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University Press of Mississippi Alfred Hitchcock by Edited by Sidney Gottlieb
Even twenty years after his death and nearly fifty or more years after his creative peak Alfred Hitchcock (18991980) is still arguably the most instantly recognizable film director in name appearance vision and voice. Long ago through a combination of timing talent genius energy and publicity he made the key transition from proper noun to adjective that confirms celebrity and true stature. It is a rare filmwatcher indeed who cannot define Hitchcockian. As the director of such films as Psycho North by Northwest Spellbound Vertigo Rear Window To Catch a Thief Notorious and The Birds Hitchcock has become synonymous with both stylish sophisticated suspense and mordant black comedy. He was one of the most interviewed directors in the history of film. Among the hundreds of interviews he gave those in this collection catch Hitchcock at key moments of transition in his long careeras he moved from silent to sound pictures from England to America from thrillers to complex romances and from director to producerdirector. These conversations dramatize his shifting attitudes on a variety of cinematic matters that engaged and challenged him including the role of stars in a movie the importance of story the use of sound and color his relationship to the medium of television and the attractions and perils of realism. His engaging wit and intelligence are on display here as are his sophistication serious contemplation and playful manipulation of the interviewer. Sidney Gottlieb a professor of English at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Connecticut is the editor of Hitchcock on Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviews.show more