truepoetsociety

This video was made to illustrate a radio interview by Colin Edwards from the http://PacificaRadioArchives.org
« The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, sat down for a short interview on the set of a film tentatively titled, From Amongst The Dead. The film would be released in early 1958 as Vertigo, the classic starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. In this interview, we go inside the mind of a master storyteller with a penchant for fear. »

This short video-essay examines various themes and techniques Alfred Hitchcock developed throughout his career. Using 40 titles, it includes every feature film Hitchcock made from 1934 right through to his retirement in 1976. Of the several themes on display here (falling, ascending and descending staircases, opening curtains, reading newspapers, poisoning drinks, women’s hairstyles, shoes, train compartments, sleeping and dreaming, pulling away from and dollying in on the action, overhead shots and characters looking directly into the camera), there are yet others for fellow essayists to examine further (looking through and climbing in and out of windows, nuns and clergymen, eating food, kissing in the countryside, women wearing glasses and people playing games such as tennis, hide-and-seek, fancy-dress and blindman’s bluff). 

Hitchcock’s famous cameos, the article HERE or THERE.

English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving major films. For the films in which he appeared, he would be seen for a brief moment in a non-speaking part as an extra, such as boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or even appearing in a newspaper photograph.

This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock’s signatures; and fans would make a sport of trying to spot his cameos. His appearances became so popular that he began to make them earlier in his films so as not to distract the audience from the plot. Hitchcock confirms this in extended interviews with François Truffaut, and indeed the majority of his appearances occur within the first half-hour of his films, with over half in the first 15 minutes.

Look at the video to check all his cameos.

The art of title sequences HERE.

And THERE.