mr. and Mrs. Smith Suspicion Saboteur Shadow of a Doubt Lifeboat Spellbound
Notorious The Paradine Case Rope Under Capricorn Stage Fright Strangers on a Train I Confess Dial "M" for Murder Rear Window
To Catch a Thief The Trouble with Harry The Wrong Man Vertigo North by Northwest Psycho The Birds Marnie Torn Curtain Topaz

Back in Britain
Frenzy Family Plot





Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)

I haven't had the pleasure to watch ALL of his movies but from the ones I have seen so far my favourite is Shadow of a Doubt. Containing a sort of subtle and even elegant kind of horror.
I thoroughly recommend it.