One of my favorite hobbies is watching movies. I prefer older movie to newer ones (The Last Airbender didn't give me any confidence), particularly Hitchcock films. He was extremely talented as a director. I own almost all of his films, both good and bad. Since he directed so many great films, it's hard to believe he could have made a bad one. Even so, many "bad" Hitchcock films are better than the "good" films made by most other directors.
Born in 1899, Alfred Hitchcock began his film career in the silent era, designing title cards for German and French films. In England, he directed a few silent films, and then several talkies in the 1930's. He moved to America in 1940 to direct an adaptation of Rebecca (which won Best Picture for that year), meanwhile his popularity continued to grow. He directed many of his best films during the '50s. Hitchcock's career peaked with the success of Psycho in 1960, and afterward most believe the quality of his films gradually declined. Personally, I think his 1964 film, Marnie, was his last great movie. His final film was released in 1976, and he later died in 1980 of kidney failure.
Hitchcock always liked visual storytelling. Very few of his films are dialogue-driven. He was ahead of his time in that he liked to draw storyboards as a method of planning beforehand. The thought behind it was that it left very little room for editors to tinker with things later. He also hated location shooting because of the expense and extra work involved, and tended to use rear projection instead. Unfortunately, Hitchcock's preferred shooting technique became very obvious in his later films.
It is difficult for me to choose a favorite Hitchcock film because I love so many of them. It's too bad many films today are not made like they were by Hitchcock. I included the trailer for Psycho with this blog. I think it's very funny! Again, thanks to whoever provided the video.
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