Alfred Hitchcock
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
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Re: Alfred Hitchcock
I'd forgotten I'd ordered this months ago (taking advantage of a Play.com misprice which they were kind enough to honour), but the Blu-ray of the BFI restoration of The Lodger turned up today, and a quick spin suggests that it's turned out pretty well. I haven't encountered the notorious songs yet, but the score in general seems to be a very good fit.
As for the picture, it's as clean as a whistle (as one would expect), but isn't as sharp as my benchmark silent Blu-rays (City Girl, Coeur fidèle, The Great White Silence). But a side-by-side comparison with my old Network DVD (sourced from the BFI's late-90s photochemical restoration) reveals several clear advances - on the telegraph machine approx 3:40 in you can clearly make out what's written on the white keys, whereas on the DVD you can't even see that there's anything printed on them in the first place.
The toning is also a fair bit more elaborate than was the case with the DVD.
As for the picture, it's as clean as a whistle (as one would expect), but isn't as sharp as my benchmark silent Blu-rays (City Girl, Coeur fidèle, The Great White Silence). But a side-by-side comparison with my old Network DVD (sourced from the BFI's late-90s photochemical restoration) reveals several clear advances - on the telegraph machine approx 3:40 in you can clearly make out what's written on the white keys, whereas on the DVD you can't even see that there's anything printed on them in the first place.
The toning is also a fair bit more elaborate than was the case with the DVD.
- neilist
- Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:09 am
- Location: Cambridge, UK
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Starting now!MichaelB wrote: On Thursday 27th September, there'll be a second feature-length live stream, this time of Champagne. I'm guessing this will be UK-only, but going from a recent Rialto announcement it sounds as though the BFI restorations will be making a US appearance before too long.
http://thespace.org/items/e0000vfa?t=kzjt
- antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
The Shaping of Alfred Hitchcock - a new addition to the BFI's Screenonline site, complete with individual entries for a number of Hitchcock's earliest assignments as screenwriter and art director.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Blu-ray.com on The Lodger.
- antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
The National Film Preservation Foundation is streaming The White Shadow (1924), on which Hitchcock served as scenarist, editor, assistant director and art director. (Only three of six reels survive, thanks to New Zealand projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh.)
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Has there been any news on when the rest of the recent Hitchcock restorations will make their way to DVD or Blu-ray?
-
- Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 1:13 pm
- Location: Chicago
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Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Extended thoughts on the Network LODGER Blu-Ray in my post naming Alfred Hitchcock White City Cinema's Filmmaker of the Year for 2012: http://whitecitycinema.com/2012/12/20/2 ... the-hitch/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
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Re: Alfred Hitchcock
I was curious about this comment about the big Hitchcock box:michaelgsmith wrote:Extended thoughts on the Network LODGER Blu-Ray in my post naming Alfred Hitchcock White City Cinema's Filmmaker of the Year for 2012: http://whitecitycinema.com/2012/12/20/2 ... the-hitch/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Aside from correcting the misspellings in the Frenzy opening titles, which other problems were fixed? It seems to me that virtually everything else that Nick Wrigley complained about was essentially untouched, from the weird fuzz on Marnie to the Godawful Family Plot (hands down one of the worst Blu-ray transfers I've ever seen).Originally scheduled for release in September, it was delayed for a month by technical problems, most of which were satisfactorily resolved by last minute fixes.
- neilist
- Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:09 am
- Location: Cambridge, UK
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Awesome! They're showing these now at the Music Box in Chicago, and they do indeed look amazing. Also a lot cheaper to see them here than in Brooklyn - same accompaniment (the musicians are apparently touring with these digital prints), but $12 vs. $20 at BAM. Damn you, NYC, with your inflated prices...neilist wrote:Alfred Hitchcock silent films join Unesco register.
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
From the NYTimes:
IN JUNE 1962, François Truffaut asked one of his “masters,” Alfred Hitchcock, to answer some 500 questions about his career. On Aug. 13 (Hitch’s 63rd birthday), the men, along with Truffaut’s collaborator the translator Helen G. Scott, met in Beverly Hills to commence work on the first of two epic interview sessions that resulted in more than 40 hours of tape. Their conversations covered the sweep of Hitchcock’s astonishing career — from his early stint creating title cards for silent pictures to a gruesome, lengthily staged murder in “Torn Curtain” — and led to the publication of Truffaut’s “Hitchcock,” one of the most influential books on its subject.
This year, Bruce Goldstein, the director of repertory programing at Film Forum, will turn that legendary Hitchcock/Truffaut encounter into a pair of complementary, back-to-back retrospectives. The Complete Hitchcock, a five-week series, begins on Feb. 21 and includes nine silent features that have been restored by the British Film Institute. (Hitchcock’s television oeuvre will be shown at the Paley Center for Media.) On March 28, the day after the Hitchcock series ends, with his 1928 feature “The Manxman,” Tout Truffaut begins. The three-week series will allow you to trace Hitchcock’s influence on Truffaut, including in “The Bride Wore Black,” a Hitchcockian tale with Jeanne Moreau, which he shot in 1967 — the year the American edition of his Hitchcock book was published.
“I especially liked the scene of Moreau watching the man who had taken poison Arak dying slowly,” Hitchcock later wrote Truffaut. “I think my particular sense of humor might have taken them a little further, so that Moreau could have picked up a cushion and put it under his head so that he could die with more comfort.”
IN JUNE 1962, François Truffaut asked one of his “masters,” Alfred Hitchcock, to answer some 500 questions about his career. On Aug. 13 (Hitch’s 63rd birthday), the men, along with Truffaut’s collaborator the translator Helen G. Scott, met in Beverly Hills to commence work on the first of two epic interview sessions that resulted in more than 40 hours of tape. Their conversations covered the sweep of Hitchcock’s astonishing career — from his early stint creating title cards for silent pictures to a gruesome, lengthily staged murder in “Torn Curtain” — and led to the publication of Truffaut’s “Hitchcock,” one of the most influential books on its subject.
This year, Bruce Goldstein, the director of repertory programing at Film Forum, will turn that legendary Hitchcock/Truffaut encounter into a pair of complementary, back-to-back retrospectives. The Complete Hitchcock, a five-week series, begins on Feb. 21 and includes nine silent features that have been restored by the British Film Institute. (Hitchcock’s television oeuvre will be shown at the Paley Center for Media.) On March 28, the day after the Hitchcock series ends, with his 1928 feature “The Manxman,” Tout Truffaut begins. The three-week series will allow you to trace Hitchcock’s influence on Truffaut, including in “The Bride Wore Black,” a Hitchcockian tale with Jeanne Moreau, which he shot in 1967 — the year the American edition of his Hitchcock book was published.
“I especially liked the scene of Moreau watching the man who had taken poison Arak dying slowly,” Hitchcock later wrote Truffaut. “I think my particular sense of humor might have taken them a little further, so that Moreau could have picked up a cushion and put it under his head so that he could die with more comfort.”
- Ashirg
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:10 am
- Location: Atlanta
- Ashirg
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:10 am
- Location: Atlanta
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
6th reel was restored.
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
You always have to take any mainstream news announcement about a 'lost' movie with a grain of salt.knives wrote:Sort of unseen anyway.
This time it's Hitchcock's "unseen* Holocaust documentary!"
* shown at Berlin in 1984 and broadcast on US TV in 1985
Last time it was "Hitchcock's* first film!"
* not actually directed by Alfred Hitchcock
You know, these discoveries are actually still interesting and valuable if they're accurately described!
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
My understanding is that the Holocaust documentary was almost entirely the work of Stewart McAllister, Humphrey Jennings's regular editor, with Hitchcock merely offering a small amount of advice.
Which is easy enough to believe: Hitchcock had no experience of fashioning documentaries out of existing footage, whereas McAllister was one of the best in the business (one of the best ever, in fact).
This is, after all, a man whose creative input into Listen to Britain was considered so massive that he ended up with a co-director credit, even though I don't believe there was ever any evidence that McAllister went near an actual camera.
Which is easy enough to believe: Hitchcock had no experience of fashioning documentaries out of existing footage, whereas McAllister was one of the best in the business (one of the best ever, in fact).
This is, after all, a man whose creative input into Listen to Britain was considered so massive that he ended up with a co-director credit, even though I don't believe there was ever any evidence that McAllister went near an actual camera.
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Frankly, the prospect of a newly restored McAllister documentary is much more enticing for me than that of a Hitchcock one!
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Oh zedz you wildcard
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
He's not a complete Charlie, or at least the only one. Some alternate timeline where McAllister had a great directing career of his own is enticing.
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
I know that sounds ridiculous, but a found-footage doc 'directed' by Hitchcock would be nothing more than a curio, since I don't think his vast talents would be especially applicable to that kind of project, but McAllister would be right at home and would have a strong chance of coming up with a masterpiece.domino harvey wrote:Oh zedz you wildcard
Likewise, I'd regard an unknown documentary about life in a Liverpudlian nursing home shot in 1963 with a lot more suspicion if it were attributed to Frank Tashlin than if it were attributed to John Krish.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
It doesn't sound ridiculous to me at all - but then I spent a chunk of last year watching pretty much McAllister's entire output when writing the biog of him for two of the BFI's Humphrey Jennings volumes, and there's no doubt that he's an enormous if all too frequently unsung talent (although he did at least merit a biography, by fellow editor Dai Vaughan, which is highly recommended).
While the only two people who knew for certain who did what on Humphrey Jennings's films are Jennings and McAllister, both long dead, it's worth noting that virtually all Jennings's major masterpieces were edited by McAllister (the only significant exception being Spare Time) and that, for the most part, Jennings's pre- and post-McAllister work is appreciably less inventive. (This is why, if you only fancy sampling one of the BFI's Jennings volumes, go for volume 2 - it's wall-to-wall Jennings/McAllister, and all the better for it.)
By contrast, Men of the Lightship, which was edited by McAllister but not directed by Jennings, is far more imaginatively cut than the rather plodding material deserves - apparently McAllister (whose temper was said to be ferocious) had several major creative disagreements with director David Macdonald, but seems to have won his arguments. It helped enormously that the film was produced by Alberto Cavalcanti, who was himself no stranger to innovative editing - Cavalcanti took McAllister's side, and Macdonald walked off the film.
While the only two people who knew for certain who did what on Humphrey Jennings's films are Jennings and McAllister, both long dead, it's worth noting that virtually all Jennings's major masterpieces were edited by McAllister (the only significant exception being Spare Time) and that, for the most part, Jennings's pre- and post-McAllister work is appreciably less inventive. (This is why, if you only fancy sampling one of the BFI's Jennings volumes, go for volume 2 - it's wall-to-wall Jennings/McAllister, and all the better for it.)
By contrast, Men of the Lightship, which was edited by McAllister but not directed by Jennings, is far more imaginatively cut than the rather plodding material deserves - apparently McAllister (whose temper was said to be ferocious) had several major creative disagreements with director David Macdonald, but seems to have won his arguments. It helped enormously that the film was produced by Alberto Cavalcanti, who was himself no stranger to innovative editing - Cavalcanti took McAllister's side, and Macdonald walked off the film.
- Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
- Location: New England
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Re: Alfred Hitchcock
I have always been pretty ambivalent about Hitchcock -- but recently saw and liked (a lot) "Strangers on a Train. So, I decided to finally tackle "Vertigo". Let's just say this is not a film that will ever make it onto my Top 1000 list. I found the plot progressively unbelievable, leading to a a (to me) utterly ridiculous conclusion. And, other than Barbara Bel Geddes, I was not especially enthused about the performances. Obviously I am not set up to appreciate Hitchcock's virtues...
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- Joined: Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:57 pm
- Location: Twin Cities, MN
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Speechless.
- kinjitsu
- Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 1:39 pm
- Location: Uffa!
Re: Alfred Hitchcock
Suspends disbelief...
Michael, if Strangers on a Train appealed to you, then perhaps, as an antidote to vertigo, you might next consider watching Shadow of a Doubt.
Michael, if Strangers on a Train appealed to you, then perhaps, as an antidote to vertigo, you might next consider watching Shadow of a Doubt.