tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72192147331406970412024-03-12T20:54:24.048-07:00Alfred Hitchcock GeekNews, trivia, articles and book reviews about Alfred Hitchcock, the Shakespeare of the 20th century.Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.comBlogger284125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-32855048787256604572020-12-29T16:58:00.002-08:002020-12-30T15:48:07.724-08:00A Time for Transformation and for Building a Stronger Community<h3 style="text-align: left;"><i>Calling all seekers, ponderers and evolvers!</i></h3><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXKtHL2lIQOAEqaeS4mFC0diyF9Y3p_Dd3lFolie0pxcmhmfRSFUpAjie8d99aNgNIZQygXNKO33ovhemcEdXuvmV5n18awjncFps-zDcGHnrcB0qdQVCoprEVe6zeO-6ATc-eu1mMVak/s1590/Screen+Shot+2020-12-29+at+5.46.45+PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1590" data-original-width="1336" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXKtHL2lIQOAEqaeS4mFC0diyF9Y3p_Dd3lFolie0pxcmhmfRSFUpAjie8d99aNgNIZQygXNKO33ovhemcEdXuvmV5n18awjncFps-zDcGHnrcB0qdQVCoprEVe6zeO-6ATc-eu1mMVak/w538-h640/Screen+Shot+2020-12-29+at+5.46.45+PM.png" width="538" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hitch at home with one of his three works by Paul Klee.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Something’s changed in the air (or is it the water?). 2020 has been a time of both reckoning and awakening. Maybe you’ve felt it too. Our civilization is in the midst of a sea change. </p><p>I’ve changed, too. </p><p>From the time I launched this blog in 2004 and especially following my presentations at <i>The 39 Steps </i>on Broadway in 2010, this blog and its companion <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HitchcockGeek" target="_blank">Facebook community</a> have helped keep me motivated to write some 200,000 words on this site—not to mention contributing to other books, magazines and online publications! I've enjoyed a fun side-hustle of <a href="https://www.joelgunz.com/public-speaking" target="_blank">lecturing</a> at schools, colleges and civic groups around the country. And there are the lifelong friendships with film buffs, movie nerds, scholars and academics like you. I've even received <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/p/mad-props.html">some recognition along the way</a>. In the last couple of years, I've shifted away from blogging to write, produce and direct <a href="https://www.joelgunz.com/portfolio/alfred-hitchcock-master-of-the-surreal" target="_blank">an ongoing video project</a> about Hitchcock.</p><p>Now I feel it’s time to open up the conversation. In this tumultuous era, to talk merely about Hitchcockiana and film trivia seems, well… trivial. His work deserves deeper consideration than the usual fan babble or even the steady outpouring of more highbrow—yet merely intellectual—work coming from academia. </p><p>Hitchcock’s films were insightful and prescient—if not outright prophetic. I mean that literally. If he were alive today, he'd no doubt be shocked—but not surprised—to see the world that we now inhabit. The return of authoritarianism disguised as populism, as presented in <i>Topaz</i>. The capitalized leprosy of fascism that he caricatured in <i>The 39 Steps, The Man Who Knew Too Much</i> (1936) and <i>The Lady Vanishes</i>—reborn in far right movements around the world. Terrorism-as-public-spectacle, as sketched out in <i>Sabotage</i>. Decades of pollution and extractive industry that have provoked an environmental apocalypse, envisioned in <i>The Birds</i>. Sure, those issues were alive and well in his day, but he understood them more deeply than most—and his movies are as timely now as the day they premiered. </p><p>I also believe that Hitch saw artistic expression as as path out of this snowballing predicament. His favorite artist—the one he felt closest to in subject matter, themes and spirit—was Paul Klee. Klee dismissed “the crass emotional phase of Romanticism” in favor of a "cool Romanticism" that rejects the Romantic artist's heroic solitude in order to embrace the life force itself at "the source of creation,” adding:</p><p></p><blockquote><i>“If, finally, I may be allowed to pursue these forces, so hostile to earth, until they embrace the life force itself, I will emerge from the oppressively pathetic [19th century] style to that Romanticism which is one with the universe.”</i>—On Modern Art, Paul Klee, p. 43</blockquote><p></p><p>Through his art, Klee was on a spiritual quest. I believe Hitchcock was on the same journey.* Maybe it was his Catholic upbringing. Maybe it was his passion for music, conceiving of his films in musical terms, keeping him in the flow of life. Maybe it was his meditative nature that prompted more than one observer to compare him to a Buddha. However he got there, I believe Hitch strived—like Klee—to tune in to the secret workings of mankind and to be one with the universe itself. There is, after all, a pronounced metaphysics to his cinema. For example:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>The Wrong Man</i>: The synchronicity of Manny Balestrero’s prayer that as-if conjures up the real criminal. </li><li><i>Vertigo</i>: The ghostly apparition of the nun at Mission San Juan Bautista who “heard voices,” impelling Judy to fall to her predestined death. </li><li><i>Family Plot</i>: Blanche Tyler’s fourth-wall-breaking wink at the audience, intimating that she might be a genuine spirit medium concealed in charlatan’s clothes. </li></ul><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Moving beyond geekery</h3><p>These are the ideas and topics I’ll be exploring more in my writing, videos and in the lively discussions we’re enjoying on Facebook. This marks a shift in tone. On social media, we’ll still commemorate Hitch & Company's birthdays and point out fun facts. But in this season of transformation let’s use Hitchcock’s cinema as a springboard to more expansive conversations. Here’s what you can expect: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>More discussion of ideas in pursuit of truth, beauty and evolution to an integrated state of consciousness. </li><li>Occasionally, we might seemingly stray from Hitchcock to discuss philosophical, spiritual and metaphysical topics. </li></ul><p></p><p>The topics will be wide ranging—yet there will always be a connection to Hitchcock, as his films all cover this ground so well. You can also expect me to open up more about my personal life, views and opinions—and you're warmly invited to do the same. Although I'm leading the discussion, we'll be travel buddies.</p><p>This new approach won’t be for everybody. Some members might even decide to leave the group. That’s okay, I wish them well. But if you’re a thinker and a seeker and you’re desirous of evolving into the kind of creature this 21st century planet needs (and you like Hitchcock movies), have I got a community for you! So I hope you’ll stick around. A great way to keep up with all our upcoming activities is with a free subscription to <i>HitchGeek Magazine</i>. <a href="https://www.joelgunz.com/hitchgeek-subscribe" target="_blank">Sign up</a>! </p><p>----</p><p>*Really, aren’t we all on this journey?</p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-51371850194466653182020-12-28T13:15:00.007-08:002020-12-28T14:00:19.640-08:00Celebrating Eleven Years on Facebook!<h3 style="text-align: left;"><i>It feels like the biggest jump cut ever: </i></h3><div>On December 1, 2009, I dropped a thin line into the ocean of social media, hoping to connect with a film nerd or two. That was the birth of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HitchcockGeek" target="_blank">Alfred Hitchcock Geek on Facebook</a>. Smash cut to today and, somehow, a community of over <i>195,000 fans</i> has gathered from around the world to celebrate our geekery for the Master of Cinema!
Along the way, to keep up with the conversation, we added a couple of very special co-hosts: Elisabeth Karlin and Pat McFadden, who bring a wealth of knowledge and three healthy scoops of passion, perspective and wit. <div><br /></div><div>In this era of suspicion and even resentment over social media's presence in our lives, it's right to ask: can anything good come from Facebook? I have to answer yes! On our page, at least, we've formed a healthy, thriving, community of folks talking about art. <i>Talking about ideas. </i></div><div><br /></div><div>It's fueled my work—writing, speaking and in the last few years, filmmaking. For that, I'm personal grateful. All this derives at least some inspiration from our conversations on Facebook. It's been a labor of love. What a ride. Thanks for your participation! And, like Frankie used to sing: <i>The best it yet to come!</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Here are a few highlights from the last decade-plus-one. (Because Google's Blogger platform doesn't like to play nice with Facebook (grrrr), these are screenshots. Click the image to go to the original post.)</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Hanging with two of the stars of The 39 Steps, who I interviewed following my talk:</i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=238194294688&id=194418010799" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1213" data-original-width="2591" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3WdcuxpMO6ySac0xqh2q_BkiJkX-JrmUYq6l3CgLNrrgYE2WSBNQ61kAInUzeWK-IFyjmYE2RxVY8aI2_67OLw5uN5R-kY9yFZGx4zSKR9KUK4e4jXvLhPDMziDPnoFp6yBlg7JWx_cV/w640-h301/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.00.57+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>A big part of our community has been to celebrate milestones of those in the Hitchcock-o-verse:</i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/194418010799/photos/a.346578780799/10150234185830800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1211" data-original-width="2596" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfqVK3tWanLaPFR7cKv9gTx0cTCp1kZPhb3vfTtsOTUCjKWeVPywOJLgFR8MM1kc8vDlDNldTHyeQ4ugLtSvcnOekCKnFL6R1wbvgLKjfTNphGs_kYScoPlHgAJB8ZoyQ6DCeudeo0Hn4/w640-h298/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.05.52+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Here's a peek at an early Facebook page banner:</i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=271052282974149&id=194418010799" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1211" data-original-width="2598" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh62cK0w6W661OAQy9I753r3QAJP3WbFySYHCH6n-qEpddHUOSXKQ28Jhznp5ha9FaTVgH21tSzIUpP7luLrOcU0Ll0jw6NRbfXzc8OHp5h3tSob11h-NEHGtgZCraFOaXAEy7l4THO1144/w640-h298/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.07.03+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>I knew there was </i>something <i>about Pat that made him just right to co-host this page..."</i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/194418010799/photos/a.346578780799/10150865163850800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1213" data-original-width="2591" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1mckRnsKV1mwRfVcnZ8NU6kUtEyPx_UiyfjEUUh8VA-QzHjv3OpwFOoRVXwQUN04We0IET1ykBJ9qNYCO0ar-Bd52WmBW7In6S4WkT8_dtal0MH3K5Z7bqfE7Pij_sUFVM3ntQn6Lf9b/w640-h300/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.07.21+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>".... not to mention Elisabeth Karlin:<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/194418010799/photos/a.346578780799/10151158400620800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="2594" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKjgXS1A2ZBRG1jDypMIFzvDGlYqnIGJJer1N4VsAS2KLBKGBH0yd34hA3JjKRqo0n1ehclmWHYfrGNV190Pb-cSKN3H8R3KlsfMRTBcEVBmIhIEXVWz8VfmIZ8jV27DhXLiBzBbw8eYB/w640-h300/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.07.41+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>If you'd ever questioned my commitment to this project:</i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/194418010799/photos/a.346578780799/10151267609470800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1214" data-original-width="2592" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEfnctt4E4M-sVaacpcPR4T12lyf8O4p2IYljSBR9nhoQPHVOEb1c0QQe9fkHXSqi2hWQZce3vje__-ovKvDsTxDppzVuMsBTin_qZcvaknGkM00N12IBe-w_KDZhhwc4K6q3_1QhSxxH/w640-h300/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.08.21+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>One of the greatest fringe benefits of building this community has been the friendships formed with scholars and authors like these guys:</i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151705143915800&id=194418010799" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="2593" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigDnoi2s7NqzDtYA0ES_JKzImq47bDsl6nZRUEznX0XqxgbkS_114QtJTxjRznIHdNyL-x8UgejpSSAoo0s1R9RiGq8lky61ATZGF3FyA-RyyS-DeNPcCxx_2433Bg1xA5VG350eVvcfGU/w640-h300/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.08.31+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>Not to mention giving a certain lady her overdue props:</i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/194418010799/photos/a.346578780799/10152204616890800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="2593" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAmchyphenhyphen8qxLdko_T0ga33xR6Bd6qB_P6fTAewmVQ5yaPVH_V1zC6oI3y7doYNfYh4R6lzh0nUbFd8s8LogGcNKwCwJIE8BkI0bMb3bU_A_KBx8jx8n83Tqel4IYzoF4vdYkVVMtQ8iL8dko/w640-h300/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.08.51+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>And this guy:</i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10154800183045800&id=194418010799&substory_index=0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1215" data-original-width="2589" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_ukayVs-UNa1H2OTeINtVT1Kz694bji7a8Iw_cvBx_GheaQ4Zau-OLndYrvjTpW6iDKPWbs-GMPBXjRmJqJBFyGPjmAOHP5jtsWmJnsrI_8E19NrV7E0sv-gq_0SiMgYYKt0I_CCK2g1/w640-h300/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.09.08+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>I don't know about you, but I see myself in the movies:</i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10155740976490800&id=194418010799" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="2594" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpzGckyiVjd8-cPG2bLUX0a5bMEplvph2aUGlAMkXI0B2q5sNpWBKmf9clJfKCdD_G_2wQqNRo7WdloB3SSUx3nw6X_MrG4fd22lUWGf4nT_4GKmGWHvzd85pyeGVNJ19QrocqdOJmhyoX/w640-h300/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.09.21+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>Of course, not all of the posts are educational. Some of them are practical life-lessons, like this one: </i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/194418010799/photos/a.346578780799/10156812062160800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1208" data-original-width="2602" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2rWUaBcu5_aiWWlXC6vS-V62qyOMmJvEAKBAnQ0ymRYPP6qBJK3oNLSGRhIpK8vHK9kp3boBeIglO7juj-nd1z3MJocJptC5Zo8A124aEWJ_S6xgZ-4O0GKP780HWye0LSuGliBycBD9/w640-h298/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.09.35+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">We've all grown up together. </h4><div>In the coming days, I'm going to announce a new direction for the Facebook community. Stick around for details, but for now consider this a preview of coming attractions:<div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/HitchcockGeek/posts/210816030609079" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1204" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOSJK9W5SWrwy80bAMmd7Gp9Pl6eksVmkNnqA2qy1ygywP8I4qqqycZHLA7bn4Z6d4i_2OCvl6Cpl7CEmCytCsmkFt9iIv5JqkF-5r449p-dVh6IhZRrZuItzMx6rZbhevAmZg3gPnX2N/w592-h640/Screen+Shot+2020-12-28+at+1.38.20+PM.png" width="592" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-59922429866551414902020-09-30T01:21:00.010-07:002020-10-01T00:17:25.449-07:00Alfred Hitchcock and the Art of the Long Shot <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKer0fhGiAH4XAZGQsRrxGqhF7eQucU8SRHUJ_muh1S4qyb9RU3XkcWfk-pbehgCAl68FGh2WhtZY_7J2M-Ac1cjHIkM0Tzj0zEciIn6wrhZSRUBBilw7CPh99tvP7JTqIu5nTZ4FhxoP/s481/Hitchcock+truffaut.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="481" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKer0fhGiAH4XAZGQsRrxGqhF7eQucU8SRHUJ_muh1S4qyb9RU3XkcWfk-pbehgCAl68FGh2WhtZY_7J2M-Ac1cjHIkM0Tzj0zEciIn6wrhZSRUBBilw7CPh99tvP7JTqIu5nTZ4FhxoP/w640-h347/Hitchcock+truffaut.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in their famed interview, with interpreter Helen Scott. Photo by Philippe Halsman.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Alfred Hitchcock spoke reverently of the emotional power of montage. “I don't care about the subject matter; I don't care about the acting; but I do care about the pieces of film and the photography and the sound track and all of the technical ingredients that make the audience scream. I feel it's tremendously satisfying for us to be able to use the cinematic art to achieve something of a mass emotion.” This, he often said, “is the whole art of the cinema.” </div><div><br /></div><div>In that sense, Hitch was a formalist, a disciple of Russian film theory pioneers Eisenstein and Kuleshov, preoccupied with the form of filmmaking over its content, such as plot, story or dialogue. As he said elsewhere, "Content is quite secondary to me.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Story conference transcripts reveal that he cared deeply for the content of his films. What he pursued was purely cinematic means to bring that content to life. That passion shines through in the way he employed the long take.</div><div><br /></div><div>One superb example can be found at least as far back as 1931, in <i>The Skin Game.</i> Putting cinema audiences in the privileged point of view of an auctioneer. Clocking in at two minutes and twenty seconds, it's covered in one continuous take, as the camera scans, darts and whips about the faces in the room, seeking bids. The audience feels the auctioneer's exasperation as the bidding gets off to a sluggish start, while he strains to wheedle a higher price for the land that's on the block. Excitement mounts as casual bidders drop out of the game, leaving the film's two antagonists to duke it out amongst themselves, jacking the price beyond what either had hoped to pay, the camera anxiously zipping between them.</div><br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY4J2tYrkQcuRdypfvnyWMjMWzrUB3JBDt9Wdw1oKbt9VS_lX5QtrIZQ372Fo8JJTFHNgHt_CDi-jeCTzPaTh1B1oeWM8gzj8ni33314vt36Hn9MGgnMm_MwJbsWRj5oF_HdEEP7yTuMsp/s1600/Auction+1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="391" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504136091103249506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY4J2tYrkQcuRdypfvnyWMjMWzrUB3JBDt9Wdw1oKbt9VS_lX5QtrIZQ372Fo8JJTFHNgHt_CDi-jeCTzPaTh1B1oeWM8gzj8ni33314vt36Hn9MGgnMm_MwJbsWRj5oF_HdEEP7yTuMsp/w518-h391/Auction+1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 302px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px;" width="518" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwijMbcmPf8i_No7vXfyjTAltjYWsTIfcTNOXV0bkx93IBZxEiNMj9nxK5EAw5UW5XJcG-iglj6OMxzLQppgyFNZ0-MdWjZmuM8hyphenhyphenlMltWJQQBwoYl_Oy1slffd8igJlgKd7fwBc3-5Fc9/s1600/Auction+2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504136085396898130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwijMbcmPf8i_No7vXfyjTAltjYWsTIfcTNOXV0bkx93IBZxEiNMj9nxK5EAw5UW5XJcG-iglj6OMxzLQppgyFNZ0-MdWjZmuM8hyphenhyphenlMltWJQQBwoYl_Oy1slffd8igJlgKd7fwBc3-5Fc9/s400/Auction+2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 302px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg68k1H7xKOagjXA_17m-ONla5oveDs89Kw5xxCNhx4-aVS94sNL6ukfnV_Y2UDHLIFA1xPp4Dv1IRjprhCw8ebG0hrnX7mTnpLQmcQTPUpkTB6pTjKKU7Dk59HbTo4Q6L_6cejF0kWjnj9/s1600/Auction+3.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504136080854084322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg68k1H7xKOagjXA_17m-ONla5oveDs89Kw5xxCNhx4-aVS94sNL6ukfnV_Y2UDHLIFA1xPp4Dv1IRjprhCw8ebG0hrnX7mTnpLQmcQTPUpkTB6pTjKKU7Dk59HbTo4Q6L_6cejF0kWjnj9/s400/Auction+3.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 302px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXSmrZMG8XXDv0q1sDRuBfd-5vMS3hSJ7GjzRGlZlHDtN4fqKbAwsHPCHQCFw9TMxRB1RSYqKJZCXu2uwMFKIz0dG6rVg6vyx53NhfJga_u-bI3KU6T8pzZgYFv4nvu_3Nw53YbJzekptQ/s1600/Auction+4.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" height="413" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504136072163137682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXSmrZMG8XXDv0q1sDRuBfd-5vMS3hSJ7GjzRGlZlHDtN4fqKbAwsHPCHQCFw9TMxRB1RSYqKJZCXu2uwMFKIz0dG6rVg6vyx53NhfJga_u-bI3KU6T8pzZgYFv4nvu_3Nw53YbJzekptQ/w547-h413/Auction+4.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 302px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" width="547" /></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Who hasn't fantasized about the thrill of standing at an auctioneer's podium? Hitchcock used a long, subjective take to give the audience just such a taste. Shots from <i>The Skin Game</i>.</b></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Getting all up in that.</h3><div>A long take can make the audience feel as if it's in the room with the characters, invisible, present-but-not-present, wandering among the characters. (I'm reminded of Saboteur's 's Barry Kane, who sneaks around the blind woodsman, all the time watching him nervously.) It recalls Hitch's description of the famed love scene in Notorious: “The public, represented by the camera, was the third party to this embrace” as spectators were “given the great privilege of embracing Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman together. It was a kind of temporary ménage à trois.” The pair fuse in an intimate close-up, necking and pecking at each other—two minutes and forty-one seconds of uncut love.</div><br /><br /><p style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0in;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='676' height='561' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxgrwWPZTBwpVq7hMVaEwBCYwPAZJXSgfDOY1lON9_xfq738X7Jd5v4FwbrAgC8xAqrWfeCPHYkaRMm61noNg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">Keep the feeling alive. </h3><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Longer takes also maintain the mood of the scene. In Hitchcock's 1940 film, Rebecca De Winter is a mystery. She seems to haunt Manderley estate—but why? The answer is revealed in the seaside cabin. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The scene opens on the tortured face of Maxim (Lawrence Olivier), alone, illuminated from behind, his face in profile as he reveals his dark secret. As he finishes his monologue, the camera pulls back to allow his bride (Joan Fontaine) to rush in in a fever of compassion. The camera then pulls in closer, foregrounding her hitherto unseen strength and resourcefulness, as Maxim's customary self-possession dissolves. Then, strangely, a telephone rings. As if prompted by this alien noise, the camera pulls back and tilts down to gaze at it, sharing in the surprise of the audience and the couple onscreen. That jangling bell could have broken the spell, but this two-minutes-and-thirty-seven-second take preserves the mood of mystery and suspense. </div><div><br /></div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='672' height='559' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzH_XoL2RK_XMOM3IY7KdfGLSr0Mlh7pJ6YleYecOQkKv9eqZFazYVUORykuOC_WgqqcN-xfuUJ2SsXluEu' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div><br /><div>Back in the 1980s, when I was in my teens, one of the questions I had about Hitchcock's style was: If he was such a devotee of montage, why did he employ so many long takes? Wouldn't that have been a violation of his theoretical code?</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Alfred Hitchcock walks into a bar. The bartender asks, "Why the long take?"</h3><div>In 1948, Hitch, the most vocal proponent of montage since Eisenstein, departed from his usual style to create a entire film as if shot in one take. (The film was actually constructed from a series of seven-to-nine minute continuously filmes scenes and spliced to appear mostly as one take.) That, of course, was Rope. It was an ambitious move, to be sure. In the magazine <i>L'Ecran Francais,</i> Jean-Charles Tacchela and Roger Thérond pronounced Hitch “audaciously sure of his audacity.” You might suppose that its novelty alone, buoyed by James Stewart's star presence, would have been sure to attract a large audience. (It didn't.) Why the long take? </div><div><br /></div><div>First, it's important to mention the context in which the film was made. While Hitchcock kept himself busy making formalist montage-oriented movies, a countervailing theory was emerging that stressed long takes and the inventive use of depth of field (the background in the frame). This idea was put forth most explicitly in the 1950s by French critic André Bazin, co-founder of the influential magazine <i>Cahiers du Cinéma</i>. While montage directs the viewer to have one response to the film, Bazin believed that a person should have the freedom to choose what to dwell on within the frame. In fact, he opposed editing and montage in the strongest terms. “Editing was the destruction of the cinematic form,” he said. “the destruction of the essence of cinema...it is the shot, the unedited gaze of the camera onto the world before its lens that constitutes cinema's aesthetic core.” He lauded Orson Welles, whose use of background as counterpoint to foreground action is legendary. (My favorite use of this technique by Welles occurs in the long-take opening scene of <i>The Trial</i> (1962), in which K (Anthony Perkins) is rousted out of bed the state police.)</div><div><br /></div><div>If montage uses bits of film to create an idea or emotion that exists purely in the audience's head, long takes are, in Bazin's view, pure, unambiguous representations of reality. The emphasis in this latter approach is almost entirely on the content of the scene, the camera dollying and swiveling about as it goes about framing a scene.</div><div><br /></div><div>So along came Hitchcock, always on the alert to try out the latest technologies and tricks of the trade. Though Bazin might be rolling in his grave as I write this, <i>Rope</i> is, in a way, a consummate example of his own philosophy. As one 80-minute length of almost uninterrupted film, it is the granddaddy of all long takes; but remember this too: its ever-present, ever-changing New York skyline – which was a character in itself – along with an elaborately designed sky, delivers an infinitely deep field of vision! As the movie's soiree goes about its not-so-merry way and the camera (always a surrogate for both the director and his audience) follows the characters about that swanky Manhattan penthouse, spun-glass clouds scud across the sky, the daylight recedes from bright afternoon to orange sunset to starry night time, and the city lights begin to twinkle as if in concert with the party. Hitchcock's cameo occurs in the form of a flashing red neon replica of his famous profile, punctuating the cityscape like an artist's signature.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hitch first saw the Patrick Hamilton play at London's Ambassador Theater in 1929, and ever since then had wanted to adapt it for the screen. He'd discussed it with screen writer Peter Viertel during the production of <i>Saboteur</i> in 1942, suggesting, in the words of biographer Patrick McGilligan, “that it might lend itself to being shot in continuous, carefully planned, single-shot takes.” In later discussions with Hitch's business partner, Sidney Bernstein, McGilligan reveals that the producer desired to see West End plays filmed just as they had been staged, so as to preserve these classic dramas for posterity. With that, Hitch didn't need any prompting to trot out his ideas for <i>Rope.</i> And this is an important aspect of the film: the play takes place in real time on a single set: given his vision and Bernstein's convictions, how could he not direct the film adaptation as if in one single motion?</div><div><br /></div><div>And so he went into action. Having satisfied his stipulated desire for long takes, Hitch also set about devising perhaps the most extraordinary background field ever up until then – that scale model of New York City, complete with thousands of tiny lighted windows, which covered three times the floor space of the actual set. (That diorama was an obvious precursor to the Greenwich Village courtyard apartments in <i>Rear Window</i>—maybe even the topography of George Lucas' similarly-lit space cruisers in <i>Star Wars</i>.) The film's aforementioned gradual transformation from afternoon sun to full nighttime served to reinforce the illusion that the story was unfolding in real time. But that was just a trick. Realistically speaking, there is no way its events could have all happened in under an hour and a half. Its actual time is compressed. Aided by the changes in the background scenery and by the long take, which directors had long known seemed to stretch the perception of time, the story only <i>appears </i>to take place in real time. In fact, that elasticizing of perceived time is one of the film's flaws: though shorter in duration than most films, <i>Rope</i> drags, seeming to last longer than it actually does.<br /><br /> <h1 style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: normal;">Hitchcock's long take is a unique form, neither montage nor long shot.</i></h1><div><br /></div><div>Bazin should have been impressed with Hitchcock's application of his ideas in Rope, but he wasn't. He said:</div><div><blockquote>“Each time we are struck by his effectiveness, it is because [Hitchcock] managed, at the cost of a thousand resolved hardships, to create the impression of shot and reverse shot or a close-up where it would have been easy to use a single [edited] take like everyone else. This directing through continuous traveling shots—which is simply an endless succession of reframings—is completely different from Wyler's 'stationary shot' or from Welles, who managed to integrate into a single frame many moments of a virtual editing.”</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>Bazin's problem was that, despite the long-take methods Hitchcock nevertheless continued to carefully control audience perception—a result opposite of the democratic looseness that Bazin called for. And Hitch himself admitted as much. Perhaps recalling Bazin's rebuke, he told Truffaut that “the film was, in a sense, precut. The mobility of the camera and the movement of the players closely followed my usual cutting practice.... I maintained the rule of varying the size of the image in relation to its emotional importance.”</div><div><br /></div><div>As the late Hitchcock scholar Robin Wood put it,</div><div><blockquote>“For Hitchcock, the experimentation of <i>Rope</i> is never in the least conceived as in opposition to his already highly developed montage technique, but as a possible alternative to and equivalent for it, another means of exerting total control over the gaze and the emotional response of the viewer.”</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>While it's true that Hitch's long takes follow a different train of thought than that of Wyler or Welles, I can't agree with Bazin, who held that Hitch could more easily have achieved his effects through traditional editing. The long take in <i>Rope</i> gives the camera (again, thus the audience) a visceral, if invisible presence and underscores the claustrophobic, hothouse hermeticism of the two killers. The uninterrupted take is an essential component of the film's overall design.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other words, Hitchcock's long take is a unique tool, neither montage nor Bazinian long take.</div><div><br /></div><div>Keep in mind, though (and Wood goes on to concur), that however constrained the audience might be in its response as a result of the uncut camerawork, it is never reduced to automatons. As in all his films, if he exerted unusual control over the audience, he also dignified its free will by making it privy to an extraordinary abundance of information withheld from the movie's characters. Indeed, that's the basis for his development of suspense—and also the objective of Bazin's brand of realism. The audience responds to Rope by engaging with the film, trying to guess the characters' next move, at times even reacting as if in a debate with what Hitch is saying through his surrogates, the characters.</div><div><br /></div><div>And so Hitch's camera, in one single motion, weaves a path among Brandon, Phillip and their dinner guests, swooping in to examine a broken glass or a stack of books, while discreetly, like a good guest, staying out of the kitchen. At the theater, audiences watched (hungrily?) as dinner was served and consumed; at the cinema, they can almost smell the chicken and taste the toasty fizz of champagne.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, in response to Wood's comments above, I believe that Hitch wasn't so much looking for an alternative technique as he was searching for a synthesis of Eisenstein's formalist methods and Bazin's mise en scene. Between those two critics, almost all that could be said about film theory up to that point had been said. It would seem that Hitch was searching for a way to add his two cents to the theoretical conversation with the development of a new film grammar that combined the best that both previous methods had to offer. Getting back to Bazin, I also disagree with him somewhat that <i>Rope</i> is overly manipulative with its images. That may true at certain points, but as the clip below shows, there are other times when Hitch magnanimously gave audiences plenty to choose from in the mise-en-scene.</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='676' height='562' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw0P8TKWhii8XJUSPp43zT7PyfgXJh8dDDCe_XLfHdghAdCpBqLimgGTfguykh7V9e9gqBN25Oh8MHoYHmrHw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>In this scene, Mrs. Wilson (Edith Evanson) clears the dishes from atop David Kentley's makeshift casket. We know his corpse is in there, and the suspense is terrific in this cinematic fugue, which combines offscreen dialogue, dramatic use of depth of field and, of course, Swiss flywheel timing to heighten the audience's awareness of all that is going on and to keep it guessing about what will happen next. My experience of this scene is that at times I feel I must choose between listening to the dialogue and worrying about whether the chest's lid is going to be opened all the way. (Although the resolution in this clip isn't the best, later on in the sequence you can see Hitch's flashing red profile in the skyline.)</b></div><div><div><br /></div><div>There are many reasons to praise Hitchcock's filmmaking ability: his technical virtuosity; his adeptness in any setting from the writing phase and into the cutting room; his survival skills in an industry that believes backs were made for stabbing. Hitch excelled at integrating all that film had to offer as a communications medium, seeking to resolve apparent contradictions in opposing methods and approaches. It's a big task. I'd say he was Master of the Long Shot. </div></div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-52207123415675284252020-08-31T10:55:00.002-07:002020-08-31T18:30:45.607-07:00Move aside printing, the moving image is the world's greatest innovation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Why is it always Gutenberg, Gutenberg, Gutenberg? </i></span></h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/l0Iy3SmLtviyE3bvG/giphy.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="480" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/l0Iy3SmLtviyE3bvG/giphy.gif" /></a></div><br /><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The world's first movie, by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge" target="_blank">Eadward Muybridge</a>. </b></span> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal">A few years ago, <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i> assembled a panel of historians to compile a list of the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovations-list/309536/" target="_blank">50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel</a>.<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: x-small;"> </span>The
airplane (#15), penicillin (#28) and personal computers (#16) all got due cred. As did the moldboard plow, which ranked #30. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Gutenberg's printing press snagged the #1 slot. Again.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">What did motion pictures get? Not a damn thing. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">That ain't right. By photographically capturing motion for repeatable
playback, film introduced something new to the world, fulfilling a dream as old as mankind: 20,000 years before Mickey Mouse, the artists of France's Lascaux caves painted murals <a href="http://nautil.us/issue/11/light/early-humans-made-animated-art" target="_blank">designed come alive in the flickering lamplight</a>. Writing is a newcomer, showing up only 5,000 years ago, and Gutenberg went to press around 1450. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">What did the printing press do for us, <i>really</i>? Not as much as you might think. The generally accepted story is that printing made literature available at cheap rates for the masses. For writers, it was a windfall: just about anyone had a shot at getting a book published, leading, eventually to a world where Newton’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arithmetica
Universalis</i> could be shelf buddies with <i>50 Shades of Grey.</i> But the rest of the story is a bit more
complicated—and less flattering for Gutenberg’s invention.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
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Let's take a closer look at this, because the first 100 years after the
invention of printing mirrors in many ways the first half century of motion pictures. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">A tough sell.</h4><div class="MsoNormal">At first, Gutenberg's first products didn't exactly fly off the shelf. Customers didn't know what to make of the new technology, and they looked askance at his product; in fact, printing's very survival was far from assured. Daniel Boorstin
writes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Discoverers</i> that “In fifteenth-century Europe innovation itself
was an unfamiliar and suspect idea.” How come?<o:p></o:p></div>
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While Gutenberg is thought of as a Renaissance figure, his life actually took place at the tail end of the Medieval Era. Literacy
was still reserved for the wealthy upper class—and they weren’t exactly a
group of early adopters. Publishers, on the other hand, saw Gutenberg’s invention, not as a key to an information revolution (a concept they probably would have been averse to
anyway), but merely a way to efficiently recreate handwriting. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Consequently, “in many ways the most interesting period in the history of the
printed book is the first century after Gutenberg’s Bible, when we can see the
ambivalence of cultivated European readers toward the new technology,” concludes Boorstein. Introducing
the printed book was akin teaching your
grandfather how to use Twitter.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Early publishers went to great lengths
to accommodate their customers’ taste for handwriting, serving up
imitations of the real thing. Intricate hand-drawn illustrations were added
after printing, while the text was “distressed” to resemble the touch of a scribe. The
implications, though, couldn’t be erased: handmade originals were the superior
product and printed books were a knock-off. Slightly cheaper, they were still fantastically expensive, affordable only to the privileged few who nevertheless had the means—and social incentives—to support their local scribe by buying the real thing. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">The scribes did push back. This army of well-paid, well-connected copyists with a millenniums-long tradition went on the PR and legislative offensive. The first book bans had nothing to do with morals and everything to do with preserving jobs. But print stuck around, eventually spreading
enlightenment values among the educated class, providing intellectual fuel for an age of revolutions. Such gains worked
the way they always had: by a small group of enlightened elite acting on behalf
of the illiterate masses.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How well did Gutenberg’s press serve the cause of literacy?
Due to its high cost, book ownership remained a
wealthy person’s prerogative for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">four more
centuries</i>. The world had to wait for mass production in the
19<sup>th</sup> century before it could have affordable books. From that perspective, the
industrial revolution should be credited for the spread of
literacy, not Gutenberg’s invention. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The fact is, printed books and their software—literacy—ignored entire continents for centuries. Swaths of Africa and South
America remain illiterate till today. What about China and Japan? They’d
already been printing their own books for hundreds of years and their
pictographic writing had no use for moveable type. In Asia, Gutenberg’s
invention was disregarded with a transcontinental yawn. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Gutenberg's press did change
all sorts of social equations—but only in Europe, and only among those at the top of the
food chain—and even then it took an awfully long time. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/VQfgioUf5Ev5u/giphy.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="375" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/VQfgioUf5Ev5u/giphy.gif" width="500" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The world's first cat video, by Muybridge.</span></b></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>A new caste system</b></h4><div class="MsoNormal">With the industrial revolution came reading. Yet, literacy created a new caste system even as it dismantled old ones. Basic literacy—the ability to read a job application or mortgage agreement—merely assured survival. But, as E. D. Hirsch has pointed out, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cultural literacy </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">became the new secret handshake that kept power</span> concentrated among the upper classes. It wasn’t that you could read but, instead, <i>what you’d read</i> that guaranteed your upward mobility.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Gutenberg's invention did change the world, but in a roundabout way, and only after centuries of work. With film, the changes are far more dramatic and swift. That’s why I question printing’s number one spot on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantic</i> list—and I believe motion pictures deserve more credit. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>The most revolutionary invention of all time</b></h4><div class="MsoNormal">
Like printing, motion pictures were dismissed by educated folk. Early on, film was a cheap, less sophisticated alternative to live theater: a lot of it was softcore
porn. It wasn’t until film evolved a language of its own—montage, framing, the
close-up—that anybody would take it seriously as a visual art form. Even then,
perceptions stuck. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fledgling film industry itself held its products in low regard: young Alfred Hitchcock's career was nearly brought to an end when the film distributor C. M. Woolf initially refused to handle
his first masterpiece, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lodger,</i> because he felt it was too pretentiously “arty.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Impact on the world</b></h4><div class="MsoNormal">The story of the rise of movies evokes, well, meteors. Rockets. Cheetahs. Unlike Gutenberg’s books, motion pictures were practically
an overnight, ‘round the world phenomenon. Even the barest of stories—or even no
story—pulled in audiences lined up around the block, cramming into whatever makeshift auditorium could host them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Film was easy to duplicate and quickly bring to market. Exhibiting machinery—hand-cranked peep shows at first; motorized, large screen projectors later—could be quickly built and then operated by just about anyone. Lacking audio, the flickering images crossed borders to communicate with audiences around the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A simple switch-out of dialogue cards made it a cinch to localize a
movie for any language. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Within 25 years of Edison’s first commercial exhibition in 1894, practically everyone on earth had seen a movie.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the same time, creative control over the final cut wasn’t
nearly as centralized as it is today. Before Hitchcock came along and asserted the principle of film authorship, there was far less control over what shape the film would take as it toured the world. Local presenters routinely altered sections of the film to suit local customs and tastes. As long as ticket sales held up, nobody really cared. Like the
blogosphere, whose success is due, in part, to lax interpretation of copyright
laws, this Wild West era of cinematic distribution contributed to the speedy
adoption of movie entertainment among diverse cultures.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Within 25 years of Edison’s first commercial
exhibition in 1894, practically everyone on earth had seen a movie. Global fandom—and
the distribution systems needed to serve it—was a reality. Books never had it so good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From that global trade emerged a new product: personality. Actors who starred in these movies wielded
enormous power on a worldwide stage. By the 1920s, tickets were selling, not on the
basis of story, but for their star appeal. Actors like Rudolph Valentino and Mary Pickford could promise a sell-out show
anywhere on earth, and this influence led to hyperinflation in salaries. By
1926 Charlie Chaplin was making $30,000 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a
week</i>—half a mil in today’s money.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Early on, Berlin, Rome and Hollywood were roughly neck and neck in the international movie trade. But World War I devastated those industries in Europe, and the United States thus became the world’s center of movie production, making American culture and values one of our country’s chief export products.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it wasn’t all entertainment. The first Pathé Newsreel
of 1908 launched a revolution of news-only theaters London to Tokyo—the prototype of CNN—begetting the first generation of news TV junkies. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/BhqCNnw7Zpj0c/giphy.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="480" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/BhqCNnw7Zpj0c/giphy.gif" /></a></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Impact on the
individual</b></h4><div class="MsoNormal">Within a few short years, the moving image acquired—and continues to hold—power that books never really had and may never have. Hear me out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the Western world, printed books led to great
scientific advancements and aided the Protestant Reformation
and the Renaissance. But, as mentioned, for centuries, those advances were
celebrated mainly among a wealthy few. Intellectual advancements in academia trickled down to the illiterate masses
over time. At least, that was the hope. The process could take years—if it was
really completed at all. But now that creek is running dry. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Bernard Schweizer, a college lit professor, expressed his frustration that few, if any, of his students were able to pick
up on the literary nuances of a reading he'd assigned. Moaned the professor:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“My students can grasp only the surface meaning of
McKibben’s essay.… Take all the (un-footnoted) references to Gandhi, Hemingway,
Miguel de Cervantes, Orwell, Thoreau, and the Bible out of McKibben’s essay,... and you
end up with a deflated text that looks as if it had been gone over by a
censor’s pen in some weird dystopia.” <span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(11)</span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So much for the trickle-down of ideas. As Schweizer states:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“But that does not mean that this kind of cultural literacy has
ceased to be relevant. Indeed, I believe it is still alive and well, but that
it is now cultivated only in a narrow circle of the privileged classes.... The issue of
cultural literacy is socio-economically coded.”</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wow. That sounds bleak. Unfortunately, Schweizer is only
telling part of the story. It’s true that such literacy in the Great Books is fast disappearing,
but that's only one kind of literacy. While I love the classics, there's a big part of me that wants to say good riddance. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Thanks largely to film and video, Schweizer's class system is being demolished. Today, it takes a knowledge of pop culture—film, TV and pop music—to signal one's cultural literacy. And it's freely available to everyone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The lamentations of conservative thinkers such as Schweizer, E. D. Hirsch and Allan Bloom ensconce them in the past. The changes they identify don’t automatically imply that people are
getting any dumber than their previous generation or that they are
less equipped to take on the daunting challenges we now face. <span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(12)</span></span></span> </span></span>In fact, new forms of literacy—led by the moving image—are stepping up to become the
cultural currency ideally suited for a new generation and the challenges and opportunities it faces. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a matter of months, one film can accomplish what it
once took a book years to do. Have you actually read Nietzsche? Me neither. But the runaway success of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Groundhog Day</i>—Danny Rubin’s adaptation
of Nietzsche’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gay Science—</i>brought
the old Immoralist’s particular brand of fatalism to the world in less than a
year, changing office chat and happy hour conversations forever. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: large;">If my Facebook friends can conceive of the universe as a giant hologram, who should they thank, Schopenhauer or Neo?</span></i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even fewer people have heard of the 19<sup>th</sup> century
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, but all you need to know about his classic book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The World as Will and Representation </i>is right there in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Matrix</i>. (<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">13)</span></span></span></span></span> Want to know how? Take take the red pill. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It could be argued that some of the nuance of the original
thought of these great thinkers is lost in translation to the 90-minute format and glitzy graphics of film. But the impact of these movies goes deep and they do invite repeated watching,
which in turn, encourages deeper reflection. Pothead philosophers, rise up! Or whatever!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Seriously, it's as the visionary science fiction writer Philip K. Dick once observed: "The symbols of the divine initially show up at the trash stratum." Nowhere are his words more true than in the "trash" output of film and video. You'll find the sweet divine there—with no bitter elitist aftertaste.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I suspect that more people are stopping to think about the
nature of reality in philosophical terms as a result of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Matrix</i> than most college students who've slogged their way through that 19th century German philosopher's labyrinthine syntax (and then
promptly forgot it). If my Facebook friends can conceive of the universe as a giant hologram, who should they thank: Schopenhauer or Neo? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact that a film can go about all this business in just a couple of hours is kind of a
miracle. This type of cinematic literacy has yet to fully accounted
for. Such is the impact of motion pictures on the individual.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">Time for change</h4><div class="MsoNormal">And the moving image does promote change at the grassroots level. In the 1960s, Footage brought back from Vietnam forever changed our attitude toward war as a solution to international problems. In Oregon, the TV documentary <i>Pollution in Paradise</i> kick-started the state's environmental movement. Its policies remain among the most progressive in the world.</div><div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
While Michael Pollan's books have had a huge influence on our attitude toward the Big Business of food, it took the documentary film <i>Super Size Me</i> to nudge fast food chains to offer healthier menu choices.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After literally centuries of police brutality, the Black Lives Matter movement has started to see real gains in government policy because supporters are able to point phone's video camera at violent incidents when they occur. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When it comes to social mobility, even in the upper echelons of society, your ability to quote Thoreau may or may not win you any points. But if you don't know the origin of the phrase "May the Force be with you," you're screwed. <br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Do the math</h4></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here's an aspect of media power that's quite profound: film and video tend towards social sharing. Initially, films were exhibited in a single-user format (like a book or magazine): think of those wind-up peep shows you can still find at old-timey pizza parlors. But exhibitors quickly determined that more money could be made (and the spectacle enhanced) by projecting the moving image onto a large screen. After that, TV came into the home and by the 1950s, motion pictures were serving everyone simultaneously from large theater crowds to barooms solitary shut-ins. Lately, the circle has closed: mobile phones are once again presenting movies to an audience of one—just like those peep shows—yet they're always accompanied by that differentiation "share this" button. Unlike writing, the moving image is all things to all people. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Reading, by contrast, is private, solitary experience. That's its strength! But think about the mathematical implications: tending as it does to a shared experience, the moving picture will always have exponentially more power than reading. <br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Gutenberg's press, combined with efficiencies created by the industrial revolution, brought 5,000 years of written literacy to its logical conclusion. Motion pictures brought an end to that and ushered in a new era of post-reading literacy based on the moving image. Thanks to its astonishingly fast penetration of and
acceptance in the global marketplace, motion picture technology—both film and
video—has brought ideas large and small to all nations and language groups. It has also been the key to reshaping global society on a scale and with a whiplash rapidity never before seen. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">For better or worse, the moving image has brought the entire human race closer together than any other technological development. The moving image was here long before writing. And it may be here long after. Here’s to the next 5,000 years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]--><h4 style="text-align: left;">Footnotes</h4>
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Weighing in was a panel of 12 scientists, historians and technologists, along
with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantic Monthly</i>’s own senior
editor, Alexis Madrigal, who evidently pulled rank to make the panel
contributed to the list.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
I’m also distinguishing film and video from their exhibitionary components—the
projector and the television (#45)—both of whose utility depends on the
former’s existence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Remember why <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/angelameiquan/muybridge-photographs-reinvented-as-animated-gifs-70fn?sub=1822534_641235" target="_blank">old Muybridge did it</a>? He needed to settle an age-old dispute about
whether or not a galloping horse’s four legs ever leave the ground all at once.
(They do.) Thus, from its beginnings, film has been used to show us realities
that we can’t perceive with the naked eye. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Specifically, the suite of reusable movable-type technology that Gutenberg
developed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Just for perspective, Galileo’s heresy went to trial nearly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">200 years</i> after Gutenberg printed his
Bible.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Even today, original art is esteemed more highly than quality prints. Only
through original art can you literally remain in touch with the artist behind
it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
In the Middle Ages, the written word was revered in a
way that’s quite foreign to our Information Age. Possession of a handwritten
book invoked a special relationship to the personality behind the content, be
it a work of philosophy or erotica. In this relationship, the scribe held a
priestly role, intermediating between the two. The scribe’s handwriting served
to enhance that relationship: subtle changes in his script were like commentary
that could emphasize important details or signal the presence of humor. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
They could well afford to do so: at the time, studio heads owned the theater
chains, distribution and, of course, actors, directors and writers (under
contract) and could name their price for tickets. Ticket prices tripled in
America in 1920s, going from $.50 at the beginning of the decade to as much as
$1.65, which adjusted for inflation, would be the equivalent of $22.50, making
today’s first run prices a bargain. That’s why studio heads were called moguls.
That’s also why their vertical oligopolies were broken up in 1948 when the U.S.
Supreme Court decided they’d been violating antitrust laws (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.</i>).
(In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo,</i> various characters’ talk
of the old days, when men had “the power and the freedom,” might also be a nod
to that studio system for whose abuses the movie is a metaphor.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Maybe the contrast between Hollywood schlock and these exquisite movie palaces
was the real joke behind the Marx Brothers’ high-comedy slapstick extravaganza <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Night at the Opera.</i> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The recent discovery of Hitch’s assistant directorial effort, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The White Shadow</i>, (1924) reveals a lot
about the international scope of British films at that time, not to speak of
the much more powerful American and German film industries. As silent films
were passed from one theater to the next in their international travels, they
would come to rest in far-flung lands like Argentina or Czechoslovakia; New
Zealand’s North Island town of Hastings was the last stop for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The White Shadow</i>. Because the films
would have been rather worn out by then and shipping was expensive, there they
would stay. The silent film industry was truly global.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span> This
makes me wonder whether the problem wasn’t with those students but with
McKibben’s presumably brilliant and well-reasoned essay. In fact, the
assumption Scweizer makes—blaming the audience for the failure of the writer to
connect with it —pretty much sums up why environmental writers like
McKibben—sexy though they and their cause may be—have difficulty convincing anyone
outside their circle jerk of fellow believers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref11" name="_edn11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> "Cultural
Literacy: Is It Time to Revisit the Debate?" <i>Thought & Action</i> <b>25</b> (Fall
2009)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn12" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref12" name="_edn12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Generation Y may not know its Thoreau from a hole in the ground, but as pointed
out in a recent article in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/opinion/sunday/millennial-searchers.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times</a> by Emily Esfahani Smith and
Jennifer L. Aaker, they’re much sharper than we give them credit for. Recent surveys show that they are repudiating the
materialistic excesses of previous generations and that “meaningful work was
among the three most important factors defining career success.”</div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn13" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref13" name="_edn13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The film’s co-directors, the Wachowskis, assigned this book to Keanu
Reeves as preparation for his role as Neo.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn14" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref14" name="_edn14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
And what is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Monsters, Inc.,</i> but
Schopenhauer for tots?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn15" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref15" name="_edn15" style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Another great example of bringing existential ennui to the masses.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-3605258319996067902019-02-13T09:46:00.000-08:002019-02-13T12:24:18.360-08:00Anatomy of the Gaze: A Hitchcockian Infographic<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="484" data-image-id="0*uEMqoujrlneHE3u9.jpeg" data-width="640" height="483" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/0*uEMqoujrlneHE3u9.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Anatomy of the Gaze, yours truly, 2019</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<section class="section section--body" name="01ae"><div class="section-content">
<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="ef9b" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Scratch beneath the nitrate gloss of any given Alfred Hitchcock movie, and you’ll find it’s flabbergastingly erudite. So much so that if you’re going to properly geek out on his films, you’ll inevitably pick up a little nineteenth century German philosophy, twentieth century geopolitics, art history, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2004/02/bates-motel-coming-to-neighborhood-near.html" href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2004/02/bates-motel-coming-to-neighborhood-near.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">the cultural impact of Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System</a> and lot more along the way. It’s a bachelors degree in the humanities, taught by a single, rather droll professor. I bring this up because, in my last Hitchcock Geek video — <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/24491751" href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/24491751" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Freak the Geek: Dead Ringers, Part 3</a> — I needed to create an infographic (shown above) that could succinctly describe Male Gaze theory as it relates to Hitchcock.* In the spirit of his style, I took a similar allusive approach. And in the further spirit of T. S. Eliot’s footnotes, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Harper’s Magazine</em>’s annotations and/or David Foster Wallace’s markup, I thought it’d be helpful to provide my own gloss of the damn thing, starting with the title, which tips its hat to Otto Preminger’s <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Anatomy of a Murder</em> (1959) and Saul Bass’s iconic title sequence and advertising poster. From there, the associations run free like blood down the drain of a flyspeck motel on a lost highway. </span></figcaption></figure><div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">The background</strong> </span></h3>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9303">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Maybe you’ve already noticed the resemblance between my picture and Paul Klee’s celebrated <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Twittering Machine</em> (1922):</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1350" data-image-id="1*xazcRqbgrD2ARwKjwb45DA.jpeg" data-width="994" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/1*xazcRqbgrD2ARwKjwb45DA.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Twittering Machine, Paul Klee, 1922</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="edaa">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Klee was Hitch’s favorite artist, so I had to incorporate his work into my project <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">somehow. </em>I was attracted to <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Twittering Machine</em> in particular because its apparent theme of man versus machine (or is it bird vis-á-vis machine?) relate organically to his technique in creating the piece: the original pen-and-ink drawing was imprinted on this watercolor-daubed paper surface via oil transfer, giving it a somewhat manufactured look. Thus the painting, like its subject, is a hybrid of human creation and mechanical reproduction. These thoughts weighed upon my mind as I used the digital tools in Adobe Photoshop to assemble and process the drawings, engravings and photographs that go into <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Anatomy of the Gaze</em>. In the 1920s, in both his art and his lectures at the Bauhaus, Klee expressed ambivalence toward the relationship between nature and technology; <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Twittering Machine</em> takes a wry look at the line that divides them and then smudges it. He would have giggled to know that <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Twittering </em>reproductions would one day hang in the baby rooms around the world, insinuating joy and nightmares into countless newborns’ pre-lingual minds— but I don’t think he would have been surprised by the rise of Photoshop, Instagram filters and deepfake technologies that reduce the artistic struggle to that of a keystroke.**</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="edaa">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">Diagramming the gaze</strong> </span></h3>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="8299">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If Umberto Eco is my spirit animal, then <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://publicdomainreview.org/2011/09/13/robert-fludd-and-his-images-of-the-divine/" href="https://publicdomainreview.org/2011/09/13/robert-fludd-and-his-images-of-the-divine/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Robert Fludd</a> might be my…I don’t know… Wii avatar? His whackadoodle esoteric diagrams speak a truth to me that has nothing to do with science or maybe even reason; still, they compel me to, well, gaze upon them. His <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Representation of Consciousness</em> (1619) has yet to be bested by modern science or philosophy, and what’s not to like about a guy who won’t shy away from explaining the unexplainable? His engravings reach across the centuries, inspiring me to create my <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Anatomy</em>.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1345" data-image-id="1*e2VoeR2y4yPf7RiGyQmvcw.png" data-width="926" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/1*e2VoeR2y4yPf7RiGyQmvcw.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em class="markup--em markup--figure-em" style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Representation of Consciousness, Robert Fludd, 1619</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The eyes have it—or—Jeepers, creepers, where did Dalí get those peepers?</span></strong></h3>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9a64">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hitch was a card-carrying surrealist, and through that (cough) lens, his films actually commented on feminist Gaze theory decades before it was articulated by <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1403992460/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1403992460/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Laura Mulvey</a>. Think of all those scenes of his that weaponize the very act of looking, of watching, of voyeuring — even glances that break the fourth wall to set movie audiences on edge! When he hired Salvador Dalí to paint those <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-dali-hitchcock-brought-surrealism-hollywood" href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-dali-hitchcock-brought-surrealism-hollywood" rel="noopener" target="_blank">bulbous, testicular eyes for <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Spellbound</em></a>, it was a testament to his commitment to the Gaze. But even an original voice like Dalí had his influences—in this case, the 19th century French proto-Surrealist <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://publicdomainreview.org/2018/09/26/grandville-visions-and-dreams/" href="https://publicdomainreview.org/2018/09/26/grandville-visions-and-dreams/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">J. J. Grandville</a>. For my infographic collage, I went back to the source to borrow the eyeball-dudes—not to mention the female <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">objet d’attention—</em>featured in Grandville’s <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">It’s Venus in Person! </em>Obviously, thinking artists have been considering the Gaze for quite some time. </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="598" data-image-id="1*cAPxXvcYkyUCUTRqwgcmSQ.jpeg" data-width="709" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/1*cAPxXvcYkyUCUTRqwgcmSQ.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I’m pretty sure Dalí straight up stole the eye-guys from <i>It’s Venus in Person!</i>, (J. J. Grandville, 1844), but as of press time I haven’t been able to locate the picture.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong"><br />Uh oh, Susannah!</strong> </span></h3>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1b8a">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But what about those two guys in the upper left corner of my mishmashographic? Excerpted from Gerrit van Honthorst’s 17th century painting <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gerrit_van_Honthorst_cat01.jpg" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gerrit_van_Honthorst_cat01.jpg" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Susannah and the Elders</a>, this touch is especially Hitchcockian. According to an apocryphal addition to the Old Testament <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Book of Daniel</em>, the beautiful and virtuous Susannah spent so much time lolling in her backyard that the local gentry took up “watching eagerly, day after day, to see her.” One time, a couple of them spied her bathing naked and tried to coerce her into a threeway. She successfully fought them off, only for them to turn and frame her for adultery. So you’ve got some of Hitch’s favorite themes all wrapped up together: voyeurism, lust, violence. But here’s where it goes full Hitchcock: around the same time that van Honthorst was retouching <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Susannah’</em>s nipples for the ocular delectation of future male gazers<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">,</em> Frans van Mieris the Elder (or possibly his son), was painting <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/225892" href="https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/225892" rel="noopener" target="_blank">his own take on the story</a>. (It seems every artist wanted a piece of her.) <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">That</em> version <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://youtu.be/DTJQfFQ40lI?t=272" href="https://youtu.be/DTJQfFQ40lI?t=272" rel="noopener" target="_blank">hangs in Norman Bates’ office</a> parlor,*** and with deliciously metatextual panache, our murderous motelier hangs it over the peephole through which he spies on his victims! Naturally, I had to work that bit into the project. </span></div>
<br />
<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="610b"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="687" data-image-id="1*6Z8PkOM90Zeb5t9hIsU53g.jpeg" data-width="1280" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/1*6Z8PkOM90Zeb5t9hIsU53g.jpeg" /></span></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="5f02"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="687" data-image-id="1*0iDGZtlQHoT4LJ4QCIEwDA.jpeg" data-width="1280" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/1*0iDGZtlQHoT4LJ4QCIEwDA.jpeg" /></span></figure><br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d555">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So there you have it. My annotated little Photoshop project. If you’d like a signed, high-res print, ping me. I’m sure we can work something out. </span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d555">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</section><section class="section section--body" name="9a1e"><div class="section-divider">
<hr class="section-divider" />
</div>
<div class="section-content">
<div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn">
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5ea8">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Basically, the idea is that, in cisgender western culture at least, men are predisposed to look at women, while women are predisposed to attract the look of men. As my digicollage illustrates, in classical Hollywood cinema, this gaze is compounded by the lens of (A) the camera and (B) the usually male director who concentrates its focus, followed by (D) the other male actors/characters who gaze upon her and finally (C) the gaze of the audience, for whose males such scenes are constructed. Back in the 1970s, British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey expanded on this theme, with the aim of tearing down patriarchalism’s grip on Hollywood. Since then, she has tempered her views somewhat — or at least allowed for a variety of cinematic experiences outside of this heterosexual/patriarchal view. Meanwhile, mainstream Hollywood has responded by, at times, providing strong female protagonists who objectify and rescue their male counterparts. For example, ever responsive to the cultural zeitgeist, Disney creatives rewrote the Rapunzel story and empowered the princess to rescue herself and her beau in <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Tangled</em> (2010).</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5ea8">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="eaf5">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">**Though he might not have been surprised, I bet he would have barfed in his mouth at the delusions of artistic grandeur these technologies enable. For instance, while he sometimes distressed his works to give them an antique look, his motives were always future-facing and tempered by a pedagogical motives — never sentimental. Contrast that impulse with Instagram filters that enable amateur photographers to ejaculate nostalgia willy nilly onto the internet with the flick of a thumb. Oh! And while we’re on the subject of authenticity, in presenting this infographic, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not an artist. I’m just a movie geek having fun.</span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="eaf5">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c73b">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*** …but not in the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.musee-rigaud.fr/" href="https://www.musee-rigaud.fr/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud</a>, from which it was stolen in 1972. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">----------</span></span><br />
<h4 style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" style="background: transparent; color: #da7d5e; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">support my work on Patreon</a>.</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking and I can't do it alone. </span><a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #da7d5e; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Check out some of the videos I've made so far</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">. If you like what you see, I'd be honored to receive your help!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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</section><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-24508413369685022062018-12-16T17:24:00.001-08:002018-12-16T17:36:17.148-08:00Freak the Geek: Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mfb4KL2AtUg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mfb4KL2AtUg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
As mentioned in <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2018/12/freak-geek-fast-and-furious-tokyo-drift.html" target="_blank">Part One of this <i>Freak the Geek</i> miniseries</a>, I think there’s a scene that Justin Lin lifted directly from Hitchcock while making <i>The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift</i>. (No harm nor foul, it's just artistic license.) It comes from <i>To Catch a Thief.</i><br />
<br />
But to get there and see the connection, let's back up a bit. Often dismissed as Hitchcock’s greatest puff piece, <i>To Catch a Thief</i> is all about the chase. Everyone in this movie is either pursuing someone, or they’re being pursued: Grace Kelly chases flirtatiously after Cary Grant, who's chasing down the bad guys who’ve framed him for a series of robberies. Everyone from the cops to an organized crime ring are are after someone or some<i>thing</i>.<br />
<br />
Naturally, this movie has all kinds of literal chases—on foot, by boat and by car. As <i>Rope</i>'s Phillip drunkenly says: “Cat and mouse, cat and mouse, but who’s the cat and who’s the mouse?” Watch the video above and see for yourself how the speeding scenes in the hills above Monaco match up rather closely with those staged by Justin Lin in the hills above Tokyo.<br />
<h4>
Another Hitchcockian connection</h4>
Here’s something else that Lin has in common with Hitchcock. For most of his career, critics thought of Hitch as just another reliably good entertainer. He never even won an Oscar, for crying out loud. It wasn’t until later on that the French <i>(always the French!</i>) started to recognize him for the genius he was.<br />
<br />
In the same way, people tend to look at franchise movies like <i>Fast and the Furious</i> as mindless fluff entertainment. But in recent years, a movement has been gaining traction to reconsider the work of these so-called populist directors. It’s called the “vulgar auteur” theory—and guess what? Justin Lin’s name often figures at the top of the list. For instance, people are starting to pick up recurring themes in his films, such as dislocation from home and the tensions arising from cultural differences as evidence of a singular artistic vision.<br />
<br />
The point is, it can be tempting to dismiss his films as less worthy of our consideration because they appeal to a mass audience. Hitch faced those prejudices in his day. Sometimes the best art of our times is hiding in plain sight. I wouldn’t necessarily put <i>Tokyo Drift </i>in <i>that</i> category, but it is an exciting film, and the framing and editing of the racing scenes have a dreamlike lucidity to them that I think Hitchcock would have appreciated. Maybe it’s time to give Justin Lin a second look.<br />
<br />
----------<br />
<h4>
You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" target="_blank">support my work on Patreon</a>.</h4>
Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking and I can't do it alone. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" target="_blank">Check out some of the videos I've made so far</a>. If you like what you see, I'd be honored to receive your help!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-58043465883726152762018-12-02T15:00:00.001-08:002018-12-16T17:24:38.514-08:00Freak the Geek: Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kH40ZcedHGQ/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kH40ZcedHGQ?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Car chases? Pshhhh, Hitch did it first, and usually did it better. Watch the video and see why.</span></div>
<br />
What could any movie that’s all about hot cars, teen angst and burning rubber have to do with the Master of the Macabre? Actually, quite a lot.<br />
<br />
<i>Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift </i>is a coming of age story. When hot-rodding neo-greaser teen Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), puts himself on the wrong side of both the law and the snooty <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=socs" target="_blank">soc<span id="goog_1136747740"></span><span id="goog_1136747741"></span>s</a> in his high school, he gets shipped off to live with his absentee father in Japan.<br />
<br />
Soon enough, he’s back in trouble<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>this time with the Teen League Yakuza. These guys are drifters<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>a skill that’s to street racing what figure skating is to hockey. Taking long corners as they slide into the curves in the hills above Tokyo, the spectacle is as graceful as it is hell on tires.<br />
<br />
You can see where the movie’s going. Our hero has to learn the drifting technique, lose a little, gain some humility, win a little, and, finally, get the girl. Hitchcock’s DNA is sprinkled all over this movie like cherry blossoms on a windy April afternoon. When you think about it, the high-speed urban car chases that stick in our minds have only been around since<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>what<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>the late 60’s/early 70s? Up until that time, car chases or races were relatively tame by our standards<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>except in the case of Hitchcock.<br />
<br />
The two movies that changed the car chase forever came from Peter Yates’ <i>Bullitt </i>(1968) and William Friedkin’s <i>The French Connection</i> (1971). These were pretty much the first two films that really gave us the roller coaster thrill ride of what we think of as the modern car chase. And here's the (cough) <i>Hitch</i>: both of the directors of those films were heavily influenced by Hitchcock. First of all, the car chase through the hills of San Francisco in <i>Bullitt </i>is almost a recreation of Scottie’s pursuit of Madeleine in <i>Vertigo</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>the cars are just going a lot faster<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">; </span></span>even the locations match at certain points.<br />
At the same time, in the <i>French Connection</i>, it’s really hard not to notice that this isn’t the first time we’ve ever seen a race between a train and a car. (Tip of the hat toward <i>The Lady Vanishes.</i>)<br />
<br />
In fact, by the time Hitch was making <i>Family Plot</i> in 1974, he realized he couldn't shoot a car chase scene in that movie's San Francisco setting because it had already become cliche. As he complained his biographer John Russell Taylor: "I think if I see one more car chase bouncing over those hills I shall scream."<br />
<br />
However, the real Hitchcockian nature of these chase scenes<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>what makes them so different from others<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>is the way they’re shot, taking on a subjective point of view by putting the audience inside the car. And that, I believe, is a technique pioneered by Hitchcock.<br />
<br />
What these guys had been doing around 1970, Hitch did it first, drawing a straight line between <i>Tokyo Drift </i>and Hitchcock. Want more proof? Check out my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH40ZcedHGQ" target="_blank">Freak the Geek video</a>.<br />
<br />
------------<br />
<h4>
You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" target="_blank">support my work on Patreon</a>.</h4>
Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking and I can't do it alone. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" target="_blank">Check out some of the videos I've made so far</a>. If you like what you see, I'd be honored to receive your help!<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-14505246700432144422018-11-11T13:43:00.001-08:002018-11-11T13:58:41.899-08:00Alfred Hitchcock: Spinning Youthful Terrors into Cinematic Art<h4>
HitchGeek Academy: A Portrait of the Director as a Young Man, Part 2</h4>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEqZ0ejA0e5eLazFbzBF423m-GIqyhWKrslZyo7VLkhC1BKZaQDyNd6PBaxRqFaxo_tas4mBJ8NEBmjuLY7fnLHutHzE3223ffHE_MW_H8ZP-hgDyYRtfz3rAv0HouS7-VRAIp5eqtoo2D/s1600/150605-clive-aerial-bombing-tease_gac0yb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEqZ0ejA0e5eLazFbzBF423m-GIqyhWKrslZyo7VLkhC1BKZaQDyNd6PBaxRqFaxo_tas4mBJ8NEBmjuLY7fnLHutHzE3223ffHE_MW_H8ZP-hgDyYRtfz3rAv0HouS7-VRAIp5eqtoo2D/s640/150605-clive-aerial-bombing-tease_gac0yb.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young Hitchcock's view, as it were, of a German Zeppelin dropping bombs over London, June, 1915.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
"A writer—and, I believe, generally all persons—must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art."</blockquote>
That's what Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899–June 14, 1986)—born 11 days after Alfred Hitchcock—had to say about a creative person's imperative to move close to their suffering and to tap it for its creative potential. In fact, I think that's what's meant by the moldy cliche of the tortured artist who must suffer for their art. The trouble with that trope is that it gets the order wrong: artists don't suffer because they're artists; rather, all people suffer, and some of them use that suffering to return a gift to the world that we call art.<br />
<br />
So it went for young Alfie, as his friends and family often called him. In 1914, his world turned upside down. Germany had made its bid for world domination and all hell broke loose throughout Europe. By 1915, they were dropping bombs on London, first from Zeppelins, and then from airplanes. Because it was near the water, Hitchcock's neighborhood in the Limehouse district was a prime target. Hitch was an eyewitness to this terror. Anyone would carry that trauma with them the rest of their life—and Hitch being an unusually sensitive and gifted young person, that was especially so. In fact, it was from these experiences that he developed his theories of suspense.<br />
<div>
<br />
To see exactly how he spun his youthful suffering into cinematic art, watch <i>HitchGeek Academy: A Portrait of the Director as a Young Man, Part 2</i>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i_80ALF-bAg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i_80ALF-bAg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">------------</span></div>
<h4 style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek">support my work on Patreon</a>.</span></h4>
<div style="font-size: 14.6667px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking and I can't do it alone. </span><a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" style="font-size: 11pt;">Check out some of the videos I've made so far</a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. If you like what you see, I'd be honored to receive your help!</span></span></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-82872573311890729112018-11-03T17:09:00.005-07:002018-11-03T17:19:30.597-07:00Hitchcock's Influence on Spielberg, Part 2: Jaws<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTVr-GgiLaUT0r8mUOh5g5WHq_OV2U1RYkNtyDxIUXx1VwTf2w1MWvU7Q-Shnjyzfg1RroP8vJbRJA2gy8XV1hBH9H_Ax-fnGLJpy7mYob7b3484l-IVtDcBzqukBFEPbF_C9BdRHKllT/s1600/KqAmvzD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1280" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTVr-GgiLaUT0r8mUOh5g5WHq_OV2U1RYkNtyDxIUXx1VwTf2w1MWvU7Q-Shnjyzfg1RroP8vJbRJA2gy8XV1hBH9H_Ax-fnGLJpy7mYob7b3484l-IVtDcBzqukBFEPbF_C9BdRHKllT/s640/KqAmvzD.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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In 1975, Alfred
Hitchcock was the third-biggest investor in Universal Studios, making him a
wealthy man—and a towering presence among its creative leadership. Meanwhile, there was a much younger pup of a director who seemed to be all over the studio property at the same time. That was 26-year-old Stephen Spielberg. He'd just released the smash hit<i> Jaws</i>—<span style="font-size: 11pt;">and he badly wanted to meet his idol, Hitchcock. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">The Old Lion seemed to respect the Young Turk. And considering that Hitch's office bungalow was right there on
the lot next door to Edith Head's, they should have met. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">Yet, they never did.
Not one single time. What’s up with that? </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">It wasn’t for lack
of trying on Spielberg’s part. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">For instance, just as he did ten years earlier during the making of <i>Torn Curtain, </i>Spielberg snuck onto a Hitchcock set. This time it was to glimpse the production of <i>Family Plot</i>. Once again, Hitch had
him bounced</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">—which was doubly strange, since <i>Jaws' </i>blockbuster profits had stuffed </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">trunks-full</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> of cash into Hitch's pocket. The least he could do was thank the guy.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Bruce Dern, who was
starring in the movie, asked Hitch why he was being so standoffish. "</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">You're his idol," he said. "He
just wants to sit at your feet for five minutes and chat with you."</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The director replied, "Isn't that the boy who made the fish movie?... I could never sit down
and talk to him... because I look at him and feel like such a whore." <span style="font-size: 11pt;">Bruce asked him why would would say such a thing. Find out the reason (and so much more) in Part 2 of Hitchcock's influence on Steven Spielberg: </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Xtma6XXVfU0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xtma6XXVfU0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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------------</div>
<h4 style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
You're warmly
invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek">support
my work on Patreon</a>.</h4>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Great news! I'm now
producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of
scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with
Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the
21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about
film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking and I can't do it
alone. </span><a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" style="font-size: 11pt;">Check out some of the videos I've made so far</a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. If you like what you see, I'd be honored to receive your help!</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-87187103114308245482018-11-02T11:32:00.000-07:002018-11-02T11:40:58.407-07:00Podcast: How Hitchcock Created Artful Suspense<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-how-alfred-hitchcock-created-artful-suspense" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="328" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgws1wnE2klS2oMudbN1IupW8Mj1HMxEktCTob3xjKYeZ2qfMmKF6hdRrnXNnEHsSBd326w-4LPftmzLetjVS12UIUVEZJlDBJMvXaUEZXQ1Gf7DGkUJpvsMJi27EUgKsmyp9A0FULnImjW/s320/art+matters.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">G<a href="https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-how-alfred-hitchcock-created-artful-suspense" target="_blank">o to the podcast.</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Alfred Hitchcock very much lived an artist’s life, and the boundaries between his daily life and art were very much blurred. He ate, drank and slept filmmaking. That's why he amassed this art collection, and I think it was part of a larger strategy to <i>become</i> his films; so that in the writing and producing of them, they would come from a deep, personal space."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That's what I said to Ferren Gipson recently in an interview for her Art Matters podcast. We discussed Hitchcock's deep connection to modern art, and how influences from his favorite creators—guys like Paul Klee, Auguste Rodin and Edward Hopper—show up again and again in his movies. It was a wonderful, far-ranging conversation—and </span><a href="https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-how-alfred-hitchcock-created-artful-suspense" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">she caught it all on tape</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit;">We discussed several specific paintings that relate to Hitchcock's films. For your convenience, I've posted a few of them here to examine during the show.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2DnwfTsLhpzQBCRtHoMlkKTLh8radW4wBX4E-0PAkTCe5sF0RXoPBlpxSUkSRrUBMB5xsX8lRxgTSXWtsHinn0mUrwd_dAPoB2fpzLLmS3c_u3YbkQulbKzhbym-Le7fJmF63EAf8_6_/s1600/The_Scream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1257" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2DnwfTsLhpzQBCRtHoMlkKTLh8radW4wBX4E-0PAkTCe5sF0RXoPBlpxSUkSRrUBMB5xsX8lRxgTSXWtsHinn0mUrwd_dAPoB2fpzLLmS3c_u3YbkQulbKzhbym-Le7fJmF63EAf8_6_/s640/The_Scream.jpg" width="502" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edvard Munch. <i>The Scream, </i>1893</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMI5_amklRjWBVzwz8LeBkjcQhFLiIMf6eYHuVUS57jxE1J02ztyHXiAJWAk7GutPRud-xTWMrQG7p1gpGIFci7wTu73-MQm98_h4cc6l9yB_Wh5O3nUpzEBwPGKX1olEXZ2m3vV5rKzD/s1600/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%2528Twittering_Machine%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="994" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMI5_amklRjWBVzwz8LeBkjcQhFLiIMf6eYHuVUS57jxE1J02ztyHXiAJWAk7GutPRud-xTWMrQG7p1gpGIFci7wTu73-MQm98_h4cc6l9yB_Wh5O3nUpzEBwPGKX1olEXZ2m3vV5rKzD/s640/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%2528Twittering_Machine%2529.jpg" width="470" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Klee, <i>Twittering Machine,</i> 1922</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EDlak_5_zNu_KoCAw0UAAus_TDRRmxcypyET5CbKQk7lfCSe1p8NVvGD80M8ro0sT0nxiNr4uqVadkHx9BnVzPppXPx2tv8zogzb5KuuVaKO4MH7_WYbzYR24Pdw29FtUWKOe4Cu8EVJ/s1600/Dali+Surrealist+Composition+with+Invisible+Figures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="748" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EDlak_5_zNu_KoCAw0UAAus_TDRRmxcypyET5CbKQk7lfCSe1p8NVvGD80M8ro0sT0nxiNr4uqVadkHx9BnVzPppXPx2tv8zogzb5KuuVaKO4MH7_WYbzYR24Pdw29FtUWKOe4Cu8EVJ/s640/Dali+Surrealist+Composition+with+Invisible+Figures.jpg" width="436" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salvador Dalí, <i>Surrealist Composition with Invisible Figures,</i> ca. 1936</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEJoDuBctQNljjEoMjIIe6CFoBm3nyKjVVG9UkMYtGlBAs2ZFm4f1pdv6j0t4K4tqHbTlNjMXgdjj6bV8E4alpMWQcEmcb4o6WmVIbCCdXuQz8BL-wbz3RZhCcH6uDMz-k25ZaWYjozQJ/s1600/Hopper+House+By+the+Railroad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1321" data-original-width="1600" height="528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEJoDuBctQNljjEoMjIIe6CFoBm3nyKjVVG9UkMYtGlBAs2ZFm4f1pdv6j0t4K4tqHbTlNjMXgdjj6bV8E4alpMWQcEmcb4o6WmVIbCCdXuQz8BL-wbz3RZhCcH6uDMz-k25ZaWYjozQJ/s640/Hopper+House+By+the+Railroad.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edward Hopper, <i>House by the Railroad, </i>1925</td></tr>
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------------<br />
<h4>
You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" target="_blank">support my work on Patreon</a>.</h4>
Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking, and I can't do it alone. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" target="_blank">Check some of the videos out</a>—I'd be honored to receive your support!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-41735820449697612912018-10-31T17:45:00.003-07:002018-10-31T17:47:18.869-07:00First Ever Freak the Geek: Hitchcock's Influence on Jurassic Park<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpNgeAsDCr1YoJJ0WQYR9Q4V6KtZl71YQWMfWBR2gfPJ9Y9psAvm5kddhLw_1PqFanGymwipE-mck6gH9EkG65SniCbq8P1BZhcmkSQ5Rz3XoN5b5rgkPxUyB0Ak1wHGEoq8auWNhiRQ4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-31+at+5.40.16+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="1369" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpNgeAsDCr1YoJJ0WQYR9Q4V6KtZl71YQWMfWBR2gfPJ9Y9psAvm5kddhLw_1PqFanGymwipE-mck6gH9EkG65SniCbq8P1BZhcmkSQ5Rz3XoN5b5rgkPxUyB0Ak1wHGEoq8auWNhiRQ4/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-10-31+at+5.40.16+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young Steven Spielberg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When you sign up to become a Patron, you'll get the chance to break my brain. It's called "Freak the Geek" and here's how it works: you feed me the name of a Hollywood movie and I describe Hitchcock's influence on it. Any. Movie. You. Want.<br />
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For the first installment, Patron Ben Forsberg challenged me to explain Hitchcock's influence on Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic <i>Jurassic Park</i>. I found at least FIVE—though I'm sure there're more!<br />
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First off, <i>Jurassic Park</i> is what’s known in the biz as “creature features”—a genre that’s been around for decades, but which Hitchcock completely reinvented with <i>The Birds</i>. In may ways, <i>Jurassic Park</i> picks up where that movie left off, such as by using extensive POV editing to reveal the characters' emotions.<br />
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Another thing: did you know that Spielberg may be a bigger Hitchcock geek than me? One day in 1965, a teenage Spielberg finagled his way into the Universal Studios and snuck onto the set of <i>Torn Curtain</i>. He was that committed. I could only dream of making such a move. One of Spielberg’s first directing jobs was on the very first episode of <i>Columbo</i>, titled “Murder by the Book.” Hitchcock’s influence on that whole series—and Spielberg’s approach to that episode in particular—run quite deep, and<a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2013/11/columbo-follow-up-to-alfred-hitchcock.html" target="_blank"> I’ve written an article about it</a>.<br />
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Anyway, check out my "Freak the Geek" video and see what Hitchcock touches I found in Jurassic Park:<br />
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------------<br />
<h4>
You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" target="_blank">support my work on Patreon</a>.</h4>
Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking, and I can't do it alone. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" target="_blank">Check some of the videos out</a>—I'd be honored to receive your support!<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-64320389725528695992018-10-29T04:49:00.001-07:002018-10-29T04:50:44.534-07:00HitchGeek Academy: A Portrait of Hitchcock as a Young Man<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVNAZ-kqH97uQ46dtDtpMit1qD53DtKldrXsCGR8LOCpe5US-J3D-ZP_6N7epmwcVHTTaWERQSta68VgLnlHSJgrwo-04cro2GsEBYUs5XSjwo32OMLnHHSh_f31OGt2UQkAgRutAYzxi/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-29+at+4.44.04+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="1435" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVNAZ-kqH97uQ46dtDtpMit1qD53DtKldrXsCGR8LOCpe5US-J3D-ZP_6N7epmwcVHTTaWERQSta68VgLnlHSJgrwo-04cro2GsEBYUs5XSjwo32OMLnHHSh_f31OGt2UQkAgRutAYzxi/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-10-29+at+4.44.04+AM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Twickenham Studios, where Alma Reville's father worked as a costume maker. </td></tr>
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If you think you know Hitchcock by his famous profile shot and jokey TV show monologues, you’d be quite wrong. You’ve just gotten to know his shadow—not the real person. And I’d say 99% of his fans have fallen into that trap—sometimes with hilariously disastrous results.<br />
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To understand what made this guy tick, we have to go back to the beginning. </div>
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Hitch was born at the turn of the 20th century—the birth of the modern era. He saw the rise of cars, airplanes, telephones, recorded music and radio broadcasting. London was the biggest city on the planet, and he got to know it intimately. In fact, by the time he was 8, he’d memorized the schedule of the entire London public transportation system. Bright kid.</div>
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His family wasn’t wealthy, but they did have a routine of going to plays in the West End, and as a young man, he got a reputation for being a “first-nighter”—every weekend catching opening night at the new plays and musicals. That's why, in part, his movies are famous for having a lot of theatrical bits in them.</div>
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In this video, we look at his early days growing up in "the Hollywood of England," where he was quite literally born and raised with the movies themselves. Vintage archival footage and rare interviews await:</div>
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------------<br />
<h4>
You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/overview" target="_blank">support my work on Patreon</a>.</h4>
Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking, and I can't do it alone. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" target="_blank">Check it out</a>—I'd be honored to receive your support!<br />
<br />
<h4 style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">
</h4>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-22450629448190715292018-10-25T21:09:00.003-07:002018-10-29T04:32:51.446-07:00HitchGeek Academy: How to Watch Hitchcock<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcgWd1S8Jr42zLmpKwY5uOb_q6GgxJVrlJPnkqPwtgTyp2cM-4BKj6rSZWB08F2FE7hc5bENuKDAMEhZldgAaUfCtx2Ai4NzXKqeDa-8tJGAhuwqtMsbec-bli-vrtoXI4xKxVx1R0TfUd/s1600/De+Chirico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1600" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcgWd1S8Jr42zLmpKwY5uOb_q6GgxJVrlJPnkqPwtgTyp2cM-4BKj6rSZWB08F2FE7hc5bENuKDAMEhZldgAaUfCtx2Ai4NzXKqeDa-8tJGAhuwqtMsbec-bli-vrtoXI4xKxVx1R0TfUd/s640/De+Chirico.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen shot from this week's video.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In many important (and obvious) ways, Alfred Hitchcock died on April 29, 1980. However, since then, he’s taken on a whole new life. With four full-length biographies, dozens of scholarly books, fan books, children’s books, art books, coffee table books, “making of” books, academic magazines, blogs, articles, monographs, papers, podcasts and at least one pop-up book—all dedicated to his work—you could say that he's now more alive than ever!<br />
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I’ve been teaching Hitchcock studies for years now, and I’m still learning new things about his artistry, his groundbreaking innovations, as well as his insights into human nature. Some of these facts will astound you. For instance, in the video below, you'll learn:<br />
<ul>
<li>The mysterious connection between Edvard Munch’s famous expressionist painting "The Scream" and <i>The Birds</i> </li>
<li>How Hitchcock's presence in his films extends far beyond his customary cameo walk-ons</li>
<li>How <i>Psycho</i> changed forever the way theaters operate.</li>
</ul>
I have a feeling that this H2WH segment will become a regular feature in my video program. After all, Hitchcock's films are very much about the art—if not the crime—of watching! Take a look:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZA4vFPVank8/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZA4vFPVank8?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<h4>
------------------</h4>
<h4>
You're warmly invited to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" target="_blank">support my work on Patreon</a>.</h4>
Great news! I'm now producing Alfred Hitchcock Geek as a video series. Combining a lifetime of scholarship with film sequences, rare behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with Hitch himself and more, I'm doing my part to bring Hitchcock studies into the 21st century while building a community that thinks more expansively about film, art and maybe life itself. It's a huge undertaking, and I can't do it alone. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" target="_blank">Check it out</a>—I'd be honored to receive your support!<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-28813499482648166102018-10-24T09:38:00.001-07:002018-10-24T09:44:09.671-07:00Introduction to Hitchcock and THE 39 STEPS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQVBa5oRomEBzkHF7Wqn_UxreCosEg79NHxSrX157msC2ZshwB0sxTDY8feF8fvtzkVvJeKZri3LsK0QtIhghVpldiq9keFp_DzSMFXghS4zVpx-pep07TtIynEmqAms6x64thv-B0Umjr/s1600/With+the+cast+orf+39+Step+in+Beaverton+Cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="1600" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQVBa5oRomEBzkHF7Wqn_UxreCosEg79NHxSrX157msC2ZshwB0sxTDY8feF8fvtzkVvJeKZri3LsK0QtIhghVpldiq9keFp_DzSMFXghS4zVpx-pep07TtIynEmqAms6x64thv-B0Umjr/s640/With+the+cast+orf+39+Step+in+Beaverton+Cropped.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Back in April, I gave a talk on Hitch and <i>The 39 Steps</i> at the beautiful Beaverton Public Library, which was presenting the play based on that film. It was the continuation of a habit I'd started back in 2009 when when the producers of <i>The 39 Steps</i>, which was enjoying a successful run on Broadway, asked me to come out and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_488070792"></span>do the same thing for their audiences<span id="goog_488070793"></span></a>. Luckily, this last time I had enough foresight to capture the moment on my iPhone. <span id="goog_488070776"></span><br />
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Watching myself on video is an uncomfortable and, at times, surreal experience. But it was really this particular video that inspired me to embark on this <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/overview" target="_blank">Patreon project</a>, which I'm convinced was a life-changing decision for me, and, I hope, inspires others to rethink the way film studies are approached.<br />
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I've broken up the video into easily digestible bite-size chunks. Like this:<br />
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Part 1: Peeling off the wallpaper and shellac </b><br />
When we think of Alfred Hitchcock, we usually think of a portly old man. He wasn't always like that! In this section, I scrub off the layers to reveal a romantic and rather handsome young man with a punk rock attitude toward art. Check it out (5 minutes):<br />
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<b>Part 2: The Spymaster of the 1930s</b><br />
Hitch pretty much invented the spy movie. The 39 Steps has left its (cough) footprint movies from James Bond to James Bourne. Get the story (4 minutes):<br />
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<b><br /></b><b>Part 3: Before there was Hitchcock, there was this guy</b><br />
But Hitch didn't invent the modern spy story. That credit goes to John Buchan, author of the novel <i>The Thirty-Nine Steps</i>, which Hitch and writing partner Charles Bennett adapted for the screen. The director brought his innovations to the project—and the rest is movie history. Learn how it all came down (3½ minutes):<br />
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<b>Part 4: Creating a legacy</b><br />
<i>The 39 Steps </i>was so successful that Hitch more-or-less went on the make it several times again. Learn why (6 minutes):<br />
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Well anyway, going forward, I'll be upping my video production game a LOT. And if you enjoyed these, I do hope you'll consider supporting the effort! Learn more on my <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" target="_blank">Patreon page</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-76835169354285094952018-10-22T20:19:00.000-07:002018-10-23T19:26:24.703-07:00Let's take the Hitchcock geekery to new and exciting places!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Dear fellow Hitchcock Geek,</div>
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Since 2004, I've been publicly blogging, publishing, teaching, speaking and generally geeking out on Alfred Hitchcock. And I love it. But there's one aspect of the writing that never quite sat well with me.</div>
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Film is a visual medium. We "get" cinema in ways that words can't quite express. To paraphrase great artists from Gustav Mahler to Edward Hopper, if you could say it with words, why go to the movies? That, I believe, is at the heart of why so much scholarly writing on film is eye-gougingly hard to get through. Reading about movies is like trying to listen to music with binoculars. Words fail.</div>
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That's why, back in April, I started <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek/posts" target="_blank">producing <i>videos</i></a> about the films of Hitchcock. There are a number of advantages:</div>
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<li><i>On video, I can share a full movie clip and control time.</i> I can slow it down, freeze the frame and even rewind to pick up a stray detail.</li>
<li><i>You don't have to take it from me. </i>Hitch recorded numerous interviews and speeches. Why should I quote the Master when I can let him speak for himself?</li>
<li><i>Stars, collaborators and others have generously given of their time</i> to share their perspective on video. Let's hear from them!</li>
<li><i>I believe in the power of infotainment. </i>I'm here to share this lifelong obsession with as wide an audience as possible. Video is the perfect medium for that. </li>
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That said, video production is also A LOT OF WORK. Every minute of finished footage involves a good four to six hours—often even more than that—of research, writing, shooting and editing. In addition, production equipment, software, web hosting and more bring with them hard costs. Going forward, I'd like to improve the quality of these videos. That means bringing in professionals to help put the polish on the work. I can't accomplish all that alone.<br />
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That's where you come in. </h3>
For as little as $2 per month, you can have a meaningful share in supporting the geekery. Your monthly pledge will be used for video equipment upgrades, to pay my talented pro team and to support the many hours of research and production that go into each carefully crafted project. In return, you get access to a range of exclusive rewards. For your support, I'll produce a range of videos that you'll get "first viewing" of before I release them to the public, while others will remain yours and yours alone.<br />
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You Medici, Me Tarzan</h3>
I'm doing this on a platform called Patreon, a crowdfunding platform whose monthly subscription model makes it possible to bring cool stuff into the world—while covering costs and even make a small living. (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/AlfredHitchcockGeek" target="_blank">Check my page</a>!) I love that Patreon leans towards smaller non-Medici-esque pledges. And don't worry, you can quit any time! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwvUjAv6pxg&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Learn more about Patreon</a>.<br />
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I've already produced a handful of videos. Over the next few days, I'll be posting them here so you can get caught up on what's going on. In the meantime, I do hope you'll consider supporting the work!<br />
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Thanks so much for your association over the years.<br />
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Joel<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-15535061149257788712018-09-04T12:50:00.000-07:002018-09-04T17:38:08.784-07:00Alfred Hitchcock, George Rouault and The Wrong Man<div style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Aside from an introductory prologue, Hitchcock forewent his usual cameo appearance in The Wrong Man, though he did manage to sneak into some of the movie's posters and lobby cards. (This was from a scene that was filmed, but later cut.)</span></td></tr>
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For many years, commentary on Alfred Hitchcock’s work that touched on religion brought up his Catholic upbringing, citing, for instance, his strict Jesuit education as an important factor to consider when trying to understand his films. Then the tide turned. Most writers today soft-pedal the influence that the religion of Hitchcock's youth may have had on his work. (In his adult years, the director rarely went to church and seemed to adopt a casual attitude toward Christianity in general — as far as his private life was concerned, anyway.) I'd like to approach the director's Catholicism from a more nuanced perspective. At least two of his films are explicitly preoccupied with Catholic themes: <span style="font-style: italic;">I Confess</span> (1953) and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Man</span> (1956). It’s not hard to draw a connection between Hitch’s equivocal relationship with the church and the ironic way it is treated in those movies.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtpTD3kHRXft86xB10k6OAu_FjjeqhtmlDgyCW9HWwHw7_uASiHU4vNzqdDlRPh7RckD9aaVk-I8IhBme3VUrpU1xIHVXvxX71v4MjMsan3pSg2bxv0ETHf3oXzLRRSOeZ3bsxwi0-wkMS/s1600-h/Finger+Pointing.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="360" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426020557963272002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtpTD3kHRXft86xB10k6OAu_FjjeqhtmlDgyCW9HWwHw7_uASiHU4vNzqdDlRPh7RckD9aaVk-I8IhBme3VUrpU1xIHVXvxX71v4MjMsan3pSg2bxv0ETHf3oXzLRRSOeZ3bsxwi0-wkMS/s640/Finger+Pointing.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">"It's nothing for an innocent man to worry about. It's the fella that's done something wrong that has to worry." So say the police who spend the night interrogating Manny Balastrero. He finds that advice to be cold comfort as the jail doors clang shut behind him, an innocent man if there ever was one.</span></td></tr>
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There’s a little bit of Catholicism in most of Hitch’s films — even if at times it isn’t much more than an Ash Wednesday smudge. As such, it’s easy to say that he belonged to the 20th century’s small handful of Catholic modern artists — a very short list that also included Graham Greene, (with whom he had tried to work) and Expressionist painter Georges Rouault. Hitch deeply appreciated the painter, once telling his friend and future biographer Charlotte Chandler that he considered it a privilege to be able to afford a Rouault; one of the artist’s <span style="font-style: italic;">La Suaires</span> (in this case, a death mask of Jesus Christ) even hung in the entryway to his home.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzrhYE_a9mO6Kzk6EQU9Hg_At9C-ukqmG1mdXcGbFpqG_vzBR4QrPkag3C9yVJpvKfgsS7Rno95Pzghw8yYZFrHFBLPIFflBBjSVjctbhRNxrs7Y-jJljGOlsUHsJfAJbaVa2YJKKcTslv/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+2.44.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="663" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzrhYE_a9mO6Kzk6EQU9Hg_At9C-ukqmG1mdXcGbFpqG_vzBR4QrPkag3C9yVJpvKfgsS7Rno95Pzghw8yYZFrHFBLPIFflBBjSVjctbhRNxrs7Y-jJljGOlsUHsJfAJbaVa2YJKKcTslv/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+2.44.46+PM.png" width="468" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Rouault produced several versions of <i>La Suaire</i>. According to biographer Patrick McGilligan, the version that Hitch owned "depicts the face of the Redeemer as imprinted in blood on Christ's burial shroud," and occupied pride of place in the foyer of Hitchcock's Bellagio road home. Perhaps it resembled the one shown here, with its emphasis on Christ's bloodied condition.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-K0yeeixezUT2PcTmy92c3mn8yz-I3oRHRBaQcsFM_8NUihrUBuIavUk5v7TNKmbUJj6fsGpH54yp29i00p5vAe9Fvrhv4hjCRdAdcbWL4rZUuciS9sSWllCdqrdIkgEDZEnd3hwSmcve/s1600-h/Holy+Face+resize.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426017941272226626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-K0yeeixezUT2PcTmy92c3mn8yz-I3oRHRBaQcsFM_8NUihrUBuIavUk5v7TNKmbUJj6fsGpH54yp29i00p5vAe9Fvrhv4hjCRdAdcbWL4rZUuciS9sSWllCdqrdIkgEDZEnd3hwSmcve/s640/Holy+Face+resize.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="465" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Every era has its classic portrait of Christ. This one by Rouault, simply called <i>La Sainte Suaire </i>(often translated <i>The Holy Face</i>, but more accurately translated <i>The Holy Shroud</i>; that is, like the Shroud of Turin, this is the imprint of his face upon his burial cloths), may be, at least for Catholics, the definitive Christ-painting of the 20th century. Here, Jesus faces his horror with open eyes and what Buddhists might call radical acceptance.</td></tr>
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Rouaultesque paintings occasionally pop up in his films as well, often for a laugh—with a sour aftertaste.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjfIobp8HnfTU7z_M4sPhNPI0IZ60QrCKuL7h-nnQq27kCTcH9NhqLFtgJpVlc8-IpxyopIhyphenhyphentHvYcBwCpnuKNMfgBWisTS42bpdByuylYtbqxQRRokIsEwKUGAh4vs8LPBBTi5qLgLGV/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+4.11.50+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="774" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjfIobp8HnfTU7z_M4sPhNPI0IZ60QrCKuL7h-nnQq27kCTcH9NhqLFtgJpVlc8-IpxyopIhyphenhyphentHvYcBwCpnuKNMfgBWisTS42bpdByuylYtbqxQRRokIsEwKUGAh4vs8LPBBTi5qLgLGV/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+4.11.50+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sam Marlowe's portrait of the corpse of Harry Worp, in <i>The Trouble with Harry</i>.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Mrs. Anthony's portrait of "St. Francis" in <i>Strangers on a Train</i>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Hitch must have seen the painter as a kindred spirit. Both artists dealt repeatedly with the same narrow list of subjects. Said the director to Truffaut: “Not that I'm comparing myself to him, but old Rouault was content with judges, clowns, a few women, and Christ on the Cross.” More or less, those same types keep popping up in Hitchcock's films as well. Curious, isn’t it?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiOd9CfxQMTudAmhYAFhuiWoGMgdMrnW_nXKqZO5a5gTHtHYjCMyzgy_-0fqebvthpfM6nx7CKDrf9CNshaAYL1crXrPOi11UXZmG3lRp7__wUENyjUAjuWiEFLKoCkmhIExKvmhWaIHuS/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+4.54.08+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="571" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiOd9CfxQMTudAmhYAFhuiWoGMgdMrnW_nXKqZO5a5gTHtHYjCMyzgy_-0fqebvthpfM6nx7CKDrf9CNshaAYL1crXrPOi11UXZmG3lRp7__wUENyjUAjuWiEFLKoCkmhIExKvmhWaIHuS/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+4.54.08+PM.png" width="455" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">"Jesus despised..." from Rouault's aquatint series, "Miserere." According to scholar F. Agustoni, this set "was inspired by the suffering of human beings, which often can be without any reason for those who have to endure it, which makes it even more distressing"—an apt description of Manny Balastrero. Unlike Vertigo's Scottie, he never asks "Why me?"</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Man</span> could almost be subtitled “Variations on a Theme by Rouault.” The story is about an everyman, a Queens, New York-bred Italian Catholic named Christopher Manuel (Manny) Balastrero (Henry Fonda), who is wrongly accused of committing a series of robberies. In this case of mistaken identity, he is arrested, put on trial and nearly convicted in place of the real culprit. As such, he is a Christ figure, and the movie goes out of its way to draw connections between Manny (whose name evokes Christ, the Son of Man) and “the one who bore our sins.”</div>
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Following Manny's arrest, the film takes viewers in detail through the humiliation of his arrest, fingerprinting and incarceration, ending with the clang of the prison door as it shuts over him—a sequence that fairly imitates a procession through the Stations of the Cross.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMKXnfwFgp-O7_GCBVTYse4QiepDOHBCAfdhnNtNoTk-ruXJCfzBGaJ0sdwH9Qwa2L9w8g0SdH5htxwtjZ_eEOfig2xwwVPKZEFhpHbSkw75S9A4MqVTIxX3KXMtowXNM-33_6JVnV6lvd/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+5.16.34+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="1212" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMKXnfwFgp-O7_GCBVTYse4QiepDOHBCAfdhnNtNoTk-ruXJCfzBGaJ0sdwH9Qwa2L9w8g0SdH5htxwtjZ_eEOfig2xwwVPKZEFhpHbSkw75S9A4MqVTIxX3KXMtowXNM-33_6JVnV6lvd/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-09-04+at+5.16.34+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Numerous closeups of Manny capture him with downcast eyes, his face a silent, acquiescent mask—so like Rouault's many depictions of Christ.</span></td></tr>
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Such Christ-symbolism was fairly common in midcentury movies — think of Fonda’s earlier role as Tom Joad in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Grapes of Wrath</span> (1940). (And it persists: see Clint Eastwood's performance in <span style="font-style: italic;">Gran Torino</span>.) What makes <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Man</span> interesting for me is that it shares Rouault's own view of Catholicism, Christ and suffering. During the early years when Rouault was developing his own voice, he became friends with Catholic writer Léon Bloy, whose novels <span style="font-style: italic;">Le Désespéré</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Desperate,</span>1887) and <span style="font-style: italic;">La Pauvre</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Poor,</span> 1897) deeply affected the painter.<br />
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Bloy was concerned with suffering, redemption and the rejection of the sordidness of this world, writing, “I have meditated long and often on suffering, I am now convinced that nothing else is supernatural in this world. All the rest is human.” Thoughts on the transcendent nature of suffering were expressed by Rouault through his painting—and they approximate Hitchcock’s sentiments in this film as well.<br />
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In my next post, I will offer some examples of how Rouault’s work seems to have found its way into the visual design of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Man</span>. But for now I’d like to leave you with a thought that underscores how the artist’s world view seemed to have found its way into Hitch’s psyche — or, rather, how the two modern artists—Catholics—were also sharers in the same view. Art scholar Joshua Kind’s summary description of Rouault aptly describes Hitch’s depiction of Manny:<br />
<blockquote>
“He is perhaps existential; his world is that of suffering and melancholy. ... Rarely if ever does [he escape] into a really savage renunciation of self and world—and yet it speaks with a quiet despair of the human condition.”</blockquote>
That is an apt description of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Man</span>. Check back to learn more.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-61481216352086753632016-11-18T15:26:00.008-08:002022-09-28T17:49:07.682-07:00Illustrations for "Hitch Puts a Bird on It: Paul Klee’s Influence on the Master of Suspense"<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Each of these images corresponds to a figure cited in my chapter in <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Insights-Film-Alfred-Hitchcock/dp/1682171108/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517339107&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Critical+Insights%3A+Alfred+Hitchcock%2C+edited+by+Doug+Cunningham" target="_blank">Critical Insights: Alfred Hitchcock</a>,</i> edited by Doug Cunningham. To get the full story, buy the book!</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8qN3KU3RFR9XgemMA0nAbVsWPfGga-uEhhTCbx5omIYsuwa1n_fh_5aGujMTdI0AiFNQZ5r08F74tMcY8eWsDHPM_o-QZ0wvHf7MX-nm5SxASRDLPINUDjnVnSRIBU2MQJlNAgg5MjQp/s1600/Hitch+with+Strange+Hunt.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8qN3KU3RFR9XgemMA0nAbVsWPfGga-uEhhTCbx5omIYsuwa1n_fh_5aGujMTdI0AiFNQZ5r08F74tMcY8eWsDHPM_o-QZ0wvHf7MX-nm5SxASRDLPINUDjnVnSRIBU2MQJlNAgg5MjQp/s640/Hitch+with+Strange+Hunt.jpg" width="536" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 1. Hitch, perfectly at home with Paul Klee's <i>Strange Hunt</i>. </td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKJ9mQgX7cbRA_bsY31DaBhICikgP2f6LfPSiKkmweuSWTUp041WClYYEIQ_pyYzhLDpU6agiuhGWPTVpwc3P3_9PCZ1TPCF357ZRLmaPIn3--TRiqQjZk6k_wPeJXdPG8av-QZDQRbB2dOgtENF5LjtKNHuHjTrBgjD86l541I_TVfGB3pfFZY0Iccg/s1836/Klee%20Mask%20and%20Scythe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="1146" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKJ9mQgX7cbRA_bsY31DaBhICikgP2f6LfPSiKkmweuSWTUp041WClYYEIQ_pyYzhLDpU6agiuhGWPTVpwc3P3_9PCZ1TPCF357ZRLmaPIn3--TRiqQjZk6k_wPeJXdPG8av-QZDQRbB2dOgtENF5LjtKNHuHjTrBgjD86l541I_TVfGB3pfFZY0Iccg/w400-h640/Klee%20Mask%20and%20Scythe.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="text-align: left;">Update 9/22: </span><i>Mask and Scythe,</i> Paul Klee, 1938. At the time of writing, I was unable to locate this work. Finally, here it is. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><br /><br /><br /><br /></i><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></td></tr><tr></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table><div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbqZGNac5VvNxoWkT0Ptfr5FoXSrNnyVf2B1wv51RmUBykqW2k7JgAZg1wDYZPKGU_XgLTK01Sx1nxCYtqMQAM2DTJLdXkvAQd7Fbdhv_gggVPdXPAkDr40ULab0Jtxw-nKk4t4mINkAAC/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-11-19+at+12.03.19+PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbqZGNac5VvNxoWkT0Ptfr5FoXSrNnyVf2B1wv51RmUBykqW2k7JgAZg1wDYZPKGU_XgLTK01Sx1nxCYtqMQAM2DTJLdXkvAQd7Fbdhv_gggVPdXPAkDr40ULab0Jtxw-nKk4t4mINkAAC/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-11-19+at+12.03.19+PM.png" width="419" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 2. <i>Strange Hunt</i>, Paul Klee, 1937.</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgteobZWHHpEfexF5FS6c4hbCEvdsL9resVRqa-X_EGBg6EwnvjZWiGAs5lgnNS8mMXP1Lg1BfV_FyudS8n4iAMBm17djgir5EqWAMtZLrL4lipHh_CHTEwYlXujSOwYZTGjT83UTJiZ-4mPqV_1YMq5xQjYhFZNN9N2dQBqy1DA0qwZ1btDqwsjg_w/s1838/Klee%20Odyssey.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1258" data-original-width="1838" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgteobZWHHpEfexF5FS6c4hbCEvdsL9resVRqa-X_EGBg6EwnvjZWiGAs5lgnNS8mMXP1Lg1BfV_FyudS8n4iAMBm17djgir5EqWAMtZLrL4lipHh_CHTEwYlXujSOwYZTGjT83UTJiZ-4mPqV_1YMq5xQjYhFZNN9N2dQBqy1DA0qwZ1btDqwsjg_w/w640-h438/Klee%20Odyssey.png" width="640" /></a></div>Figure 6. <i>Odyssey</i>, Paul Klee, 1924.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_82INRMg4WBbuZ3oLrej2BNi6v8MPlup8kj9z71L5_qd-Q8GqpbjdJhU-XBFySpLDqx77diVg1mrZ-5nnfOi9-J7QNymQ1d2N0WKrF3FSFBgRXIOnzV9nmjOBoA3w3XKrl-IuOlTtP_aj/s1600/Direction+arrow+in+I+Confess.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_82INRMg4WBbuZ3oLrej2BNi6v8MPlup8kj9z71L5_qd-Q8GqpbjdJhU-XBFySpLDqx77diVg1mrZ-5nnfOi9-J7QNymQ1d2N0WKrF3FSFBgRXIOnzV9nmjOBoA3w3XKrl-IuOlTtP_aj/s640/Direction+arrow+in+I+Confess.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen capture from <i>I Confess</i>, Alfred Hitchcock, 1953. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGCyVrTM_AQ" target="_blank">Watch the full title sequence</a>: following Hitch's cameo at :39, be sure to notice the interplay of the horizontal street signs and the upward-pointing architecture.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUBiZRBl0brejLeMZk1FtxnIwOFArkS3NfS96o14zebdObvg02rIi2cpVB0kruzfP0qMQg7EPwZtkiryNzJBkNVech7PHCCJ6DKCSFkaSy-mTPfPydCmZlUTS2KicXKXJcuyy7MEyBpLD/s1600/Title+card+north+by+northwest.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUBiZRBl0brejLeMZk1FtxnIwOFArkS3NfS96o14zebdObvg02rIi2cpVB0kruzfP0qMQg7EPwZtkiryNzJBkNVech7PHCCJ6DKCSFkaSy-mTPfPydCmZlUTS2KicXKXJcuyy7MEyBpLD/s640/Title+card+north+by+northwest.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen capture from North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock, 1959. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxjwurp_04&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Watch the full title sequence</a>. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKeILmJi2jg3sMjnC2GA-NHlgt31mLb-IuCFOj0h_-qGl1nqaC_iYuQK9e797iRU61Q-hF1nPPXlRyKOahq4CyrTyMmscYIjWFr0Xqb6hQYl0Wu-xCNeDqEjnnrDTileU9rIvnnKiyzwou/s1600/Mural+from+the+Temple+of+Longing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKeILmJi2jg3sMjnC2GA-NHlgt31mLb-IuCFOj0h_-qGl1nqaC_iYuQK9e797iRU61Q-hF1nPPXlRyKOahq4CyrTyMmscYIjWFr0Xqb6hQYl0Wu-xCNeDqEjnnrDTileU9rIvnnKiyzwou/s640/Mural+from+the+Temple+of+Longing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mural from the <i>Temple of Longing</i>, Paul Klee, (1922).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMB2dnW_E7kR0pjNI8vbT_tsitBy_IIpozzLDahr-_FFzBdNeSrXDKHxW7te6KXEujBjAwvAK29_s1UhFj0_bxb6obCcJgsG5X2aV5IdDQhzE58_KqdfNv0stGtNCAWN8_0occghRRhFQ/s1600/Klee+Eros.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMB2dnW_E7kR0pjNI8vbT_tsitBy_IIpozzLDahr-_FFzBdNeSrXDKHxW7te6KXEujBjAwvAK29_s1UhFj0_bxb6obCcJgsG5X2aV5IdDQhzE58_KqdfNv0stGtNCAWN8_0occghRRhFQ/s640/Klee+Eros.jpg" width="483" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eros</i>, Paul Klee, 1923</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF1AtQPRXGwcaA_6G30376ZhZr_k1U-2kczmpF4brkqBhC0ZBxwkHoOFK3R_XN_I_mwD58y-BVJAIwyvZZmmIHkZt30FxroxNSLCuPENg_QEH_CUxes7ZrK2fPzigTjdWVTYrrdY28KV1j/s1600/Daisy+Title+Card+from+The+Lodger.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF1AtQPRXGwcaA_6G30376ZhZr_k1U-2kczmpF4brkqBhC0ZBxwkHoOFK3R_XN_I_mwD58y-BVJAIwyvZZmmIHkZt30FxroxNSLCuPENg_QEH_CUxes7ZrK2fPzigTjdWVTYrrdY28KV1j/s640/Daisy+Title+Card+from+The+Lodger.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen capture from <i>The Lodger</i>, Alfred Hitchcock, 1927. The rhythmic triangles in the title cards link the character Daisy (played by “June”) to the murders and the love triangle she’s caught in. The shapes loom larger in each successive appearance, echoing the impending danger she’s in.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmlbOclPkO_31SuXHleoXUhAUkiYgcMGd4P_4Uc_A51hnGXS2Kr55lM2ENha84ycUjYBXwHJgCr1fKKs-HKv92h0l-6nzDhHzgxOWQlAQ4yTAH44SVoSsVKMZeNqLxMM9KPTNzzm3QFCZ/s1600/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%2528Twittering_Machine%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmlbOclPkO_31SuXHleoXUhAUkiYgcMGd4P_4Uc_A51hnGXS2Kr55lM2ENha84ycUjYBXwHJgCr1fKKs-HKv92h0l-6nzDhHzgxOWQlAQ4yTAH44SVoSsVKMZeNqLxMM9KPTNzzm3QFCZ/s640/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%2528Twittering_Machine%2529.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Twittering Machine</i>, Paul Klee, 1922. Turn the handle slowly and you might hear Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ show theme "Funeral March of the Marionettes". Crank it fast and you’ll hear Bernard Herrmann’s furious soundtrack to <i>The Birds</i>.</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylbWKnhMXA0hXSNtV40QoSuANQ-Nsyw38HIMda2TDQ5MsxhjiQrHaLCuF4QGYilzxxCt5o4ftxLW59X30aLe8_e-1vpiIZ7ZB-pHkYfqCtlstgxaLjyg2vttTayawe6ohbI_P5wNDgYFJ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-30+at+7.39.17+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylbWKnhMXA0hXSNtV40QoSuANQ-Nsyw38HIMda2TDQ5MsxhjiQrHaLCuF4QGYilzxxCt5o4ftxLW59X30aLe8_e-1vpiIZ7ZB-pHkYfqCtlstgxaLjyg2vttTayawe6ohbI_P5wNDgYFJ/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-05-30+at+7.39.17+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKK-11ixYxne6eexD6lH1t_SQXTsya_YAnYzg9nmkPDpLFZGWraefanBu0ITAKIJUtHguWEVO9hTh3S1aiPWF6F_ueQE1IWc4XKVXAtcylt3FciZPaJz4eRaQFnPmAQkA7AtpscmdFIy-5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-30+at+7.39.32+PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKK-11ixYxne6eexD6lH1t_SQXTsya_YAnYzg9nmkPDpLFZGWraefanBu0ITAKIJUtHguWEVO9hTh3S1aiPWF6F_ueQE1IWc4XKVXAtcylt3FciZPaJz4eRaQFnPmAQkA7AtpscmdFIy-5/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-05-30+at+7.39.32+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen captures from <i>The Trouble with Harry</i>, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954. <a href="http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/263945/Trouble-With-Harry-The-Movie-Clip-Opening.html" target="_blank">Watch the full title sequence</a>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpcRpvIOtfxeMtqcnYYsO67CcILPjWK2AGHDLnoOsUtlSA6FE-D0aS2aMF512eL1ByFe4QJVVs9rZf63zqD2gd1C_5eALQUh4jWZu9c_tUN2Zk7geDGI2zUHRJHj94R9Fi87FDqfeCb2f/s1600/Birds+Swooping+Down+and+Arrows.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="523" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpcRpvIOtfxeMtqcnYYsO67CcILPjWK2AGHDLnoOsUtlSA6FE-D0aS2aMF512eL1ByFe4QJVVs9rZf63zqD2gd1C_5eALQUh4jWZu9c_tUN2Zk7geDGI2zUHRJHj94R9Fi87FDqfeCb2f/s640/Birds+Swooping+Down+and+Arrows.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Birds Swooping Down and Arrows</i>, Paul Klee (1919).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BiQGWpYhSOumBXjCLbhlSAi9uDo397HpmrarQ3Z67IiIGUq62uvlbPYUeuxlmr_KBDshQfeZwIEuoGWZXaL6J-F-CFC9vkYve4rBv-4jShhAC4MAOFRCphmJtK6iC9CfzzDS1BjQlok-/s1600/A+Young+Lady%25E2%2580%2599s+Adventure+1921.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BiQGWpYhSOumBXjCLbhlSAi9uDo397HpmrarQ3Z67IiIGUq62uvlbPYUeuxlmr_KBDshQfeZwIEuoGWZXaL6J-F-CFC9vkYve4rBv-4jShhAC4MAOFRCphmJtK6iC9CfzzDS1BjQlok-/s640/A+Young+Lady%25E2%2580%2599s+Adventure+1921.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Young Lady’s Adventure</i>, Paul Klee, 1921</td></tr>
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</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-91521643607272885282016-08-21T18:03:00.001-07:002016-08-21T19:12:31.948-07:00How Hitchcock "Directed" an Episode of Mr. Robot. From the 80s movie riffs in Stranger Things to the 90s sitcom metacomedy of Bojack Horseman, current television is mainlining a sophisticated form of nostalgia. These shows aren't just playing dress-up. At their best, they're a reflection on our history, our culture—pop and otherwise—pondering how we got here from there and what went wrong along the way. It's a complicated experience. Bojack is the first talking horse to move me to tears.<br />
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Achingly wistful, Mr. Robot plays with nostalgia too. Season two, running now on the USA Channel, ups the ante with each episode crafted in the style of a different film director. The choices aren't arbitrary. The directorial aesthetics spring from the story itself, tapping the unique perspective of these great filmmakers to shine more light on the characters. It's as if showrunner Sam Esmail, who wrote and directed every episode(!), is living out the fantasy of bringing Coppola, Hitchcock, Kubrick and others in to guest direct his show.<br />
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Naturally, Hitchcock got the season premiere episode spot: the psychological espionage thriller genre owes so much to him. The episode is suffused with all sorts of Hitchcockian business.<br />
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Since the end of season one, Elliott (Rami Malek) has moved back in with his stern, controlling mother with whom he's had a troubled relationship. As he explains to his therapist, it's "better to live with the devil you know than the one you don't." Hitchcock knew from mommy issues. Elliott's house and his as-yet unnamed mother, obviously inspired by <i>Psycho,</i> aren't just easter eggs planted for film fans' delight, they're an extension of the story itself. Without a word, the grave, interiors of his childhood home explain the barren architecture of Elliott's soul. Take a look at these shots from the opening credits.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLbbvHuiawfSyBA8Pn2M1DgD0PtUcgIHQjWFUlp-r58ZIIzw56dG2-hIP1VP68F9MgEaB4WZ-fhtV9Q1knmEOYUEyNuSGPlZSfbHu3J6RlwH5QgTAEbilg1iOO3JEGKc7F1Au6kbjJg_5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-21+at+12.49.34+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLbbvHuiawfSyBA8Pn2M1DgD0PtUcgIHQjWFUlp-r58ZIIzw56dG2-hIP1VP68F9MgEaB4WZ-fhtV9Q1knmEOYUEyNuSGPlZSfbHu3J6RlwH5QgTAEbilg1iOO3JEGKc7F1Au6kbjJg_5/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-08-21+at+12.49.34+AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In this riff on the Bates mansion, the wall sconces pull the eye to the door, which seems to promise, not escape, but greater terrors outside. </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLbbvHuiawfSyBA8Pn2M1DgD0PtUcgIHQjWFUlp-r58ZIIzw56dG2-hIP1VP68F9MgEaB4WZ-fhtV9Q1knmEOYUEyNuSGPlZSfbHu3J6RlwH5QgTAEbilg1iOO3JEGKc7F1Au6kbjJg_5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-21+at+12.49.34+AM.png" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfYm9ATjiwfklDebxiZpOg1bacdj_xsOqwG-r8Jmu7Stsw7gW5mATXyvhhxRh6rohQda-EVKCG9mjmNYfKVGEUSqV31cJuLd7VndHhpcXIsW9YPiCdWqV9LknEHVm0J0n4RGm5GmDXZwo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-21+at+12.48.53+AM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfYm9ATjiwfklDebxiZpOg1bacdj_xsOqwG-r8Jmu7Stsw7gW5mATXyvhhxRh6rohQda-EVKCG9mjmNYfKVGEUSqV31cJuLd7VndHhpcXIsW9YPiCdWqV9LknEHVm0J0n4RGm5GmDXZwo/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-08-21+at+12.48.53+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTnKoNImKe_SWDvWGNOhAQdahF9HLYMTjullRL30mBLFEROUiSC-33yW2UQc1d8hWU3iNqnDM1Wzysboi8hmSCIWABKk5cxYIDa8lf1e6r6_8-oA0wKcjCTtyN36HsP_JGZHQzN9f1mz2/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-21+at+12.54.34+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTnKoNImKe_SWDvWGNOhAQdahF9HLYMTjullRL30mBLFEROUiSC-33yW2UQc1d8hWU3iNqnDM1Wzysboi8hmSCIWABKk5cxYIDa8lf1e6r6_8-oA0wKcjCTtyN36HsP_JGZHQzN9f1mz2/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-08-21+at+12.54.34+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Although we're given a fairly detailed tour of the inside of the house, we don't even glimpse its exterior. I'm guessing Esmail felt that a copy of the iconic façade of the Bates mansion would be going too far. But we do get a glimpse of his down-at-heels neighborhood, eclipsed by the modernity of an elevated train which is itself now a shabby relic. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Although it does a better business than the Bates' enterprise, the Extreme Junction Diner (in real life, the <a href="http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mr-robot-nyc-filming-locations/paphos-diner-2" target="_blank">Paphos Diner at 2501 Fulton Street in Brooklyn</a>) has seen better days. Is the name a reference to extreme unction—last rites? <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MrRobot/comments/4tl2fd/all_spoilers_s2_god_themes_bible_references/" target="_blank">One Redditor thinks so</a>. </td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;">The Bates Motel lost its stream of clientele when the Eisenhower-era superhighway was built, diverting traffic away. </span><a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2009/11/hitchcocks-most-hopperesque-film-psycho.html" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">As I've written previously</a><span style="text-align: left;">, the Bates mansion was modeled on Edward Hopper's 1925 painting </span><i style="text-align: left;">House by the Railroad,</i><span style="text-align: left;"> which, like the Extreme Junction Diner, one day found itself on the wrong side of the tracks. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTn7DilZwqtrwVG3qOyH78bTIJ8slKxdX2HmNTZyMy3GwSowAZ4CLPupngK-kk9Wg1TNWU0if9RLb-Q9siUuTRbSGHwv9-hKW9UvvdcTShnOZySIppvXNQrw7T_75Ndg17hyphenhypheniUiVuKC49/s1600/house-by-the-railroad-by-edward-hopper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTn7DilZwqtrwVG3qOyH78bTIJ8slKxdX2HmNTZyMy3GwSowAZ4CLPupngK-kk9Wg1TNWU0if9RLb-Q9siUuTRbSGHwv9-hKW9UvvdcTShnOZySIppvXNQrw7T_75Ndg17hyphenhypheniUiVuKC49/s1600/house-by-the-railroad-by-edward-hopper.jpg" /></a></div>
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While we're at it, could the framing of Elliott's mother in the living room, above, be inspired by Hopper's 1932 <i>Room in Brooklyn</i>? (Yes, Brooklyn, see above.) (Even more intriguing for me: could Esmail be a fan of my blog?) </div>
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It's pretty much impossible to set a violent event in a shower without hearkening back to <i>Psycho</i>. In a house-gone-berserk scene that also recalls <i>Gaslight </i>(not a Hitchcock film, though many assume it is), the Evil Corp attorney steps into a shower only to be assaulted by scalding-hot water (see also: <i><a href="https://youtu.be/1rO35rsXh88?t=17s" target="_blank">Evil Dead</a></i> and <i>Pulse</i> (1988)). Shot for shot, it's a <i>Psycho</i> moment. </div>
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Norman Bates admitted it: "We all go a little crazy sometimes." In his case, his long-dead mother would occasionally take over his mind, to the detriment of his female guests. Likewise, when Mr. Robot, Elliot's father (Christian Slater), takes over, the global economy does a faceplant.<br />
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If there's one theme that dominates Mr. Robot, it's that one's past controls one's present. This, too, is one of of Hitchcock's greatest themes. You see it in <i>Rebecca, Under Capricorn, </i><i>Psycho, </i>and many others. Its most poetic expression is in <i>Vertigo, </i>whose Scottie (James Stewart), is caught in the undertow of a woman with a seemingly ancient past and ends up driving around in circles seeking a truth that turns out to be a lie.</div>
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Elliott's father sneeringly says, "Round and round we go, you not knowing what you did or didn't do. Our infinite loop of insanity." And then he drops a twisted apple peel on the floor, which strongly resembles the spiral in the Hitchcock film's iconic poster. </div>
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Alert viewer Christy LaGuardia also pointed out that the shooting angles and modern architecture of the C-suite high atop the Evil Corp tower resemble those of Van Damme's Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired mountain aerie in <i>North by Northwest</i>.<br />
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In this floor-level shot, I, no doubt like many other film nerds, freeze-framed the show at this point to make sure no cameras or crewman could be seen reflected in the chrome lampshade. (They can't.) And I couldn't help wondering if it was a sort of nod-but-not-really to Van Damme's television, which aided the bad guys in the discovery of Roger Thornhill.<br />
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On the surface, this episode is about control. In a larger sense, it's about individual Will and whether such even exists. Elliott tries like hell to exorcise Mr. Robot from his mind and the pushback is fierce. Says the latter, "This control you think you have? It's an illusion." As Norman said, while dining on sandwiches with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh): "You know what I think? I think we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever climb out. We scratch and claw... but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch."<br />
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Elliott would have sympathized.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-69940723440864816252015-09-30T15:18:00.004-07:002015-09-30T15:36:53.028-07:00Hitchcock & Klee: The Triumph of Modern Art“Klee could have made good storyboards, you know.” That's what Alfred Hitchcock once told his friend and biographer, Charlotte Chandler. Perhaps he felt that way because Klee, like him, was motivated by the desire to create a <a href="http://elupton.com/2009/10/modern-design-theory/" target="_blank">new, transcendent visual language</a>. Hitchcock's own art directional style (remember, before he went into the movies, he was a graphic designer in advertising) overlapped with that painter's. Both of them often began with one simple graphic idea and then elaborated on it, developing a fugue of associations.<br />
<i><br /></i>For example! <i>The Lodger</i> (1927) riffs on the idea of a triangle, both visually and in the love triangle of the story:<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Top:</i> The Avenger leaves his triangle "signature" on his murder victims. <i>Middle:</i> The rhythmic triangles title cards that link the character Daisy (played by "June") to the murders and the love triangle she's caught in loom larger in each successive appearance, echoing the approaching danger she's in. <i>Bottom:</i> The murders all take place within a triangular section of London and the crime scenes are also marked with triangles. </span></b></div>
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Similarly, Klee often worked the same way. His painting below explores the triangle in a manner reminiscent of Daisy's title card<i>, </i>which was used several times throughout the movie—complete with similar rhythms and obvious, yet ambivalent, eroticism:<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Eros,</i> Paul Klee, 1923</span></b></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.aiga.org/medalist-emcknightkauffer/" target="_blank">E. McKnight Kauffer</a>, a <a href="http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/murder-most-typographical" target="_blank">founding member of the left-leaning London Film Society</a>, who created the title designs for <i>The Lodger</i> four years after Klee produced <i>Eros, </i>was one of the period's most sought-after graphic artists. Largely forgotten now, in his day he was known as "The Picasso of Advertising Design;" one critic enthused that he "</span>makes one resent the division of the arts into major and minor." <span style="text-align: center;">Whether he had Klee's painting specifically in mind is anybody's guess. The point is that such aesthetics were in the air, and Hitch made a conscious choice—against the better judgement of his meal-ticket providers (producers, distributors, etc.), I might add—to bring these avant-garde art touches to his film. </span><br />
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Hitch's penchant for building his films around specific graphic forms reached their height when he worked with another superstar advertising designer, Saul Bass, on <i>Vertigo</i> (1958), <i>North by Northwest</i> (1959) and <i>Psycho</i> (1960).<br />
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Bass, too, was heavily influenced by the Bauhaus movement and Scandinavian design, which often advocated for simple forms, clean lines and the use of mechanical devices to produce artwork. For instance, regarding the latter, in order to create the spiraling images that float about in the <a href="https://youtu.be/4CZfSc6nJ8U?t=22s" target="_blank">opening credits to </a><i><a href="https://youtu.be/4CZfSc6nJ8U?t=22s" target="_blank">Vertigo</a>,</i> Bass retooled WWII airplane engine parts to make an early version of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph" target="_blank">Spirograph</a>. The opening credits of <i>North by Northwest</i> are often compared to Mondrian's gridlike abstractions.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue,</i> Piet Mondrian, 1942</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/xBxjwurp_04" target="_blank">Take a look at the intro</a>—and listen to Bernard Herrmann's syncopated orchestration that accompanies it.<br />
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I'd like to add Klee as a possible reference as well. Here's why. Saul Bass' title sequence lays out a visual pattern of diagonal lines and grids that will repeat itself throughout the movie. (And those cockamamie arrows in the title itself? That's a trope that <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2015/09/hitch-and-klee-at-intersection-of.html" target="_blank">shows up again and again in Klee's pictures</a>.)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Roger Thornhill's (Cary Grant's) offices at 650 Madison Avenue reflect the traffic below, making it appear to be no more consequential than an anthill.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik-msutLL44LfQc7PGV1Xnn_NkY74RQrgmqBWVC362dKqXT7uaLbBqP704dnNiObfUbzX2g8VWmUZ0ZiRgI_BLwh3ze21N25dBPqWEU_KWB-qS8RHnRWgJ1NaJ2X1QWuvcXCgP83I3lT3f/s1600/0328-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik-msutLL44LfQc7PGV1Xnn_NkY74RQrgmqBWVC362dKqXT7uaLbBqP704dnNiObfUbzX2g8VWmUZ0ZiRgI_BLwh3ze21N25dBPqWEU_KWB-qS8RHnRWgJ1NaJ2X1QWuvcXCgP83I3lT3f/s400/0328-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">In this Kandinsky-like view of the United Nations Plaza (it's actually a matte painting), an ant-sized Thornhill makes his extremely improbable escape to one of the waiting taxis. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Wrong-House-Architecture-Hitchcock/dp/9462080968" target="_blank">Hitchcock geek/architecture scholar Steven Jacobs</a> points out that the UN Building was co-designed by Oscar Niemeyer, who also was in the midst of designing Brazil's planned capital city, Brasilia, and that <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqGl5jD42N5BqcHgjajC2j03EKW9zZvLdO35Mkp_WDM86KUW5pDWopjUHYqKCDXCuKHm0hyvR67afThXU19huaMVbMcrvdd2i6w6PpkyhG5mQuWR9uQ9iwOVefs8U1nbwLBN0mbcEhrU/s1600/120720_Niemeyer_Brasilia_01S.jpg" target="_blank">one of his sketches for that city layout</a> resembles the high-angle shot of the cornfield below! If these connections keep piling up, I'm going to need to start a <a href="http://crazywalls.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">crazy wall</a>.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Only Hitchcock could make this frying pan-flat farmland look vertiginous. </b></span></div>
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As the couple scrambles about the faces of Mt. Rushmore during the <a href="http://youtu.be/-omCpUtIOT0" target="_blank">climactic conclusion of the movie</a>, we get up-close views of its striated surface, along with the rubble that accumulated during its construction. It's like a peek behind the curtain of its creation; a corollary to the movie's story, which also reveals the inner—and cynical—workings of the U.S. government. Like Michelangelo's unfinished slaves, these lacerated rock walls appear frozen in the act of creation, as Thornhill and Eve Kendall come alive when they into contact with them.<br />
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In <i>Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences,</i> Dominique Païni says: "Most of Hitchcock's fleeing couples must negotiate labyrinths in addition to overcoming heights, as illustrated in the the drawing entitled <i>Rock</i>[<i>-Cut</i>]<i> Temple</i> by Paul Klee—the same artist who had created a very 'architecturalized' and unusually 'metaphysical' painting that was part of Hitchcock's collection. [He's probably referring to <i>Strange Hunt</i>.] This drawing [<i>Rock-Cut Temple</i>] is strangely reminiscent of the legendary Mt. Rushmore, with its monumental presidential faces."<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Rock-Cut Temple,</i> Paul Klee, 1925</b></span></div>
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I have to agree that this compares evocatively to the Mt. Rushmore scene. In addition, Klee produced an entire series of line drawings similar in style to this one. Now, if the Mt. Rushmore scene was inspired, at least in part, by Klee drawings, then it raises further questions about the influences behind the previous scenes—as well as the movie's entire graphic scheme, noted above.<br />
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<i>North by Northwest </i>explores the clash between tradition and modernism. Van Damme, (James Mason), preceded by ten feet by his plummy British accent, masquerades as old American money, hiding out first in a venerable Long Island mansion whose name—Townsend—hints at simpler, bygone times. He attends antique art auctions and hides his MacGuffins in pre-Columbian statuary. Even the type of aircraft—a biplane—that attacks Thornhill wouldn't have seen battle since World War I. Meanwhile, Thornhill wears tailored, stylish suits, works as an ad man in a sleek glass Manhattan skyscraper and, as befits the modern man, supports "two ex-wives and several bartenders."<br />
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However, modernity gets the last word in in <i>North by Northwest.</i> When Van Damm moves his entourage into that Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house behind Mt. Rushmore (finished in 1941), his time literally runs out. During the final chase, his beloved (and hollow) pre-Columbian statue is smashed against one of America's greatest symbols of progress and triumphant patriotism. Nice touch, Hitch. It's also a neat, ironic coda: our forefathers, symbolized by the faces on Rushmore, also smashed those tribes that had occupied this land since pre-Columbian times—<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UjrX5p_qkc4C&lpg=PA43&ots=fZU6bEHbXf&dq=hitchcock%20vertigo%20colonialism&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q=Kevorkian&f=false" target="_blank">a theme that Hitch had visited the year before in <i>Vertigo</i></a>. That ironic ambivalence, of course, is at the heart of this movie that declares that "War is hell, Mr. Thornhill. Even when it's a cold one," and that has America's favorite leading man, Cary Grant, respond in disgust, "Perhaps you ought to start learning how to lose a few cold wars."<br />
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After all, the point of so much modern art wasn't just to say something new, but, rather, to highlight the hollowness of modernism itself, especially the lethal hypocrisy of modern statecraft. From his youth as a member of the London Film Society onward, Hitch internalized these views and they crop up over and over in his movies. All that time, Klee's aesthetic approach was apparently never far from his mind. Charlotte Chandler even went so far as to say that "Hitchcock’s own drawings bore a certain resemblance to those of Klee." If you're looking for Klee's influence on Hitch's films, it's everywhere—and yet, as befits a master of his craft, it's also nowhere.<br />
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In my next post, we'll be talking about how Klee and Hitch nourished their creativity from the same pot. Come back!<br />
<br />
--<br />
<span style="text-align: center;">Side note: I've written extensively about such connections on this blog, but I need to tell you where my own inspiration comes from. In 1999, I visited the Hitchcock centennial exhibition at the </span>Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, <i>Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences</i>. This show laid it all out with film stills, dozens of props, and even full recreations of many iconic film sets—all placed alongside original artworks that, the curators suggested, had been the inspiration for these scenes—or, at least, fascinating coincidences. Taken as a whole, the exhibition placed Hitchcock firmly within the pantheon of great 20th century artists. This event changed my life and my outlook on film in general, Hitch in particular.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7XaVMAwPTHEcLv3m0DHWkFFB8oseF-5tuMivI1zpJWEeypYPL4FSS9DAMSdVakfP6A6N0ruPnCpjhJ00M8OM2haTQj7AaGmMVvYbSjV3F8KCZW9j2Hk_e0ROqTQA5hCTfDpuRc-z5A2Q/s1600/41swfyj-D2L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7XaVMAwPTHEcLv3m0DHWkFFB8oseF-5tuMivI1zpJWEeypYPL4FSS9DAMSdVakfP6A6N0ruPnCpjhJ00M8OM2haTQj7AaGmMVvYbSjV3F8KCZW9j2Hk_e0ROqTQA5hCTfDpuRc-z5A2Q/s400/41swfyj-D2L.jpg" width="290" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">There are still copies of the copiously-illustrated <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Art-Coincidences-Dominique-Paini/dp/8820214180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443565035&sr=8-1&keywords=hitchcock+and+art+fatal+coincidences" target="_blank">500-page souvenir book</a> around. Next to Hitchcock/Truffaut, it's one of the most important books on Hitchcock out there.</span></b></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-91756935142033353742015-09-28T10:45:00.000-07:002015-09-28T15:27:19.072-07:00Hitch and Klee at the Intersection of Artistic Invention<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzdDjzneB7DES4wKsfadAxKuxM3WzhlJuz5k7HbVWijublrVT0Z-JlKRZgCNlf92ZyzRGR0C6Ex4kiQJTAxky2i8zdYmapaNOPpXkjB7awHRcsTP8Ux1t1v9m078AFFhMk7kHvi2Q_Qww/s1600/klee9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzdDjzneB7DES4wKsfadAxKuxM3WzhlJuz5k7HbVWijublrVT0Z-JlKRZgCNlf92ZyzRGR0C6Ex4kiQJTAxky2i8zdYmapaNOPpXkjB7awHRcsTP8Ux1t1v9m078AFFhMk7kHvi2Q_Qww/s400/klee9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mural from the Temple of Longing, Paul Klee, 1922 (Click to enlarge.)</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzDznMp7h5lXIofY5vwwPcbtz6iMFgxurJKucCzu_HEZXjmJsCN5JHNQ2NRjW5A-kGOs_PZoEUNhxzHUgz2waVsRBmUc4h4DP6oFp8nV5ibQZDX-eVJtnX8IQNUEBC0ie0pEza5Jfvm4r/s1600/0017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzDznMp7h5lXIofY5vwwPcbtz6iMFgxurJKucCzu_HEZXjmJsCN5JHNQ2NRjW5A-kGOs_PZoEUNhxzHUgz2waVsRBmUc4h4DP6oFp8nV5ibQZDX-eVJtnX8IQNUEBC0ie0pEza5Jfvm4r/s400/0017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>I Confess</i> (1953), o</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">pening sequence. </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Click to enlarge.)</span></b></div>
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<i>This is Part 2 in a series. <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2015/09/hitchcocks-origins-in-bauhaus-paul-klee.html" target="_blank">The beginning is a very good place to start</a>.</i></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Alfred Hitchcock’s
approach to filmmaking was unusual, if not unique. For him, the plot came in
second behind a direct appeal to his audience’s emotions. As he said to </span>Charles
Thomas Samuels in 1972, “I’m not self-indulgent where content is concerned; I’m
only self-indulgent about treatment. I’d compare myself to an abstract painter.”
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then, as if free-associating, he said: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My favorite painter is Klee</i>.” An apt comparison. Klee, too, untethered himself from literal content and meaning, to explore his inner life as if it were a dream. For him, the line, planes and color were the content itself. </div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Despite the fact
that these two artists worked in two very different mediums—one was a solitary
painter, while the other ran a creative factory—they approached
their work in a remarkably similar fashion—broadly, with an emphasis on form over content; specifically, in a variety of ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Hitch and Klee embraced modern art early on in their lives. Klee, though, was about 20 years older than Hitch, who would surely have
read his books, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Contributions to
a Pictorial Theory of Form</i> (1922) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On
Modern Art</i> (1924)—even if he’d had to struggle through them in German, in
which he was conversant. Modernism was exploding right in front them and their
minds buzzed with the freedom and new horizons that were opening up before
them. It was an electric time to be alive—how 50s rock and 70s punk would be for future generations. Many followed these trends. A few led. But only a tiny
minority was thinking through the meaning and ramifications of the powerful new
creative tools at their disposal. Hitch and Klee were among those few. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Both laid enormous groundwork in the development of the
twentieth century’s two definitive art movements: modernism and cinema. Klee
wrote voluminously about art, supporting—and nourishing—his work as an
instructor at the Bauhaus in Germany and, later the Düsseldorf Academy. Klee
geek and museum director Douglas Hall wrote: “Many talked about a new
relationship between art and nature; only Klee actually tried to define it, and
with considerable success.” Along the way, he developed a modernist vocabulary.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hitch, through his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Hitchcock-Interviews-Conversations-Filmmakers/dp/1578065623/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443416748&sr=8-1&keywords=hitchcock+interviews" target="_blank">interviews</a>, speaking engagements
and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Selected-Writings-Interviews/dp/0520285514/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1443416748&sr=8-3&keywords=hitchcock+interviews" target="_blank">occasional</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Selected-Writings-Interviews/dp/0520279603/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443416748&sr=8-2&keywords=hitchcock+interviews" target="_blank">articles</a>, generously taught his version of film theory.
Released in book form, his weeklong <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Revised-Francois-Truffaut/dp/0671604295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443416698&sr=8-1&keywords=hitchcock+truffaut" target="_blank">conversation with French New Wave director François Truffaut</a> became <a href="http://cohenmedia.net/films/hitchcock-truffaut" target="_blank">the Bible for all filmmakers who came after</a>. Very few directors <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2008/02/alfred-hitchcocks-films-as-philosophy.html" target="_blank">thought through the relationship between <i>film</i> and nature</a> as deeply as
Hitchcock did. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Klee's “Keyboard of colors”<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Klee often spoke and
wrote of art in musical terms. His diaries included entries like: “I am
continually being made aware of parallels between music and the fine arts,”
and: “One day, I must be able to improvise freely on the keyboard of colors:
the row of colors in my paintbox.” During the 1910s, avant-garde artists all
over Europe were exploring the relationship between art and music, and Klee,
along with his colleague at the Bauhaus, Wassily Kandinsky, were at the
forefront of it. Klee took those concepts one step further; many of his paintings
actually look like sheet music brought to lyrical life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Compare that with
Hitchcock’s synesthetic description of pure cinema as “<a href="http://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock_and_Peter_Bogdanovich_(1963)" target="_blank">complementary pieces of film puttogether, like notes of music make a melody.</a>” He would refer to high-angle shots as “tremolos,” a
big-head close-up as a “sounding of brass” and a quick jump-cut as a “staccato
movement.” He eschewed improvising on the set, likening it to a composer
working with a “full orchestra in front of him and saying, ‘<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6tEeBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA204&ots=ayGMAgwdtb&dq=Hitchcock%20Flute%2C%20will%20you%20give%20me%20a%20note%3F&pg=PA204#v=onepage&q&f=false">Flute,
will you give me that note again? Thank you, flute</a>.’” It’s tempting to
imagine that he was drafting on those modernists’ theories to form his own.
This isn’t the only time you’ll get that impression.</div>
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<b>Time and movement</b></div>
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Klee saw his painting, not as a static product, but as an
expression of time and movement. He famously said, “A line is a dot that has
gone for a walk.” Elaborating, he wrote in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Creative Credo</i>, “The act of viewing the work of art, too, is in
essence, a function of time. The beholder focuses on one section after the
other; he must leave what he has already viewed in order to be able to center
his attention on a new area. The work of art, then, results from physical
movement; it is a record of such movement, and is perceived through movement
(of the eye muscles).” Klee’s art draws often attention to itself as time-based
acts of creation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsWzYhxg2REtvvI99vTyWR7zJ5LdkEY9OHB7UQeNxXpjYoVvlJgXGVUGzhgwWcTweW08H2jf5LF4aZORZaVPm2hU-NZ1Os4tQx6Z6ULJgmm_K4hixjLXbXKv-WyvbrYVw62stapQf7o0r/s1600/growth-of-the-night-plants-19221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsWzYhxg2REtvvI99vTyWR7zJ5LdkEY9OHB7UQeNxXpjYoVvlJgXGVUGzhgwWcTweW08H2jf5LF4aZORZaVPm2hU-NZ1Os4tQx6Z6ULJgmm_K4hixjLXbXKv-WyvbrYVw62stapQf7o0r/s400/growth-of-the-night-plants-19221.jpg" width="281" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Growth of the Night Plants,</i> Klee, 1922 </span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Click to enlarge.)</span></b></div>
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Hitch also advocated what he termed the “moving-around
principle,” in which the ideal cinematic form is the chase. “Just as the film—be
it in preparation, in the camera, or in the projection booth—has to move
around, so in the same way I think the story has to move around also.” (Cahiers
du Cinema, 1959) For Hitchcock, the movement of the film through the camera is
of one piece with the kinetics of the camera, the actors, their locations
and of the motion of the projector itself. (This raises interesting
philosophical questions about the meaning of motion pictures in a digital age,
which bypasses all those mechanics except at the electronic level. New art
theories are already arising: we may be headed into a post-Hitchcockian era!) <o:p></o:p></div>
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That all-embracing approach ties directly back to his—and
Klee’s—Romantic notions of reaching out to become one with the universe. Hitchcock scholar Ken Mogg has pointed this out, connecting Hitchcock and Klee to 19th
century Romanticists like composer Richard Wagner, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“I see Hitchcockian suspense as making an audience <i>experience</i>
the Will, or an analogue thereof. Schopenhauer had noted the same thing of
music. In a celebrated passage he wrote: ‘The effect of the <i>suspension</i>
[consists of] a dissonance delaying the final consonance that is with certainty
awaited; in this way the longing for it is strengthened ... This is clearly an
analogue of the satisfaction of the [individual] will which is enhanced through
delay.’<sup> </sup>According to Christopher Janaway, many see this idea
especially reflected in Wagner's composition of <i>Tristan and Isolde</i>
(1865).<sup> </sup>So perhaps it's no coincidence that Hitchcock's favourite
composer was Wagner,<sup> </sup>just as his favourite <i>painter</i> was Paul
Klee—whose manifesto <i>On modern art</i> (1924) speaks of the artist embracing
"the life force itself" in order to emerge into ‘that Romanticism which
is one with the universe.’”</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJbencqWqnCnoFIdHPW6KMoDfE1lVLjMDoV-VgGBcaNDpkC0xs445wqvNQryLSJ1hQsbQgwdx85CzkTkWJ0Lz52DqC9hyphenhyphenVkaXK-1UeNl0QGdNZLaJhzSIqmrfCM5G2IKIWBhxcAHrzDdW/s1600/flammarion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJbencqWqnCnoFIdHPW6KMoDfE1lVLjMDoV-VgGBcaNDpkC0xs445wqvNQryLSJ1hQsbQgwdx85CzkTkWJ0Lz52DqC9hyphenhyphenVkaXK-1UeNl0QGdNZLaJhzSIqmrfCM5G2IKIWBhxcAHrzDdW/s400/flammarion.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Flammerion engravin</i>g, artist unknown, 1888. </span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Click to enlarge.) </span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Klee wrote in 1924: “Chosen are those artists who penetrate to the region of
that secret place where primeval power nurtures all evolution. There, where the
powerhouse of all time and space—call it brain or heart of creation—activates
every function; who is the artist who would not dwell there?”</span></b></div>
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With his birds and fish and actors and masks, Klee didn’t
necessarily introduce new subject matter to the art world. His more realistic
images are reduced to cartoonish symbols; even to him, they almost seemed like
afterthoughts, as he wrote in his diary in 191<span style="background-color: white;">8: <span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if
out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient
instrument of a remote will.” It was Klee’s</span> intensely personal, fresh
approach to those subjects that gives his art its enduring power. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Similarly, <a href="http://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Film_and_Stars_(1937)_-_Why_I_Make_Melodramas" target="_blank">Hitchcock’s movies are usually melodramas</a>
wrapped in crime or espionage stories. How Hitch handled those boilerplate subjects
made all the difference. His insistence on taking an original approach to them
led him to perfect the psychological drama and even create whole new genres, such as the lone-man spy caper (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The 39 Steps</i>), the slasher movie (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psycho</i>) and the modern disaster movie (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Birds</i>). Hitch trusted his—and his
collaborators’—creativity so much so that form dictated substance.<br />
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“I put first and foremost cinematic style before content…. I
don’t care what the film is about. I don’t even know who was in that airplane
attacking Cary Grant. I don’t care. So long as the audience goes through that
emotion! Content is quite secondary to me.”—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cinema
</i>magazine, 1963</div>
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As a result, the works of Klee and Hitch both have the logic of a dream. Tomorrow, we'll compare some of their specific images to find what the French Canadians would call <i>coïncidences fatales.</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-83755877400801016942015-09-27T16:39:00.000-07:002015-09-28T02:30:39.083-07:00Hitchcock's Origins in the Bauhaus: Paul Klee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqmbIrAkULhnHi8q2P8AN48WPANg0hSoxI23ZdcLS7HYwuqu8kLpcn_9y6RB1quZK2LAnlYNZa55MurG8AYUHILKn4Nm2dvSeaUnbHoEuhyU-61OuyMaB7KResGz_hiWBXAfVMvITLtpXy/s1600/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%2528Twittering_Machine%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqmbIrAkULhnHi8q2P8AN48WPANg0hSoxI23ZdcLS7HYwuqu8kLpcn_9y6RB1quZK2LAnlYNZa55MurG8AYUHILKn4Nm2dvSeaUnbHoEuhyU-61OuyMaB7KResGz_hiWBXAfVMvITLtpXy/s400/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%2528Twittering_Machine%2529.jpg" width="293" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Twittering Machine,</i> Paul Klee, 1922. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Turn the handle slowly and you might hear <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alfred Hitchcock Presents’</i> show theme <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://youtu.be/flD-aRMwcjs" target="_blank">Funeral March of the Marionettes</a></i>.
Crank it fast and you’ll hear Bernard Herrmann’s furious soundtrack to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://youtu.be/bp5cgFf_GkA" target="_blank">The Birds</a></i>. (Click the pic to enlarge.)</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1938, following the premier of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lady Vanishes</i>, Alfred Hitchcock stopped
in at an art exhibition in London to admire a certain painting. He paced back
and forth in front of it, then walked away for a moment—only to circle back
again for another look. He wondered if he could afford its £600 price tag
(that’d be ≈$35,000 today, converted and adjusted). True, the film was confirmed to be a hit, but still.... Eventually, he went for his
checkbook—and Paul Klee’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mask and Scythe </i>became
one of the founding pieces of Hitchcock’s museum-quality collection of modern
art. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s easy to see why Hitch wanted that painting. Of all the
artists whom he admired (and there were many), Klee—a modernist master and instructor at the Bauhaus—was the one he identified with
the most. The two were kindred spirits. They both gleefully mixed lightness and
darkness, comedy and the macabre, suspense and humor in new, modern ways. They
offered easy entertainment, yet upon closer examination their work yields up much
more serious matters. In fact, the similarities are so abundant that sometimes it seems
as if their work ‘finishes the other’s sentences.’ Klee wrote in his diary in
1906: “<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To emphasize only the beautiful
seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with
positive numbers.” Hitch just as easily could have said it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Over the years, Hitchcock purchased three Klees: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mask and Scythe,</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Odyssey 1924</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Strange Hunt</i>.</div>
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Over the next few
days I’m going to post my thoughts about the relationship between Hitchcock’s
films and Klee’s paintings. Why? Because Hitch often told interviewers, friends
and anyone else who would listen that Klee was his favorite artist. He also
claimed that a great deal of his creative inspiration came from fine artists. Plus,
Klee’s work—or, at least, Klee-like sensibilities—can be found all over
Hitchcock’s films. We know <i>that</i> Klee
influenced Hitch, but the record doesn’t exactly tell us <i>how</i>. While Hitch never specifically stated that this or that shot
or scene bears Klee’s stamp, I believe it’s a good exercise to try to break that
down. What you’re going to see over the next few days are my geek-educated
guesses—mixed with cold, hard facts and some pretty good research—as to how,
exactly, Klee’s influence found its way into Hitch’s screen. Come back
tomorrow!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Birds Swooping Down and Arrows,</i> Paul Klee (1919). </span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Click the pic to enlarge.)</span></b></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-62500265252241211442015-08-17T14:57:00.001-07:002020-08-07T11:56:26.757-07:00Feeding Frenzy: An Evening Inside the Mind (and Belly) of Alfred Hitchcock <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Alfred Hitchcock loved to make movies and he loved to eat—not necessarily in that order. Just about every one of his films features food as a supporting actor. In <i>Blackmail, Suspicion, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Psycho, Topaz</i> and more, important scenes reveal deeper, often unappetizingly macabre, themes over a meal. You could write a book about it. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-%C3%A0-Carte-Jan-Olsson/dp/0822358042/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Wait, there already is.</a><br /><br /><div>
Recently, vintage 35mm slide film expert (and PhD economist) Laura Locker invited me to speak at a fundraiser for local schools. What started out as a straightforward dinner-and-lecture turned into a macabre evening with each course thoughtfully served with a Hitchcockian twist. Check out the menu and what I had to say:<br />
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APPETIZER</div>
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<i>Herbed white bean bruschetta </i></div>
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<i>Caprese bruschetta</i></div>
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<i>Prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe</i></div>
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<i>Wine: A variety of sparkling wines</i></div>
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<i>Cocktail: White Lady </i></div>
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He took food very seriously:<br />
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But he didn't take himself too seriously.</div><div><br />
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At all.</div><div><br />
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In these last few slides, we see Hitch with his wife of 50+ years, Alma Reville. She was as great a cook as you'd ever meet. I have a hunch that she kept Hitch fat and happy in order to create a bit more distance between him and the beautiful actresses he directed. Whatever the case, they had a sweet yet spicy relationship.<br />
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Sure, they were rich and famous, But the Hitchcocks kept a relatively modest ranch style home in Los Angeles' Bel-Air neighborhood. In the early 1960s, they remodeled their kitchen to create an open floor plan, with a bar where guests could hang out and enjoy wine while Hitch and Alma kept busy in the kitchen. This social-cooking arrangement might be common today, but it was unusual back then: as was typical for them, the Hitchcocks were ahead of their time.<br />
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This is a delectable scene from <i>Psycho</i>: the first-ever close-up of a flushing toilet ever to grace the big screen. It's a reminder that tonight's meal, like every meal, will end up in the same place. Hitch himself was never far from that thought.<br />
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He sometimes mused about making a movie that would begin early in the morning with the chefs' helpers down at the wholesale market buying boxes of fresh produce and the finest meat; then loading up the delivery trucks to shuttle their cargo to a five star hotel kitchen, where an army of chefs in tall paper toques would slice and dice and chop and bake and fry and flambé all of those ingredients into gastronomic masterpieces. Then, with great ceremony, a brigade of waiters would march those platters out to hungry patrons in the dining room, who would then cut and scoop and scrape all of that food into their masticating mouths. The scene would end with a giant close-up of a sewer drain, disgorging the results of <i>that</i> into the river. <br />
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Hitch understood this deeply: it's shit we are and it's to shit we'll return, as the ending to <i>Psycho</i> shows:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dYDxxHrlmUg" width="320" youtube-src-id="dYDxxHrlmUg"></iframe></div><div><br />
<br />That's not a dour, or even grotesque outlook. It's just the truth. Our attempts to <i>avoid</i> those facts are what get us into trouble. I believe that Hitch had his own holy trinity—and it looked something like this:<br />
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These are three elemental facts of life, and in his world they're inextricably intertwined. In <i>Notorious' </i>famous kissing scene—the longest screen kiss up till that time—Hitch makes the connection between food and sex when Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant spend several minutes smooching and rubbing their tummies together: the whole time they're talking about an upcoming chicken dinner.<br />
<br />François Truffaut said that Hitch filmed his love scenes like murders and his murders like love scenes. A prime example of that is <i>Dial M for Murder,</i> where Anthony Dawson tries to strangle Grace Kelly. He throws her on the writing desk and climbs on top of her, adding a distinctly rapey aspect to the scene.<br />
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Hitchcock's greatest food film was <i>Frenzy,</i> from 1972. It's his second-to-last movie—a perfect bookend for his career. (His second film, <i>The Lodger, </i>from 1927—even the numbers are reversed!—was about a Jack the Ripper-style villain who roots around London for blonde victims to strangle.) <i>Frenzy</i> covers pretty much the same ground, with the added detail that the murderer prefers neckties. It neatly outlines Hitch's fascination with food, sex and death, as the trailer shows:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/As0nPLCMU7g" width="320" youtube-src-id="As0nPLCMU7g"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
We're going to talk more about <i>Frenzy</i> and food. But for now:<br />
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FIRST COURSE</div>
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<i>Roasted beet and tomato gazpacho</i></div>
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<i>Bread</i><br />
<i>Wine: A variety of white wines</i></div>
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In <i>Frenzy,</i> Hitch treated food to grossly comical surreal effect—and it resembles another great food film, which came out the same year:<br />
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Made by the great surrealist Luis Buñuel, <i>The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie</i> is about a group of hungry Parisiens in search of a meal; each time, they're interrupted and they never do get to eat. In the case of <i>Frenzy,</i> the police chief is served lavish meals that are all but inedible. Here's the rub: Hitch and Buñuel were friends; Hitch even called the surrealist his favorite director of all time. I have a suspicion the two directors were passing notes to each other in the back of class.<br />
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<br />
Now I'd like to introduce the next course with a clip from an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I think you'll agree that Barbara Bel Geddes' leg of lamb was a real knockout:<br />
<a href="http://www.schooltube.com/video/b4ffb2ed2146057eda1d/Alfred%20Hitchcock%20Presents%20Lamb%20to%20the%20Slaughter.%20(1958)"><br /></a>
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<a href="http://www.schooltube.com/video/b4ffb2ed2146057eda1d/Alfred%20Hitchcock%20Presents%20Lamb%20to%20the%20Slaughter.%20(1958)"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYIeSA_31rBGiN4MeAZoHqPUV5qYixeVdv_jlfBuMcvkCLiPDGzKErVMjg3SnJji8OPeR9Di1VoSYNOCM2bWPWXzclXEjsT6gciZ4qfrib9iXF3usdly5PzkTOCCEBdr1gLC7bkROAyf46/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-08-16+at+3.40.14+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/nCnfJi">Go here</a> and, to get to the good part, skip ahead to 4:55.</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MAIN COURSE</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Roasted Leg of Lamb</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Ratatouille</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Wine: A variety of red Bordeaux</i></div>
<br />
Throughout his career, Hitch occupied the spotlight while Alma, his partner in crime, was content to remain in the background. In 1979, he squared that up in his AFI Life Achievement Award acceptance speech:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen and their names are Alma Reville."</blockquote>
A few years ago, their daughter, Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell, wrote a biography of about her mother, shedding some light on this important, but heretofore somewhat unknown woman. At the end of the book she added an appendix that reproduced several of Alma's most noteworthy guest menus. Here's one for dinner with Tippi Hedren:<br />
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<br />
Here are a couple more images that reveal Hitch's domestic side—as well as his love of imports. Hitch was a neat freak, so after Alma cooked the meal, he enjoyed washing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen.<br />
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If you're an American of a certain age (like me), you might have had a mother who was raised on canned, packaged food. But then in the late 1960s, kitchens across America rediscovered fine dining. With the help of Time-Life's "Foods of the World" cookbook series, mothers everywhere tried their hand at preparing the unusual ingredients and exotic recipes featured therein. My mother's efforts, though served with love, didn't always deliver the results promised in those cookbooks' photos. This scene from <i>Frenzy</i> perfectly captures those moments of awkward domestic bliss, while also serving up a delightful blend of of food, sex and death:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z5MBRvLmtns" width="320" youtube-src-id="Z5MBRvLmtns"></iframe></div><div><br />And this leads us right into our dessert course!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
DESSERT</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Freudian delights: </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lady fingers and beignets arranged to look like penises</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lady fingers and custard served in an ashtray, arranged to look like cigars</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Cocktail: Rusty nail</i></div>
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We also enjoyed conversation about many other aspects of Hitch's films, his relationship to women (I hope I dispelled a few myths) and other topics. Then we all went home satisfied, mentally nourished and ready for a long, thoughtful spell in the loo.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxj6kkWKIrA2Dl1buBjzuMeheQmOrGZfJegmxFcu5mJp3x7uslrD99GlOcLlEL5U8AdSvugo6okfQ6X9W1QjZvWsy9VMbRRA0YVeb-O6tFzWLPAJicnhfUTwiawdoHC6ICw05qlftmb_BU/s1600/FullSizeRender-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxj6kkWKIrA2Dl1buBjzuMeheQmOrGZfJegmxFcu5mJp3x7uslrD99GlOcLlEL5U8AdSvugo6okfQ6X9W1QjZvWsy9VMbRRA0YVeb-O6tFzWLPAJicnhfUTwiawdoHC6ICw05qlftmb_BU/s320/FullSizeRender-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Laura, flanked by two guests, one of whom brought a Hitchcockian companion on his shoulder. </b></div>
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-47284733945936790082015-08-02T16:21:00.002-07:002015-08-03T12:46:59.892-07:00Alfred Hitchcock Geek: The Selfie Interview<div class="MsoNormal">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I recently sat down
with myself in my living room in Northwest Portland to talk about Alfred
Hitchcock’s life and films, and how he’s come to be viewed by history. I'd mixed a cavernous snifter of cognac and
Drambuie—a drink that <a href="http://www.writingwithhitchcock.com/" target="_blank">Stephen DeRosa</a> notes was one of
Hitchcock’s favorites—and offered to make one for myself. I politely declined.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A notoriously prickly interview subject, today I was feeling expansive and was completely at
ease talking to myself. Also, I kept slurring my words. Here are
the highlights of my fascinating conversation.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Joel Gunz:</b> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Let’s start out with a few of the most
common questions that people ask when they find out that I’m a
Hitchcock geek.</i><i> Going back to the beginning, how did I become a Hitchcock Geek?</i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Alfred Hitchcock Geek: </b></i><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It all started when I was about 12. My stepdad told me about this director who could manipulate his audience's emotions and create suspense just by the way he edited his films. That captured my imagination, and right around that time, an <a href="https://youtu.be/xkpxFWVoKw8" target="_blank">interview with Hitch from 1964</a> aired on PBS, where he explained his techniques. I recorded that show on a cassette tape and listened to it over and over; it was several months before I actually saw my first Hitchcock film, so I was actually a geek before I'd even seen any of his movies. Then, a few years later, I watched <i>Vertigo</i> on the big screen, and that <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2007/06/poster-for-hitchcock-film-and.html" target="_blank">sealed my doom</a>.</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<b>JG: </b><i>What is my favorite
Hitchcock movie?</i><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<b>AHG:</b> Short answer: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo,</i> the <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time">greatest film ever
made</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Longish answer: all of them. One of the pleasures
of watching Hitchcock is that his 54 films can be experienced as one long movie,
stretching over half a century from the silent era to the American “New Wave”
of the 60s and 70s. The themes and subjects of his films are all there in his
early work, and he brought them into deeper focus as the years went by. Over
and over again, characters that he introduced in one film would be resurrected later
on, <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2010/05/hitchcock-vertigo-and-uncanny.html" target="_blank">giving the viewer a sensation of the uncanny</a>: Hitch doesn't merely repeat himself, he reincarnates his characters from one movie to the
next. For that reason, even his lesser-known movies are “essential” to a full
Hitchcock experience. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JG: </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What’s up with his obsession with blondes? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AHG: </b>[I pause before responding, swirling my enormous goblet thoughtfully.] Hitch wasn’t
obsessed with blonde women <i>per se</i>; but like many gentlemen, he simply preferred them. He
famously said, “Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that
shows up the bloody footprints.” But there’s more to the story than that.<br />
<br />
After all, some of
his leading ladies were brunettes [Teresa Wright, <i>Shadow of a Doubt,</i> Karen Black, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Family Plot</i>; Audrey Hepburn, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Bail for the Judge</i> (unfinished)]. One
of his favorite leading ladies was light-auburn-haired Ingrid Bergman [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Notorious</i>, et al.]. Tallulah Bankhead's hair was light brown in <i>Lifeboat</i>. Hell, he even featured a redhead once [Shirley Maclaine, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Trouble with Harry</i>]. So it wasn't blondes he was after, but, rather a certain type of woman, which <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Revised-Francois-Truffaut/dp/0671604295/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438557418&sr=1-1&keywords=hitchcock+truffaut" target="_blank">he described to François Truffaut</a>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hitch: “You know why I favor sophisticated
blondes in my films? We’re after the drawing room type, the real ladies, who
become whores in the bedroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor
Marilyn Monroe had sex written all over her face, and Bridgette Bardot isn’t
very subtle, either.... <o:p></o:p>Sex on the screen should be suspenseful, I feel. If sex is too blatant or obvious, there’s no suspense.” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Truffaut: “What intrigues you is the paradox between
the inner fire and the cool surface.<o:p></o:p>” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hitch: “Definitely, I think the most interesting women,
sexually, are the English women. I feel that the English women, the Swedes, the
Northern Germans and the Scandanavians are a great deal more exciting than the
Latin, the Italian and the French women. </blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given
his preference for a Northern European mystique, Hitch naturally ended up populating
his films with more blondes.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JG: </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>I just quoted that interview from memory. I'm impressed</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AHG: </b>Thanks. [I suppress a smug smile by taking a long pull from my drink.]<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JG: </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why do I call him Hitch?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AHG: </b>He asked all
of his friends to call him Hitch. And, studying him for most of my life, I feel a certain kinship with him. You know how it is. You take up a hobby. And the more you
get to know it, the more fascinating it becomes. Hitch became quite fascinating
to me. In fact, there are times when I feel he almost belongs to me.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JG: </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Was Hitch as abusive of the women in his
films as the media has sometimes made him out to be? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AHG: </b>[My voice
rises in exasperation.] Look, Hitch was an Artist, with a capital A. As such, he was uncompromising
in his efforts to bring his personal vision to life. He could be
manipulative—even mean—if that was what it took to elicit a desired performance
from one of his actors. But he could also be very indulgent. The point is, to do great
things, you sometimes have to be willing to make choices that other people
would shy away from, okay? You have to be ruthless in your pursuit of your art. Is that cruelty or courage? Maybe both. Hitch
probably saw himself a one of the select few who could play by his own rules.
The high stakes world of big-budget moviemaking is, at its core, an art. And,
as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rope</i>’s Rupert Cadell might say,
“The privilege of directing superior films is reserved for those few who are
really superior individuals.” And those who fall under the director’s sway?
“Inferior beings whose lives are unimportant anyway.”<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course, I’m joking. But still…. [I pause to gulp my
cocktail.] [Nearly shouting.] Was he a megalomaniac if, after all is said and done, he created the greatest body of cinematic work the world has yet seen?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JG:</b> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Determined to get drunk, aren’t you?</i><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AHG:</b> I am drunk.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Audrey Hepburn in <i>How to Steal a Million</i> (1966). Says I: "Audrey backed out of <i>No Bail for the Judge</i> while it was in preproduction. Hitch never forgave her, and she <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2012/07/wait-until-dark-audrey-hepburns-non.html" target="_blank">never gave up trying to make a Hitchcock film</a>."</b></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JG: </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But look at the way women are treated in his
films. Doesn’t that show he was a misogynist?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AHG: </b>No! He
subscribed to the time-honored theory that the best way to create sympathy for
his female leads was to put them in danger. So he hung them from cliffs, sent
them to sleep with the enemy and pelted them with birds. But bloody hell! Their
heroism won out. Every. Goddamn. Time. His
female characters were fascinating, not because they’re in “celluloid” danger,
but because they were strong. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heroic.</i>
His male leads tended to be far weaker and morally squishy. Hitch’s movies are
the opposite of misogynistic.They’re actually some of the best examples of
feminist moviemaking to come out of the classic era, a time period in which female leads were reduced to either two-dimensional sexpots or demonic femme fatales.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Jesus Christ, man! Even his personal life shows that he had
deep respect for women. He was devoted to <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2011/08/remembering-alma-reville-born-august-14.html" target="_blank">his wife, Alma</a>, and valued her
opinion over all others—even his own. His inner circle—<a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2011/08/remembering-alma-reville-born-august-14.html" target="_blank">the Hitchcock brain trust</a>—included Alma, Peggy Roberston, Joan Harrison and his own daughter, Pat, and he trusted them implicitly.
When it came to his views and relationships with women, Hitchcock was way ahead
of his time. And I can quote me on that. [I stab at the air with my
cigar.] [Btw, I'm smoking a cigar.]<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JG: </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What other misconceptions would I like to
correct?<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AHG: </b>[Counting on
my fingers] One. Hitch didn’t hate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i>
eggs, he just hated the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fried </i>ones. on the other hand, he loved a well-executed soufflé and was a big fan of Alma’s <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2012/08/to-catch-quiche.html" target="_blank">Quiche Lorraine</a>.<br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">Two. He didn’t hate actors. Sure, he made jokes about
treating them like cattle, but he counted many actors—men and women—among his
closest friends: Carole Lombard, Ingrid, Grace, Cary Grant, Robert Cummings, to
name a few.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Three. He claimed he didn’t drive. <a href="http://shrapnel.tumblr.com/image/1609897716" target="_blank">But, in fact, he did</a>. My
gosh, do I have to prove it? Here’s his driver’s license. Wanna check his thumb print? Are ya satisfied? And
whether you're satisfied or not, you can just beat it.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-27132599748080088142015-04-01T11:03:00.001-07:002015-04-01T12:21:22.259-07:00Bird Attacks Terrorize Indiana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1QGzkMUEBr3CM7R3_x_Shz5U_JjaumUL5Gnita963fvjXNLvjdchZP3WOd6SFfyaJvjDALxwT9M7GUc3Z3cZRepCw8tQPYiWLxRw1sKcZCaKBBqxDTBIoIiSKJiR41ffglHZkPVVocKbj/s1600/Governor+Mike+Pence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1QGzkMUEBr3CM7R3_x_Shz5U_JjaumUL5Gnita963fvjXNLvjdchZP3WOd6SFfyaJvjDALxwT9M7GUc3Z3cZRepCw8tQPYiWLxRw1sKcZCaKBBqxDTBIoIiSKJiR41ffglHZkPVVocKbj/s1600/Governor+Mike+Pence.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Indiana Governor Mike Pence</span></b></div>
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INDIANAPOLIS—Police in Indianapolis, Indiana have stepped up efforts to ward off a series of bird attacks in the vicinity of its state capitol buildings. In what appears to be a coordinated assault, crows, finches and seagulls have flocked together to harass members of the Indiana state legislature and its governor, Mike Pence.<br />
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Though no injuries have yet been reported, politicians have taken steps to remain under cover. In a telephone conference call with reporters originating from the panic room in the official mansion, Pence, noticeably shaken, stated, "We are doing everything in our power restore order and freedom in our city." <br />
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The attacks began shortly after Pence signed into law the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Since then, reports have been filed of birds swooping down, pecking, pooping on and otherwise terrorizing elected state officials. When asked if there was any connection between the two events, Pence replied, "I.... I'm the cause of all this. I'm evil. Eeeeeeevil!"<br />
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Bird attacks have also been reported in Arkansas.<br />
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<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/i_heart_fb.gif" alt="I heart FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>Joel Gunzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597499250122165168noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219214733140697041.post-904841969807512822014-12-02T21:35:00.000-08:002014-12-03T09:29:36.053-08:00Book Review: “The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock.”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGze_vJgjnrMbxRXqcy9TKDtYr023Wd9_uGm6AFd2Hdlkg5nnld88cRA5wUvX2OhOlPWB_h9QR_lYNSntBRnpDsoFF5dLnIIm2PMPGjLMrN70krmDyw-46az7duxT56iHXGafA-10N3UX4/s1600/Metropolis+Under+Construction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGze_vJgjnrMbxRXqcy9TKDtYr023Wd9_uGm6AFd2Hdlkg5nnld88cRA5wUvX2OhOlPWB_h9QR_lYNSntBRnpDsoFF5dLnIIm2PMPGjLMrN70krmDyw-46az7duxT56iHXGafA-10N3UX4/s1600/Metropolis+Under+Construction.jpg" height="286" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">The cityscape for Fritz Lang's <i>Metropolis</i>, under construction. (Click to enlarge.)</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before Alfred Hitchcock was
a director, he was a set designer in Britain’s silent film industry. While yet
an underling, he directed from behind, building sets that could only be
filmed his way. “I was quite dogmatic,” he said. “I would build a set and say
to the director, ‘here’s where it’s shot from.’” Even as an apprentice, he knew
too much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Unlike live theater, which
can take place on a street corner or an empty stage, cinema relies heavily on
its locations to carry the storytelling weight. That’s the lesson Hitch learned
while running around with Weimar directors like Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau. From the furtive
environs of a gas station john to the stone-faced mugs of Mt. Rushmore, Hitch’s
settings defined his characters. They <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">were</i>
the story. He worked his sets as hard as he did any of his human talent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In his book, “The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock,”</span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="">[1]</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> a</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">rt historian Steven Jacobs looks
intently at Hitch’s preoccupation with man-made spaces. Focusing on the point where cinema and architecture intersect, he takes readers
on a film-by-film architectural tour—complete with floor plans copied from both
surviving documents (sketchy) and a painstaking study of the films themselves
(laborious).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jacobs’ wealth of knowledge
about architecture delivers numerous insights into a relatively unstudied
aspect of Hitchcock’s—or anyone’s—films. Then he interprets what he sees. While most
writers offer only the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what, </i>Jacobs offers the illuminating <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">His bias is endearing. The
book “starts from the absurd premise that all the important buildings in
[Hitchcock’s] films are designed by one and the same architect whose <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">oeuvre</i> includes a modernist villa in
South Dakota, a London apartment, a suburban house in a Californian small
town.” It’s a novel concept, not one that would likely come from the often-hermetic
mind of a film studies professor.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgWlVZ5xStjdA5TNhEq9aJcXxvWgSqanQZwV7LO5sKFaPvzEWUqej9KsXXd6aFYjPGGv2rMEChsl2aU-mo25LjfH_4xqoaPrPYKY65dW5fXt1r9DzxVqLgPS9PtDwYf4JLL-L6Hw8mVOz/s1600/Manderley+Miniature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgWlVZ5xStjdA5TNhEq9aJcXxvWgSqanQZwV7LO5sKFaPvzEWUqej9KsXXd6aFYjPGGv2rMEChsl2aU-mo25LjfH_4xqoaPrPYKY65dW5fXt1r9DzxVqLgPS9PtDwYf4JLL-L6Hw8mVOz/s1600/Manderley+Miniature.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<o:p><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">F</span></b></o:p><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">illing an entire soundstage, t</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">his model of Manderley was one of the largest miniatures ever built up till that time. Later, Hitch's skyline for <i>Rope</i> consisted of a 12,000 square cyclorama (the largest ever built, so he claimed), and the courtyard in <i>Rear Window</i> remains one of the largest indoor sets ever built. (Click to enlarge.) </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manderley, Frankenstein-on-Cornwall<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jacobs devotes about 20
pages to Manderley, the colossal estate that looms so heavily in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebecca</i>. One of those rambling mansions that
was enlarged over the centuries, its labyrinthine floor plan, forbidden rooms and chambers built to accommodate the complicated servants’ hierarchy accommodated a social life that ranged from solitary
gloom to ballroom shenanigans. It<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>suited
the film’s Gothic plot perfectly. The sets' ample floor space also gave Hitch the opportunity to mess around
with prolonged tracking shots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jacobs notes that, while
parts of the house seem to date to late medieval times, other features, such as
the bay windows, would have been built in the Victorian era. Still other parts
are Georgian. It was an architectural Frankenstein (another character who
mourned, and then avenged, his continued existence).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s hard to pinpoint when
Manderley came to dominate the lives of its masters and servants, yet that narrative is embedded in its endless walls and vast ceilings. They’re a visual correlative
to Maxim De Winter’s history—recent and ancient—which, like Laurence Olivier’s
eyebrows, never stays put. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebecca,</i>
the past keeps insinuating itself into the present. You can never go back to
Manderley; it keeps following you. No wonder Maxim was always so touchy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hitch’s collaboration with art directors<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ironically, there was no
real-life Manderley. Just a soundstage-sized miniature, along with a few other models
and partial walls all knit together with editing and special effects. Though
it was based on photos and sketches made during Hitch’s scouting trips
to the English countryside, Jacobs reminds us that it was designed and built by
the great art director Lyle Wheeler (who, incidentally, also designed the
plantation house "Tara" in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gone with the
Wind</i> a year earlier).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In fact, Jacobs includes a
list of art directors,</span><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="">[3]</a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> set decorators and others at the beginning of each
chapter, giving them each a bit of overdue credit—and making it that much easier for
students and scholars to pick up where he left off. (Wheeler’s work included Hitchcock's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Paradine Case</i>, as well as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Portrait of Jennie</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Laura</i>. Apparently, he was a go-to
art director for atmospheric gothic tales.</span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title="">[4]</a>)</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These unsung heroes
contributed more than you’d think. Until the 1960s, studios kept all these
professionals on payroll, which gace each studio its own look and style. Thus, while much has been written about the “Hitchcock
look,” Jacobs sees it from the opposite end: “The look of a Universal Hitchcock
film, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow of a Doubt</i>,
differs considerably from an RKO Hitchcock film, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suspicion</i>, made two years later. Unmistakably, this difference is
due to the influence of… each studio’s supervising art director.” As a result,
you can geek out on the style of one art director just as you can one actor,
director, writer or composer. Who knows? If this Hitchcock Geek thing doesn’t
pan out for me, I might become an Edward Haworth Geek.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hitch was. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Not really, but it’s a nice
segue.) <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Who?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Haworth, an art director, recalled that on the
set of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Strangers on a Train</i>, if Hitch
needed time to think a scene through while shooting, “He would say, ‘everybody
get lost for a few minutes,’ and [he’d] chase everybody body out of the room—but
never the art director.’” Then the two might consider the best way to approach
the scene.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hitchcock himself
acknowledged the role of such unsung heroes. “When I’m sitting there with a
writer and we’re designing a scene, I’ll say, ‘I wonder what we can do with
that. What sort of setting should we write this for?’ We bring in the
production designer while the script is being written.” Such collaboration contributed to the richness and re-watchability of Hitchcock’s films. Really,
all members of the team are—or should be—storytellers: the writer tells the
story on paper; the art director and others tell the story using the tools they
work with. That’s the way Hitch saw it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hitch was such a good
self-promoter that it’s easy to forget what his day-to-day was like. He respected
those members of the team who brought more to the table than a good day’s work,
and they got to have a hand in helping shape some of cinema’s finest moments.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: x-small; mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></a></span></span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/37120554" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>For a treat, and to illustrate what we're talking about below, watch this stunning <a href="http://vimeo.com/37120554">Rear Window Timelapse</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/jeffdesom">Jeff Desom</a>.</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rear Window,</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Modern Panopticon<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A tsunami of paper has been
devoted to endlessly recycled studies of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rear
Window</i> as a metaphor for: the cinema, the sexually arrested
male gaze, the director-as-voyeur, the isolation of modern urban life, you name it. Finally, Jacobs offer a fresh perspective—one that could only be
supplied by someone whose life extends beyond film school. He starts
out by observing (as have others) that all those apartments that L. B. Jefferies (James Stewart)
peeks in on make up, collectively, a specific form of urban theater: the 18<sup>th</sup>
century panopticon. From the darkened center of this semicircular
building, someone—a prison warden, let’s say— could look in on all the open rooms
surrounding it. He writes:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Whereas the theater [(and
cinema, I’d add)] directs the gaze of many onlookers to the single focal point
of the stage, the panopticon inverts this logic.... The space of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rear Window</i> adopts the imaginary form of
a cone whose apex is constituted by Jeffries’ living room.”</span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7h_GlOkY-tnbBFRiZ0TktRR7ITCqWQjbQrEHjFQoGJkkm3KyBbRl0yVwjxFW8inmLc1EMwcjnfe-f9_XdJHM0qDXqw2ovO0QDUG9q00h-eKYpB6waOd9L-k1C8Cx_yRTk-kPGg5qRC-O7/s1600/panopticon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7h_GlOkY-tnbBFRiZ0TktRR7ITCqWQjbQrEHjFQoGJkkm3KyBbRl0yVwjxFW8inmLc1EMwcjnfe-f9_XdJHM0qDXqw2ovO0QDUG9q00h-eKYpB6waOd9L-k1C8Cx_yRTk-kPGg5qRC-O7/s1600/panopticon.jpg" height="393" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">"General Idea of a Penitentiary Panopticon," Jeremy Bentham, 1791. </span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Click to enlarge.)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jacobs adds the connection, also made previously by <a href="http://www.academia.edu/530775/_Exposing_the_Lies_of_Hitchcock_s_Truth_" target="_blank">Walter Metz</a>,</span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title="">[6]</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> that Michel Foucault seized upon the
idea of the panopticon as: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“an allegory of the process of normalization and
discipline of modernity,... [for] ‘every cage [in the panopticon] is a small
theater in which the actor is alone, perfectly individualized and permanently
visible.’... Foucault noted that, consequently, the visual logic of the
spectacle is turned upside down. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Instead of exposing some individual bodies to
a community [as in traditional theater], the panoptic courtyard of </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rear Window</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> provides the lonely surveyor
[Jeffries, in this case, but anyone, really] with an overview of many separated
individuals.” </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As such, Jefferies assumes the position of almost god-like omniscience, which he clearly
relishes and uses to his advantage to try to ensnare the killer Thorwald.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But here's where it gets interesting. Jacobs goes on to observe that Jefferies' courtyard is actually a <i>neighborhood of other rear windows</i>. He writes: "<i>Rear Window</i> clearly deals with the contrast between formal and representative facade and informal backside, which is one of the essential characteristics of modernity." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With its messy yards and ad hoc living arrangements, this space presumably contrasts with the view from its front windows, which
are probably much cleaner and more formal. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">More public.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(It's hard to imagine that couple sleeping on a street-side fire escape.) In the semi-privacy
of these rear windows, however, the inhabitants take more casual liberties with their shades open than they probably would in their front rooms. Writes Jacobs, “It is a delicate social balance based on the collective use of spaces
and on implicit rules of conduct between neighbors.” Thus, Miss Torso changes
her clothes in full view of her neighbors, but turns her back so that no one
sees the front of her bra come off. Her behavior is the perfect bookend to
Hitch’s observation regarding voyeurism: “Everybody is doing it. It's a known fact, providing
you don't make it too vulgar, keeping it to a point of curiosity.”</span></div>
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Jacobs sees a thriving neighborhood of folks who’ve moved to the
city precisely because of its “relative isolation and lack of interference in
the everyday life of others.” The film isn’t merely a “commentary on the
alienation of modern life” as John Fawell puts it.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title="">[7]</a> This imperfect, sloppy neighborhood has a heart. It is very much a community. Jacobs concludes, “It announces a postmodern urban space, the boundaries of which are
no longer defined by architectural structures but by the screen and the lens.” He nails what I like so much about urban living. This movie also foreshadows life in a digitally-mediated world. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can see why I like the
guy so much. He does for Hitchcock and architecture what I’ve been trying to do
for Hitchcock and art. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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It’s hard to imagine that insights like this could be supplied by a film studies academic. (For one thing, the writing would be more abstruse. Jacobs keeps it simple.) This topic demands expertise
that’s usually outside of their professional scope. Jacobs’ resume is a bit different.
He’s an art historian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first,</i> specializing
in “photographic and cinematic representations of architecture, cities and
landscapes.” As such, he was ready-made to write this book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Obviously, there’s a place for theoretical film
scholarship. But movies are made by a diverse range of people, from crafters
and tradespeople to philosophers and artists—not to mention legions of expert
“story consultants.” It only stands to reason that they can’t really be explained without critical contributions from a diversity of voices. Unfortunately, it's the film studies professors' work that dominates this field, and for obvious reasons: as a whole, they're writing more; I also think that publishers see them as a safe bet. We need to hear more from the geeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At 342 pages, Jacobs’ book
only scratches the surface of possible examinations of Hitchcock’s
architecture—not to mention that of other directors. In breaking open a new topic,
it paves the way for others to pitch in with their own discoveries. I hope to
see more books just like it. Do your part to make that happen. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wrong-House-Architecture-Alfred-Hitchcock/dp/9462080968/ref=asap_B00MCOMXL6_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417505622&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Buy it</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> nai010 publishers; 2nd Revised edition; April 30,
2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Originally, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">art
director</i> was simply in charge of designing and building the sets and left
the set “the moment it’s painted” (Hitchcock). But the job has evolved and is
often synonymous with that of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">production
designer,</i> who’s charged with overseeing the overall look of the film,
including setting, set design and set decoration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Some of the most original—and useful—ideas about Hitchcock’s films have come
from people for whom film study is a secondary interest: Tania Modleski (“The
Women Who Knew Too Much”) is an English professor with an emphasis on gender
studies; Camille Paglia (“The Birds”) is a generalist cultural critic. Many fantastic
books have come from individuals who work outside of academia—fans and geeks.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title="">[4]</a> Now to mention the first 60 episodes</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> of </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perry Mason</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and about 350 additional movies! Wheeler is a forgotten name by most, but among those in the know, he's called the Dean of Art Directors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> They also got called back to work with him again. In
the 50s and 60s, Hitch’s team of regulars variously included Robert Boyle (art
director and production designer), Bernard Herrmann (music), Robert Burks
(cameraman), George Tomasini (editor), Edith Head (costumes), Peggy Robertson
(script supervisor) and others. Their fingerprints are all over some of Hitchcock’s—and
Hollywood’s—greatest movies. </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title="">[6]</a> Published in “After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation and Intertextuality,” 2006.</span><br />
<span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7219214733140697041#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title="">[7]</a> Published in "Hitchcock's <i>Rear Window</i>," 2000</span></div>
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