Film & Literature

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899 in the city of Leytonstone, England. He was raise in a Roman Catholic family, so when his time to go to school arrives he was sent to a Jesuit School. When we see Hitchcock films, we can notice that he took some influences from his childhood; especially from the treatment that his strict father and his unkind mother gave to him- in many times it was not the best. When Hitchcock was a child and behave in a bad way, his father used to send him to the police station holding a note where he ask put his son in a jail for ten minutes as a symbol of punishment for his bad actions. Hitchcock decided to move to a new school after his father died when he was 14. After Hitchcock graduated he worked as a designer, but while he was working as a designer he was attracted by photography and because of this he decided to start in a new job, this time was in filming production for London Branch (today Paramount Pictures). After this he start his career it took him just 5 years to become a film director. Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock is considered until today as one of the best British directors of all times, he directed more than 50 films, he also contribute to shape what we know as cinema and he also contribute with some technical innovations like the one used in the movie “Rope” from 1948 this film was a challenge: a film that appears to have been shot entirely in a single take, it was not shot in just one, some transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for a moment. Hitchcock used those points to hide the cut, and began the next take with the camera in the same place.³ Hitchcock instinct and his ability to hide important information for the development of a story, and the use of technological improvements have distinguished him from others directors and also positioned him in one of the most privileged places which is as one of the best director of all times.

If you are interested in Joseph Hitchcock vision of Films and his work you will enjoy the following websites:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9kiLlJujgI&feature=fvst
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX8pvgDS31A&feature=related

Hitchcock’s Filmography and Awards

Hitchcock’s Filmography career start as a minor designer and he was credited in the film in which he participate as a little designer, we can find some films like: “The Call of Youth”, “The Great day”, “The Princess of New York”, “Tell Your Children”, “Woman to Woman”, “The Blackguard” among others. When Hitchcock became a director he did it as a director of silent movies and talkies movies here we can find: “The Pleasure Garden”, “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog”, “The Ring”, “Downhill”, “The Farmer's Wife”, “Easy Virtue”, “Champagne”, “The Manxman”, “Blackmail (silent version)”, “Blackmail”, “The Skin Game”, ” Number Seventeen”, “The 39 Steps”, “Young and Innocent”, “Jamaica Inn” among others film. In the late 1930´s Hitchcock receive and offer by David O. Selznick to go to United States to work as a director, he accepted it and signed a 7-year contract, this was the beginning of his Hollywood career. In 1940 he directed “Rebecca” this movie was his first American film, after this movie he directed a number of films that showed his capacities and a new way of create films, we can name some films such as “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, “Aventure Malgache”, “The Paradine Case”, “Dial M for Murder”, “Vertigo”, “Psycho”, and his last film was “Family Plot” (1976) because he died in April 29, 1980.
We mentioned before that directors receive awards for their work. Hitchcock also won some, and he won a Golden Laurel for Best Producer and Director in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1970 and 1971, he also won a Mention Award in 1950 for Stage Fright” a NBR Award in 1970 for “Topaz”, he won 2 Golden Globes one Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1972 and in 1973 a Golden Globe for “Frenzy” and he was nominated 5 times for the OSCARS Awards but he did not won.