Overview

Hitchcock and Twentieth-Century Cinema looks at the work, influences, legacy and style of one of cinema's most famous directors. Alfred Hitchcock worked in Britain and America, in silent and sound films, and through and beyond the studio system, all the time appealing to mass audiences while employing his own distinctive style. This book examines how he was affected by German cinema, British writing, the Hays Code and his own upbringing to produce films that challenged key notions of acting, sexuality, mise-en-scène and narrative convention. John Orr contends that Hitchcock is a matrix figure who forged a new dynamics of exchange and of re-made identities in the feature film that in turn has influenced film noir, neo-noir, the French New Wave and David Lynch, as well as countless filmmakers all around the world and, indeed, continues to do so.

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9781904764564

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Reviews

'Even though he passed away over a quarter of a century ago, the influence of Alfred Hitchcock is still felt to this day, and this study takes a look at his work, style and legacy. This is by no means the first book to tackle Hitchcock purely from an analytical point of view. However, whilst some previous tomes have been awash with jargon and hoisted personal agendas onto his films, this latest volume is mercifully more grounded, and successfully argues the point that the director influenced a number of European and contemporary filmmakers, among them Claude Chabrol, Roman Polanski and David Lynch, whose work contains a 'translation' of the Hitchcock vision. Eminently readable and full of fascinating insight, this offers a surprisingly fresh twist on a familiar subject, which is a major achievement in itself.' **** Howard Maxford, Film Review 'Book of the Month' Sight and Sound, January 2006 'Hitchcock and Twentieth-Century Cinema is a Hitchcock book like no other. Bursting with fresh ideas and dazzling critical insights into individual films and the totality of the director's work, John Orr presents an ambitious, original and compelling case for Hitchcock's centrality to the history of cinema and, indeed, to the artistic and intellectual life of the twentieth century as a whole.' William Rothman, Florida State University, author of Hitchcock - The Murderous Gaze 'Another book on Hitchcock? Saying something new about Hitchcock is indeed a tall order. However, John Orr's painstaking location of the director's work in relation to the major achievements of silent cinema, to the films of Murnau, Lang and Eisenstein, together with his perceptive demonstration of the central importance of Hitchcock's work to British and American popular cinema, to European art-house directors, and to contemporary filmmakers as diverse as David Lynch, Gus Van Sant and Wong Kar Wai, is a substantial achievement. The book, grounded in a deep and comprehensive knowledge of film history as well as a detailed and subtle critical knowledge of Hitchcock's films, is an important and welcome addition to the literature on the director.' Professor Tom Ryall, Sheffield Hallam University, author of Alfred Hitchcock and the British Cinema 'John Orr writes about Alfred Hitchcock with a truly delicious virtuosity. His analysis of Hitchcock's place in twentieth-century cinema is full of vivacious observation and passionate reflection that will make any lover of Hitchcock an avid reader of this book. Orr moves through Hitchcock's work, and through contemporary film, with the agility of Guy Haines in mid-stroke.' Murray Pomerance, Ryerson University, author of An Eye for Hitchcock 'Among the mass of Hitchcock literature, John Orr's book claims a high place for its exhilarating mix of close analysis with a subtle and authoritative wider view. Indispensable both to the Hitchcock specialist and to anyone interested in the history and cultural role of cinema.' Charles Barr, author of English Hitchcock and Vertigo 'How many more books on Hitchcock? Well, this one is special. Prof Orr's grasp of film history is breathtaking, and he fits Hitch into the canon of Murnau, Lang and Eisenstein besides demonstrating his influence on contemporary European, Asian and American directors. He makes a case for Hitch working at the very edge of the studio code, like Billy Wilder. For example, he does not attack the law head on, like Wells in Touch of Evil or The Trial, but jabs at its limitations and displays his mistrust of the authorities in The Wrong Man, Psycho and The Birds. Indeed this mindset goes back to The Lodger in 1926. Orr sees Hitch's vision of romantic love as central to his work - therapeuticin Spellbound, redemptive in Notorious, erotic in North by Northwest and tragic in Vertigo. Confined to rooms - Psycho, Rear Window- love is sterile, whereas on trains, in cars, in flight - North by Northwest, Notorious, The 39 Steps- it resonates. He extended the range of the possible in the mainstream, and usually triumphed at the box office. That shibboleth of the '50s and'60s, the family, is shown as fragile and brittle under pressure in The Birds, while children like Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt are placed in jeopardy. It was a dark vision indeed, and it comes as no surprise that he had studied the films of Ingmar Bergman, Antonioni and Resnais prior to embarking on The Birds. He was keenly aware of the cinematic innovations of his time. Inspired by Jean-Luc Godard, he hoped to incorporate hand-held camera and natural light inthe aborted Kaleidoscope, but the studio forced him into the mundane Topaz. Terrific! ***** Uncut 'An intriguing inspiring new book ... Orr's overarching theme is that Hitchcock is a kind of cinematic Abraham: every movie-maker since is descended from him. We know the debts Claude Chabrol and Brian de Palma owe him but what about Wong Kar-wai or Takashi Miike? Graham Greene? James Bond? All is revealed here. In the book's most awesomely insightful essay, Orr unravels the ties that bind David Lynch to the master of suspense, managing into the bargain what one had begun to think impossible - to tell you something new about Hitchcock ... Orr's is only the latest in a long line of studies of the most famous filmmaker of them all. Hitchcock made more than 50 pictures, but there must be more than double that number of books about him. Most of them have been boondoggling trivia about Hitchcock the feminist, Hitchcock the deconstructionist, Hitchcock the Marxist-without-knowing-it. Orr is having none of that ... One of the reasons Orr distrusts the vapourings of post-structuralism is that he knows how to put a sentence together. You would be hard-pressed to call him a stylist, but he knows how to make sense and is full of ideas and miraculous connections ... As thrilling as its subject, his book deserves to be as influential, too.' Christopher Bray, The New Statesman

Author Information

John Orr is Professor Emeritus in the School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Cinema and Modernity (1993), Contemporary Cinema (1998), The Art and Politics of Film (2000) and co-editor of The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda (Wallflower Press, 2003) and The Cinema of Roman Polanski (Wallflower Press, forthcoming).

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