Alfred Hitchcock created a form of cinema that was an alchemical mixture of sensation and subtlety, blinding light and warning shadows, the unexpected rhythm of shots and the dramatic tension of irresistible actors. He enjoyed discoursing, with François Truffaut or any other admirer, on the mechanics of editing, the metaphysics of suspense. But there was more to Hitchcock than the visual sleight-of-hand that would make "the Japanese audience...scream at the same time as the Indian audience." Hitchcock was also a profound and disturbing critic of the American social fabric, as Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, and a dozen other masterworks attest.
The exhibition pays tribute to the many facets of Hitchcock's persona: director, producer, showman, artist, and, just as important, man of copious wit and attention to detail. It includes rare family photographs; telegrams and studio memos (for example, on casting the lead role in Rebecca), elaborate architectural drawings (sets for Dial M for Murder, Rope, and Strangers on a Train); storyboards (The Birds, North by Northwest, and Saboteur); and letters from such favored Hitchcock actors as James Stewart, Joan Fontaine, and Grace Kelly. By documenting all aspects of his productions, the exhibition adds substance and shading to the familiar profile of one of the twentieth century's most knowing, devious, accomplished, and entertaining artists.
The exhibition Alfred Hitchcock: Behind the Silhouette was organized by Mary Corliss, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Video, with the assistance of Jan-Christopher Horak, Director of Archives and Collections, Universal Studios, and Pat Hitchcock O'Connell.
Credits
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Edith Head's costume for Grace Kelly's blue chiffon evening dress in To Catch a Thief, 1955.
Sketch artist: Richard Hopper
Courtesy of the British Film Institute, Stills, Posters, and Designs
Production sketch of the dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali for Spellbound, 1945. Courtesy of the British Film Institute, Stills, Posters, and Designs
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