Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most memorable directors in cinema history. With his unique style and different filming techniques Alfred Hitchcock has become a legend. Alfred Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899 in Leytonston, London, England. "Alfred began his film career in 1919 illustrating title cards for silent films at
Paramount's Famous Players-Lasky studio in London" (Berg). At Paramount's Famous Players-Lasky studio he learned a lot about directing and filmmaking and moved his way up to an assistant director in 1922. Hitchcock is continuously noted for his intense style of film making. This style is what made him who he is today.
"Hitchcock is noted from the creation of 'subjective sound'" (Berg). He uses this technique in his movies to exemplify the intensity of the scene. All of
Hitchcock's films seem to have a dark feel to it. The intensity brought on by his twisted train of thought is what has made him so successful. Everyone is interested in Hitchcock movies because of the unique features that they all entail. Everyone craves the unknown. Imaginations are free to be used while watching any Hitchcock films, and that is what draws people towards them.
You will not find a normal plot line in a Hitchcock movie; you just will not. There is always a twist, or an odd reference. With his creation of "subjective sound" and his frequent use of it, Hitchcock was able to create many movies that used this feature. Some of these movies include Blackmail and Murder. Both of these movies emphasized the different sounds that would draw an unexpected amount of attention to one object. This is what subjective sound is. The ability for the director to let his audience connect with the picture is hard, and especially with a movie that may not make sense to a lot of them. With subjective sound, the audience was forced to focus on the main topic or the main source that was being mentioned, which means that one
would hope that the viewers would understand what was going on and not be lost in the movie. This aspect is very important for a director. If the film makers cannot get a connection with the audience, then the movie is promised to go nowhere. In 1969, Hitchcock created the movieTopaz; this movie was not as successful as his other films because he tried to escape his norm and create a completely different movie. Moviegoers did not like this because they like the uneasy feeling they would get in every other Hitchcock movie, the suspense and the element of surprise. With this new film he created he strayed from these characteristics, and this film did not become successful. Some of the films that Hitchcock is most noted for are as follows: Sabotage, Rebecca, Notorious, Strangers On a Train, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, Frenzy, and Family Plot All of these movies, plus many more, became instant hits because of their odd demeanor and their thrill factor. Hitchcock also deviated from the norm when creating his films. For example in, The Birds, many questions arose at the end because the random attacks of the birds was never explained and the movie just seemed to end. "Fellini called it a filmic poem, and since poems just end, the movie did the same" (Berg). Hitchcock found unique ways to make transitions in his movies so they were his own. He did not want anyone to compare him to
anyone else. This was his work and all of his thoughts and ideas on how he felt the story should be told. Now today, no one is complaining about such masterpieces as The Birds and Psycho; but, back when they were first released, I am sure the response was not the same. Since Hitchcock
did tend to do things his own way, one has to take into consideration that many people may not have been prepared to experience a movie that had such a harsh plot. Sure there were scary movies that have been played, but there is a great difference between a scary movie and a thriller. This is why that are put into two separate genres. A thriller is the type of movie Hitchcock made. The feel of suspense and the sitting at the edge of your seat is what he aimed
for while creating his movies. This makes a movie more interesting; and it also gets the audience involved because, if they are worrying about a character, then they are getting into the movie, and this is how a truly great director gets noted. Hitchcock had this unique way of getting people involved in his films. Even if the people go away with not liking the movie, they still were involved; and I
am sure that they would have many things to say about it and would remember the entire storyline. Now the films that I had listed earlier at not nearly all of the films that he created; however they are some of the most noted. In his career Hitchcock had directed over fifty movies, and each one was different from the next. This can be very hard to do, especially when one has a
certain style that one always to tries to show in one's movies. Hitchcock did have a style, a thrill style; and he was able to show this in each movie without being redundant. Hitchcock is known as the master of suspense of the king of thrill because of the movies he created. He will live on in history as the disturbed director whose own views were put into his movies. We are truly blessed to be able to share these movies today, because we can learn so much from them. Alfred Hitchcock died on April 29, 1980; and ever since then directors have been trying to follow in his footsteps and make a movie that is "out there" and that is a true thriller. Alfred Hitchcock has gone down in history for all the changes he has made in the film industry over his career lifetime. He is constantly being compared to other directors, but no other director can compare to the original King of Thrill.