Hitchcock At Work - Softcover

Krohn, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714843334 ISBN 13: 9780714843339

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2003

Synopsis

Hitchcock at Work is a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes examination of the work of 'The Master of Suspense', Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980).

Film expert Bill Krohn looks beyond the usual anecdotal sources about Hitchcock, paying unprecedented attention to the director's personal papers and the archives of the film studios he worked for. The result is a major reassessment of the working methods of the director, one which explores many of the myths - often promulgated by Hitchcock himself - that have warped previous criticism.

Hitchcock at Work is fully illustrated with film stills, shots taken on set, storyboards and annotated film scripts. There is also a complete filmography.

'Of all the books on the Master, Bill Krohn's is quite the most splendid and involving. Given the kind of breathtaking visual treatment that is the hallmark of the publisher Phaidon, keen and penetrating text is matched by images that do full justice to the remarkable pictorial qualities of Hitchcock's films. Absolutely essential.'

(News International Genre Hotline)

'The most useful book I've read recently about Alfred Hitchcock Ö I bought it last year, at first sight mainly for the pictures - rare, unusual and immaculately reproduced in colour and monochrome - and then found it telling me more than I had ever known about the behind-the-scenes Hitch Ö a real contribution to primary scholarship.'

(Alexander Walker, Evening Standard)

About this title

From the Publisher:

A comprehensive, behind-the-scenes examination of the work of director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). Fully illustrated throughout in colour and black and white, this book examines all of the director's career, from the early films made in the UK in the 20th and 30th, to his move to Hollywood where he became co-producer as well as director of his films. It therefore provides an overview of his movies as well as being a visual celebration of one of the word's most renowned directors. Many of the illustrations are published here for the first time and include film stills, shots from film sets, storyboards and reproductions of Hitchcock's annotated scripts. The book also includes a complete filmography.

From the Author:

In 1982 I organized a round-table discussion at Universal with some of Alfred Hitchcock's main collaborators on THE BIRDS. Hearing them talk about the amazing adventure of making that groundbreaking film, I began to get a sense of Hitchcock seen through the eyes of his closest collaborators, and the man they were describing wasn't the man I thought I knew. Hitchcock at Work is my attempt to get closer to the filmmaker I encountered for the first time that day, and to understand him better.

I also want this look at how some of the Master's best films were made, based on his private papers, to shed light on the filmmaking process, and on the fact that it is a process, and not just a matter of making a blueprint and following it. Hitchcock himself led the press to believe that everything in his films was pre- planned to the last detail. But if he were the all-out control freak he pretended to be, why would he have chosen to make an entire film about birds, which are almost impossible to control, much less film?

I think there was a struggle in Hitchcock between the control freak and the connoiseur of chaos. Seeing how the films took shape out of those warring impulses helped me understand them better and added greatly to my enjoyment of them. To quote my introduction: "Each film was a new adventure, the aim was not perfection, and the only method was the man. That's why the films are so beautiful."

I hope that looking over the director's shoulder during the creation of films like SHADOW OF A DOUBT, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, REAR WINDOW, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, PSYCHO and NORTH BY NORTHWEST will add to the reader's pleasure in the masterpieces that resulted. With that aim in mind we have also reproduced, often in color, over 200 of the documents and drawings I studied while writing the book, because many of them are small works of art in their own right.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0714843334
• ISBN 13: 9780714843339
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288