day 90 - Top 5 Alfred Hitchcock Films

OK film fans, tonight is the glorious three month mark of my little experiment! Yea me! As such I feel tonight is the perfect night to discuss one of my all time favorite directors, Alfred Hitchcock. As a kid I used to watch reruns of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and scare myself silly. When I was older I discovered that my Jr. High school's library had copies of similarly titled books and I had the fun of scaring myself all over again.

I have loved the works of The Master of Suspense since I was too young to be anything other than scared. He is synonymous with the genre. AFI's Top 10 Mystery's include 4 of his films. Hitchcock's definition of suspense vs. surprise, the element used in most horror and pseudo suspense films made today, is important in understanding why his films are so effective. As Hitchcock explained, when a bomb under a table goes off, that's surprise. If we know the bomb is under the table but not when it will go off, that's suspense. Modern slasher films depend on danger that leaps unexpectedly out of the shadows. It's a surprise that quickly dissipates, giving us a momentary rush but not satisfaction. In addition to suspense Hitchcock's films always revolve around secrets we try to hide from each other; our intimate desires, obsessions and fears. Enough of the hype, let's get my Top 5 Alfred Hitchcock Films rolling!

Honorable Mention: Rope - 1948 I had to throw one more in here. While not a great film you have to give the master serious kudos for attempting to make a film that appears, much like a play, as if it is one seamless shot. Since the length of one roll of film was 8 minutes there are ingenious transitions designed to mask when the film would run out and he would need to reload. The technical skill it took to make this film, incorporating the lighting, blocking and camera movement, is impressive even if the film about two spoiled high society boys attempting to get away with murder isn't. (I was going to go with The Birds here, but I thought I'd go with something a little less known.)

5. Notorious - 1946 Alicia Huberman (legendary Ingrid Bergman) has become a reputed wanton woman, living in disgrace since her father was convicted as a Nazi spy and committed suicide. She is recruited by Government agent T.R. Devlin (who else could be this smooth but Cary Grant?) to fly to Rio and infiltrate the home of Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), the head of a Nazi spy ring. Sebastian was once in love with Alicia, making her job somewhat easier. But Alicia agrees to essentially gather information through pillow talk because she is in love with Devlin. This is often considered Hitchcock's most elegantly filmed work. The camera work is beautiful and designed to enrich the story at every turn. In fact, it's so good most times it tells more of a story then the words spoken by the actors.

4. Rear Window - 1954 Jeff Jefferies (another icon, James Stewart) is a famous photographer, a man of action, whose lifestyle has led to a broken leg and some time holed up in his apartment with nothing to do. His nurse Stella and his fiancee Lisa Fremont (The Grace Kelly) are his only regular visitors and with his options limited Jeff does what he does best, looks through the lens of his camera. The only problem is all he has to look at is the life of his neighbors through their open windows facing the shared courtyard. To call him a voyeur is an understatement. While peeping on his neighbors he witnesses the strained relationship of a man and his bed-ridden wife. When she suddenly disappears our story of suspense begins. This thriller is considered by many to be Hitchcock's finest work, but it's a little formulaic for me.

3. Psycho - 1960 One of the master's few excursions into horror also happens to be perhaps his most well known film. This landmark film was beyond groundbreaking when it was released at the beginning of the 60's. It is also the epitome of Hitchcock's wonderful use of the MacGuffin. Shot on a cheap budget with black and white film and using the crew Hitchcock used for his television show gave this film a gritty, pulp feel that added to its 50's horror film look. It was also advertised like the cheap horror films of epic pitchman William Castle. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh, mom of scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis) has stolen $40,000 from a creep to use for her boyfriend. While on the run she pulls over to get out of the rain and clear her head at a sleepy little motel. In a twist (no this is not a spoiler, what's wrong with you!) that stunned the film viewers of the day; our lead star meets her demise in the now famous shower scene. The unexpected transition makes motel owner Norman Bates the lead and we watch as he attempts to cover up Marion's disappearance from her sister and a private eye. While Hitchcock wasn't done with the surprise twists yet, the film remains in our collective memories not because of unforeseen plot changes (I'm looking at you M. Night) but thanks to the master's manipulation of fears we all share.

2. North by Northwest - 1959 New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant again!) gets caught in a worst case scenario of mistaken identity. Foreign spies believe he is a CIA agent named George Kaplan and a threat that needs to be eliminated. Adding to Thornhill's problems he's also being accused of murder and now the cops are searching for him as well. On the run and looking for a way to clear himself he is aided by Eve Kendall, a woman he meets on a train. This, by the way, is never a good sign, especially in a Hitchcock film. Along the way we get iconic scenes in a field and on Mt. Rushmore. I'm going to stop here and just say I love this film. Anytime I see it's on TV I always end up watching it. When you get done with this post, you should too.

1. Vertigo - 1958 Trust me when I say we'll be looking at this film closer later on as it is quite simply one of the greatest films ever made. Consistently found on Best Film lists, most recently AFI's #9 choice, it didn't begin to get critical praise until 1968. It was pulled from circulation between 1973 and 1983, then restored and re-released in 1996 (which I saw on the big screen... very cool). This dark, odd film about love and obsession is filled with enough subtext to write a book. There's also the film's exploration of some of the very demons that plagued Hitchcock himself. The use of color in the film and the importance that red, green and yellow plays in providing subliminal cues have been well documented.

Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart, again!) is a police detective forced into early retirement when his fear of heights leads to the death of a fellow police officer. He now spends most of his time meandering around San Francisco and hanging out with his former college sweetheart Midge. When an old friend asks him to follow his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak, huba-huba), Scottie takes the job out of curiosity and boredom. She appears to believe she's the reincarnation of a long dead woman of San Franciscan lore. Over time he gets to know her and even fall in love with her.

Rather than give away anything for the uninitiated, I'll just leave you with this passage from my guru, Mr. Roger Ebert. "A man has fallen in love with a woman who does not exist, and now he cries out harshly against the real woman who impersonated her. But there is so much more to it than that. The real woman has fallen in love with him. In tricking him, she tricked herself. And the man, by preferring his dream to the woman standing before him, has lost both."

When you are ready for a film experience few films can match, this is your film.

day 41 - Rosemary's Baby

OK film fans, tonight I was feeling a bit tired and by the time I got home, made dinner and plopped down on the couch it was already getting pretty late. On nights like this sometimes I'll go for a new comedy, something light, but tonight I felt like an old favorite, something comfortable, like a visit with old friends. Or, as in this case, friends with a really annoying kid.

Rosemary's Baby is a horror classic, a nexus point where the reinvention of modern horror springs from the restrictive confines of old production codes. It was not a gruesome gory blood fest like those that would come after it, nor was it an old fashioned horror film like those proceding it. Released in 1968, American films were just beginning to show life in more realistic tones. How couples talked, fought and had sex was being explored in ways unheard of in prior decades. Directed in a brooding, creepy and uniquely stylized manner by Roman Polanski (no, I'm not getting into that tonight), the film takes full advantage of the era's cultural changes in telling this story.

Polanski brings the audience into the lives of Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy (Nick Cassavetes) Woodhouse, a young couple who move into a large New York loft in a very creepy (and real!) building. Rosemary finds their elderly neighbors are a bit boorish, especially the overbearing Minnie (Ruth Gordon), but Guy seems to take a liking to the husband. The young couple decides to start a family soon after moving in and the mood begins to shift considerably.

Polanski turns our focus on Rosemary, causing us to identify with her during the pregnancy and share in her doubts and fears. Because of this we are not always sure if we can believe what we are seeing. Is it real or just a side effect of the pregnancy going awry? Polanski takes the baton from legendary suspense/horror director Alfred Hitchcock, using his iconic style of creating suspense and fear by giving the audience knowledge of impending catastrophe while the characters are oblivious to what's coming. When the conclusion comes and Rosemary uncovers the frightening truth, it's not a surprise to us but rather horribly inevitable, and this is what ultimately makes it so unnerving.

Hitchcock began directing films in the 20s with most of his best known work coming in the 50s, even his classic Psycho came out in 1960. While less elegant than the master, the advantage Polanski has here is the ability to work with a broader canvas and more realistic brushstrokes that give the film a more humanistic depth. As my Patron saint, Roger Ebert, points out, "The characters and the story transcend the plot. In most horror films, and indeed in most suspense films of the Alfred Hitchcock tradition, the characters are at the mercy of the plot. In this one, they emerge as human beings actually doing these things."

Rosemary's Baby is not a gruesome, shock-fest but rather a sophisticated, masterful and effective display of the suspension of disbelief. It is Polanski's skill as a director that pulls us in and holds us entranced even as the we begin to wonder if what we see is happening or the just in Rosemary's mind. It's truly a classic that paved the road to more graphic 70s classics like The Exorcist and The Omen. I love a good horror movie and I'm not opposed to blood and guts, but the recent trend in Hollywood, with the advent of "torture" horror like the Saw/Hostel films leave me feeling nonplussed. The "based on true events" films aren't much better and I actually fear the crop of imitators that will be spawned by the success of Paranormal Activity. The plot is all that carries these films and we rarely care about the characters let alone find them dynamic enough to transcend the story. Sometime, like this film, progress is good. But sometimes too much progress can be a bad thing.