alfred hitchcock | the m0vie blog

For the Love of Film 2012: Alfred Hitchcock Film Preservation Blogathon

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Darren

I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be taking part in this year’s For the Love of Film blogathon, organised by the Self-Styled Siren, Ferdy on Films and This Island Rod. A celebration of classical cinema, the event hopes to raise money to preserve and restore classic films that would otherwise be lost to the ages. This year, from the 13th May through to the 18th, bloggers from around the world will contribute articles on classic film, hoping to raise awareness and to raise $15,000 to make The White Shadow available to stream live for anybody with internet access. I am honoured to announce that the m0vie blog shall be proudly participating.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, art, Birds, film, Filmmaking, Graham Cutts, hitchcock, Movie, North by Northwest, steven spielberg, The White Shadow, Tippi Hedren, White Shadow | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: High Anxiety

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Darren

I quite enjoyed High Anxiety, even if it didn’t rank quite as high as some of Brooks’ other efforts. While it still possesses the same wonderful wry moments, High Anxiety is a Mel Brooks film that arguably works better as a farce than as a parody. I suspect that this has something to do with the director’s intended target. While Westerns were ripe for mockery in Blazing Saddles and old horror films were perfectly suited to the sense of humour in Young Frankenstein, it always seemed like Alfred Hitchcock was aware of his own filmmaking style, and seemed to occasionally be gently mocking it himself, rather than playing his heightened suspense with a po-faced sincerity. I think that parody and satire work best when they represent an attack on a target that suffers from a little bit too much self-importance, while Hitchcock’s films are generally a little more self-aware than that.

Gone to the birds?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, Birds, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, hitchcock, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks, non-review review, parody, Psycho, review, Young Frankenstein | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Phone Booth

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Darren

Phone Booth is proof that the high-concept thriller isn’t quite dead yet. A concept that had been floating around Hollywood for decades (with the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, lined up to direct at one point), it seemed that – with the decline of the phone booth and the rise of mobile phones – perhaps the window in which to tell the tale might be closing. Of all the directors to bring the tale to the screen, I don’t think I ever would have expected Joel Schumacher to make one of the most intense and superbly intimate little thrillers ever written to the screen.

There's a lot on the line...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, colin farrell, film, joel schumacher, Katie Holmes, kiefer sutherland, Movies, non-review review, phone booth, phone booth (film), phone booth (movie), Radha Mitchell, review, Woody Allen | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: From Russia With Love

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Darren

This post is part of James Bond January, being organised by the wonderful Paragraph Films. I will have reviews of all twenty-two official Bond films going on-line over the next month, and a treat or two every once in a while.

Dr. No demonstrated that Ian Fleming’s suave British secret agent could make it to screen. Sean Connery’s James Bond was on the pop culture map, but perhaps just short of becoming a pop culture icon – that was a sequel or two away. Of course, a second movie was pushed into development, with a rich library of Fleming’s novels to adapt – as faithfully or as loosely as the producers might like. When President Kennedy, one of the other “coolest men of the sixties”, announced that From Russia With Love was his ninth favourite novel of all time, it seemed th choice had been made. Rumour has it that Alfred Hitchcock was at one point intended to direct the film, but Terrence Young’s From Russia With Love is still a wonderfully iconic Bond film, which represents a pretty large step from “an entertaining espionage movie” to “globe-spanning spy franchise”.

Bond was already making a splash at this stage of his career...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, Cuban Missile Crisis, espionage, films, From Russia With Love, ian fleming, james bond, james bond january, Movies, non-review review, review, Roger Moore, sean connery, terrence young | Leave a comment »

More Thoughts on the Best Picture/Best Director Voting Divergence

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Darren

I read an interesting article over at The LA Times which suggested that we may be able to spot how radically the new voting rules have changed the way that the Academy awards people and films.

Going for gold...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: academy awards, alfred hitchcock, AMPAS, best director, best picture, driving miss daisy, hitchcock, LA Times, Oscars, plurality, stv, voting | Leave a comment »

3D or not 3D?

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Darren

As 3D enters its second golden age (yes, I’m using a little hyperbole, but let’s run with it), it’s generating a lot of discussion. Just how gimmicky is it? Is doomed to forever by a “nine day fad”, as blithely summed up by Alfred Hitchcock himself? Worse, does 3D fade colours and detract from the actual viewing experience, as Roger Ebert protests? I figured I’d give my two cents on the third dimension.