Illustration: Jacey
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[email protected] / @EMPIREAUSTvery first film,The Pleasure
Garden, opens with voyeurism
immediately. It’s got some
chorus girls coming down stairs
and then you get this dirty old
sweaty geezer in the front row
who lifts up his opera glasses to
get a better look at their legs.
That’s what you get with
Hitchcock from the word go.
Ian:There’s a lot of point-of-
view reverse shots, where
you’re incriminated into the
voyeurism as a viewer.
Neil:Most classically inPsycho
when Anthony Perkins is looking
at Janet Leigh through the hole
in the wall in the shower.
Ian:And Arbogast coming up
the stairs. What are the moments
that stick in your head?
Nick:The Birds. The way it was
created was not necessarily the
best way, but it’s one of my
favourite Hitchcock films. The
bit where the birds appear on
the wires is incredible. The bit
in the wine cellar inNotorious
is amazing. So iconic.
Ian:There’s a lot of laughs in
that film. You forget about that.
Nick:It’s the plane sequence in
North By Northwest, isn’t it?
Tons of films have ripped it off.
Ian:The shower sequence.
That’s the one.
Beth:I love the opening ofRear
Window. What an incredible
establishing shot that is, to pan
across the entire neighbourhood
and then land on James
Stewart’s sweaty forehead.
Nick:There’s a lot of sweat.
Beth:He’s drenched. He’s
in his pyjamas. It shouldn’t
be becoming, but it is. And
I really enjoyed revisitingRope
and the set-up for that. The
orchestration of that film
is so shambolic but also so
accomplished. It shouldn’t
work but it absolutely does.
Ian:I love the introduction of
Grace Kelly inRear Window
where she’s turning on lights as
she says her name. Terrific.
Neil:That kiss where she leans
in in slightly slow-motion.
Ian:That’s the best kiss in
movies, isn’t it?
Nick:Notorioushas a pretty
good kiss. That’s where they were
breaking the Hays Code with
repeated smooches. Racy stuff.
Neil:I’d like to pick a deeper
cut. There’s a 15-minuteIan:Neil mentioned this
recurring figure of the
mysterious blonde. How do
you feel about his portrayal
of women?
Beth:It gets quite brutal in
some instances. One that’s
missing from my top ten, I didn’t
includeThe Birds. The lengths
he went to to get that real fear
of the beasts...
Ian:We’re talking about the
making of.
Beth:Yes. People should watch
The Girl, which had Sienna
Miller as Tippi Hedren and
Toby Jones as Hitchcock. That
was the most realistic portrayal
of him as a bit of a monster, to
be honest. And how he treated
her and the lengths he went to
to get shots. I draw a line there.
Ian:There’s a lot of voyeurism
in his films.
Neil:There’s loads of that. Hissequence inForeign
Correspondentwhich starts
with the overhead shot of
umbrellas, and then it barrels
into a car chase, then a foot
chase, then a sequence in a
windmill. It’s a great wedge of
film to show to people to say,
“This is what Hitchcock does.”
Ian:I get a sense that he’s so in
the fabric of film that he’s taken
for granted, in a way. Do you
think people aren’t as wild
about him as they used to be?
Neil:Anyone who’s a film buff
should be aware of Hitchcock.
Beth:He’s vastly significant.
I revisit his work a lot. This time
I found it so much funnier than
I did last time. I think I took it
a lot more seriously when I was
younger.Ropeis hysterical.
Ian:There’s an argument that
it’s the greatest body of work in
film history. Maybe Bergman,
maybe Kurosawa.
Nick:In terms of coming up
with a top ten, this has been the
hardest. I’ve left out eight or nine
films that I really, really like.
Beth:I’m still not sure about
mine. I’ve had to make peace
with it.
Nick:There’s so much in
his work. So many different
tones. Who else does comedy
likeTo Catch A Thiefand then
doesVertigo?
Ian:Is this notion that he’s the
Master Of Suspense limiting?
Neil:There was much more
to him. In terms of being the
Master Of Suspense, I suspect
he’s been surpassed now.
Audiences havechanged. Times
have changed. But the wine
bottle sequence inNotorious
is incredibly suspenseful. And
Sabotage, where the boy’s on
the bus with the bomb.
Ian:Torn Curtainisn’t a great
film but there’s a great fight in
it which proves how difficult it
is to kill someone.
Neil:It’s a terrible film.
Ian:But even in the worst
Hitchcocks, there’s really
strong things in them.
Nick:Is there anything good
inFamily Plot?
Neil:Loads of things.
Nick:Name one.
Neil:Bruce Dern.
Nick:Fair enough.
Ian:Right, enough squabbling.
let’s vote!THE TOP TEN
SHADOW OF A DOUBT(1943)
Ian:“The underbelly of small-town
America exposed Hitch on a smaller
canvas but is just as powerful.”REBECCA(1940)
Nick:“A satisfying Gothic mystery
with creaky floorboards,dark secrets
and the ultimate creepy housekeeper.”ROPE(1948)
Beth:“PartFunny Games, part
Poirot,Ropedeserves its place for
its candid, comical take on elitism.”THE BIRDS(1963)
Nick:“Proof you can make anything
with feathers scary, as opposed to
justseagulls, which are genuinely evil.”NOTORIOUS(1946)
Neil:“Hitch wrangles his cast into a
slick thriller, with Cary Grant and Ingrid
Bergman steaming up the screen.”REAR WINDOW(1954)
Neil:“Forgetcross-dressing killers and
crippling phobias, a Hitchcock hero
fears nothing more than matrimony.”THE 39 STEPS(1935)
Neil:“This first version of Hitchcock’s
chump-on-the-run story proves he
was always ahead of his time.”PSYCHO(1960)
Beth:“You won’t find a Hitch ingénue
as cool asPsycho’s Janet Leigh, and
this is ballsy storytelling at its best.”NORTH BY NORTHWEST(1959)
Ian:“Cary Grant! A cross country
adventure! A crop duster! Hitchcock
at his most purely entertaining.”VERTIGO(1958)
Neil:“Hitchcock’s
towering work of
haunting genius is the
acrophobic achievement
of his career. Scoring
39 out of a possible 40
points in our vote, its
position atop this list is
dizzyingly unassailable.”10
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