Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Posted: September 26th, 2013, 9:25 am
Love your reviews, Cinemaven. More please
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https://www.silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/viewtopic.php?t=5669
Hitch likes to bring us into the light with a shock, just as you say, Maven. Do you think he was imitating this way we are brought vividly to our world, through shocks? Somehow this reminds me of a line in another movie, maybe you can tell me what movie it's from:Hitchcock also gives many satisfying jolts of suspense throughout “Saboteur”:
I haven't quite got it right, but maybe you can remember which movie it's from. It reminds me of Hitch. He wants us to know we're alive, and he does it by shocking us the way a natural disaster or major life event does.Men go through life as a series of shocks, you are born and that's a shock, you get married and that's another shock...
We aren't even aware of the existence of evil at the beginning of a Hitch movie, but are clued in because we simply can't remain unaware anymore. His heroes (and heroines) have much to learn, are sometimes dim, or foolish, or even 'bad' in certain ways. Spendthrift, like Johnnie Aysgarth in Suspicion. Lazy, like Roger O. Thornhill. But their worst trait is always their blindness to what's happening around them in the 'real' world. Blind, like Connie Porter, Tallulah Bankhead's character in Lifeboat, who should see since it's her job, but doesn't. Blind, like Joel McCrea's Johnny Jones in Foreign Correspondent...funny, the two who immediately came to mind are both reporters, who are supposed to 'see' for a living, or bring things to the attention of others.Little men with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.
[u][color=#4000BF]Jack[/color][/u] [u][color=#4000BF]Favell[/color][/u] wrote:I absolutely don't think the Midge scenes bring the movie down. On the contrary, they set up the plot, show that Scottie is a normal man to begin with, and show his disintegration as well. In other words, they show where he comes from and where he is going. If Midge didn't care, didn't see Scottie as a love interest, or if we didn't see the jocular relaxed relationship they have, this movie would not make sense. It would probably be unbearable, and we would not feel for Scottie one bit because we wouldn't know him. He could be Emile Meyer from Sweet Smell of Success and who would care about HIM if he were to go down into the heart of darkness?”
Thank you Vienna. Will do.[u][color=#4040BF]Vienna[/color][/u] wrote:Love your reviews, Cinemaven. More please
If that's anywhere near Kansas City, make sure you stop and take Shug out for a walkie.[color=#0040BF][u]RedRiver[/u][/color] wrote:I'm goin' to Soda City!
Soda City, here I come!
But he was a priest in “Paths of Glory.” But I guess you're right. No love for you, Emile.[u]Jack Favell[/u] wrote: "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed.
That really would be a nightmare.
Wha'?!! Thank you so much!!![color=#800040][u]MissGoddess[/u][/color] wrote:I think you should be a TCM Morlock or have your own review blog/site, you write so vividly and you incorporate images perfectly. It's not easy to say a lot about a movie's plot, backstory or history while at the same time conveying a personal and defined opinion for the subject. You are unique.
I saw it back in its original release in 1964 as a kid. Girl, you don't want to envy THAT!! I love action...but I also like the detail and minutiae of investigative films. And let me give a shout out to Suzanne Pleshette.Yes, that's Roddy getting chewed out for being so mean as to catch an innocent fish. Nancy is the feisty Icthyologist. I envy you seeing Fate is the Hunter in theaters! I've asked Twilight Time if they will re-release it on DVD as I wasn't able to afford it when it came out a couple of years ago. They replied that it will be coming to Blu-ray in 2014. Great movie---a disaster film that is philosophical and thoughtful as opposed to action-oriented. To some that equals boring but it's my cuppa! Rod is so good he steals the show from Glenn Ford, the nominal star, and that's not easy to do.
Hah! This man absolutely unnerved me:JackFavell wrote:Background music for my nightmare...
If you take Shug for a walk, make sure you take a look through the telescope in the shed while you're there.
Does anyone else just love the name Soda City for a ghost town? It conjures such an image.
I was really struck by those folks Cummings ran into when I watched the film this last time out; I liked how warmly I felt about them and the patriotism of the film. Now believe me, I know it’s all a movie. But I can’t help but think that our American culture has changed. Something is lost. The powers-that-be have divided us now into red states and blue states and “you're-on-your-own-buddy” to divide and conquer us. Something just hit me when I watched “Saboteur.” Maybe it was always a fantasy, “us Americans” but still......Jack Favell wrote:I like that you talk about those "just plain Americans" in Hitch's work, Saboteur to be exact. This is what I love most about his films. The normal, simple folks who make a decision and act, not based on a party line or what someone else said, but because they care about human beings..."
Ooooh, it absolutely would. I’d need a Hitchcock set of DVDs for that project. It’s a great idea.A description of Hitch's set pieces and what they mean would make a great thesis.”
I agree with you there. I got just the broadest of strokes that Mason’s getting that microfilm was not AS dangerous as Kruger wanting to burn down our entire American system. Tell little Susie the boogey man is her grandpa! "Boo!"I like that you mention Otto Kruger and James Mason in the same post, as villains extraordinaire. And Martin Landau, for that matter, since I love movies with more than one villain. Otto is the more evil to me than either of the other men, Mason, one can almost feel for.”
Or a father who hides his past, knowing it's wrong on some level, but stuck because his affluence comes from his playing "the game".
I think Hitch is just a bad boy who likes to wait until we’re quietly complacent sitting there in the theatre eating our popcorn, looking up at the screen, and then he goes “BOO!!!!” Buttered popcorn all over your poodle skirt. Raisinettes all in the lady’s hair in front of us.Hitch likes to bring us into the light with a shock, just as you say, Maven. Do you think he was imitating this way we are brought vividly to our world, through shocks?"
I think you’ve hit on the kernel, the essence of Hitchcock. He’s trying to make US aware...clue US in through his characters. You know Cary Grant. You love Cary Grant? Well here...take him, says Hitch.We aren't even aware of the existence of evil at the beginning of a Hitch movie, but are clued in because we simply can't remain unaware anymore. His heroes (and heroines) have much to learn, are sometimes dim, or foolish, or even 'bad' in certain ways.”
Great Wendy! Again you’ve distilled and boiled down to a kernel, Hitchcock’s m.o. James Stewart takes action in “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and in “Rear Window” he sends his advocates out into the big bad darkness. Ingrid Bergman acts on behalf of patient/lover Gregory Peck. Teresa Wright acts to save her family in “Shadow Of a Doubt.” Cary Grant has to find the real agent in “North By Northwest.” Do you think thought about doing anything more than raising a martini to his lips? Now look at him...on Mount Rushmore for pete’s sake.The second requirement of a Hitch hero is that he must ACT. Hero or heroine, all have physical and psychic boundaries place upon them, which they must break free of. They must break free from their own brains which send false signals. They must escape their inner world, leap back into the REAL WORLD. A physical world that requires action to keep it from spinning off in the wrong direction, into destruction.”
So very very well-put. Whew! I’m glad I wrote ahead of you. I’d hate to follow you! We all here at the Oasis offer food for thought for each other as we write about these great and not-so-great films. And you, Chef Favell, have served up your share of tasty dishes!But his own action is the agent of his biggest change. His foolish stumbling and eventual questioning somehow rubs off the edges. He/She starts foolish or lazy or angry or shy, but in the end, takes charge of his own destiny, and becomes a member of the world. By the end of a Hitchcock film, he or she finally subscribes to Gandhi's philosophy, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
Gosh, no, I just get interested in the nuggets of information and inspiration you drop along the way. I sometimes carry it too far, I think. I am one of those over-analyzing types that have to work at a thing, wrastle it for awhile, to understand.So very very well-put. Whew! I’m glad I wrote ahead of you. I’d hate to follow you! We all here at the Oasis offer food for thought for each other as we write about these great and not-so-great films. And you, Chef Favell, have served up your share of tasty dishes!
Ha! That made me laugh! Especially when I thought of the time I went to the movies and spent a huge amount of money on a giant bucket of popcorn for me and my friends, then tripped on a step up into the aisle (it was an old fashioned movie palace) and spilled it ALL before the movie even started....it was like a cartoon! But some of it fell into the hood on the lady in front of me, and I never did tell her that her winter coat was full of popcorn.I think Hitch is just a bad boy who likes to wait until we’re quietly complacent sitting there in the theatre eating our popcorn, looking up at the screen, and then he goes “BOO!!!!” Buttered popcorn all over your poodle skirt. Raisinettes all in the lady’s hair in front of us.