focus on early hitchcock
program notes
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| Sabotage |
"I am out to give the public good healthy mental shake-ups. Civilization has become so screening and sheltering that we cannot experience sufficient thrills at first hand. Therefore, to prevent our becoming sluggish and jellified, we have to experience them artificially".
Alfred Hitchcock
Some eighty years since his first foray into silent cinema, Hitchcock has remained one of cinemas most influential auteurs.
Inspired by the technological and visual possibilities that celluloid offered, his early works are characterised by their mastery of visual storytelling and use of symbolism, making each work accessible, yet engaging. This dexterity, with the medium and inherent understanding of the language of cinema, was one of the many reasons that Hitchcock became Britain's greatest filmmaking export since Charlie Chaplin. However unlike the 'little tramp', Hitchcock was already a filmmaker of great standing with over a decade of commercial and critical successes before he crossed the Atlantic.
After a slightly rocky transition from his celebrated silent career to sound cinema, the 1930s saw Hitchcock come into his own. The Man Who Knew Too Much was the first in a series of taut thrillers full of wit and suspense that heavily informed both the narrative and stylistic elements of his popular 'American period' and signalled Hitchcock's ownership of the crime genre.
With a number of magnificent restorations recently made available, it seems timely that on the 80th anniversary of Hitchcock's classic silent film The Lodger that these works are revisited, to be enjoyed by new audiences and to reacquaint hardened fans of 'the master of suspense' with these seminal works on the big screen.
Kristy Matheson, Curator, ACMI
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