Alfred Hitchcock was born at the tail end of the 19th century, made his first film in 1925, and died in 1980. He was in the industry from the silent movie era, so modern audiences might assume his work is old-fashioned. The opposite is true.
Watch a classic from the Hitchcock canon today, and it still feels fresh for two main reasons. First, the plots are always thrilling. He’s that rare combination of critical darling and crowd pleaser. Second, the technical side of his filmmaking is always forward-looking. He invented or popularized techniques and tropes we now take for granted. He revolutionized the medium in a way that puts him in the same category as James Cameron and the Wachowskis.
There are a few stand-out examples of what makes Hitchcock so revered and someone from whom 21st-century directors can still learn. Let me introduce you to his most technically significant works.
Blackmail (1929)
Following the invention of cinema, the arrival of sound was the most significant leap forward. Hitchcock brought this technology to Britain before anyone else with Blackmail. Initially a silent movie, it switched to being a ‘talkie’ once producers realized they could cash in on this craze. This resulted in two separate versions hitting cinemas at the same time.
Having spoken dialogue was a true novelty, although it’s not the only technical flourish in Blackmail. Hitchcock’s clever use of camera movement and mise en scene is meaningful and engaging in combination with the audio. Early in the film, Alice (Anny Ondra) ascends a spiral staircase leading to the apartment of a sleazy artist. We rise three stories with her, seeing a cross-section of the interior as the score tinkles upwards with us. It’s an ambitious sequence and an example of filmmaking technology serving the narrative. This isn’t flashiness for its own sake.
Spellbound (1945)
Hitchcock collaborated with Salvador Dali to deliver a stunning dream sequence in this otherwise conventional thriller. It features a whole host of trickery and effects invented in the 1940s and remains deliciously disturbing.
There are bizarre matte painting backdrops, surreal eye-based imagery, a first-person shot delivered by a camera dolly move and more. Every moment is rich with technical elements that set out to unsettle, and succeed. Dali wanted to push this even further, but time and budget prevented his vision being realized.
The first-person perspective returns even more memorably during the movie’s climax. Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) is tracked around the room by the gun-wielding Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll). It lets us see the world through a murderer’s eyes, complete with a pistol in the center of the frame, like a black-and-white Doom. As Constance makes her escape, the gun turns to point directly at the audience. Murchison pulls the trigger, and we get the only flash of color in the entire film. A brief burst of blood red.
Spellbound lets us experience a character’s perspective in two ways. The first is sophisticated and technically advanced, the second is simple and blunt.
Rope (1948)
The best directors like to push themselves by imposing limits on the filmmaking process. In Rope, Hitchcock’s experimental aim was to present a feature-length story in real-time across four uninterrupted shots. The fact that the cameras of the era could hold 10 minutes of film further complicated this.
Hitchcock planned each shot rigorously so the camera moves were fluid and everyone on set was synchronized. Actors, camera operators, sound people, the prop team, and set movers were in a complex dance. It’s all about the aesthetics, the look of the thing. Again, this fits perfectly with the story it tells of self-obsessed, self-important murderers.
Since then, other top directors have used uninterrupted takes to show off their technical prowess. From Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas to Steve McQueen’s Hunger, it’s a versatile technique. The camera can be kinetic and mobile or static and unflinching. Either way, Hitchcock sowed the seed of inspiration and gave modern directors the courage to experiment.
Rear Window (1954)
Few other films invite the audience into the main character’s perspective more than Rear Window. This is already a favorite trick of Hitchcock’s, as we’ve seen in Spellbound. It’s taken to new heights here. We’re unapologetic voyeurs, peeking in on neighbors as they undress, argue, deceive, and kill.
The camera might appear to do all the heavy lifting, but the audio is arguably more interesting. When cooped-up photographer Jeff (James Stewart) witnesses an apparent murder, there’s no clunky score to amplify the tension. We just get the raw sounds coming from the courtyard outside his window. The roaring cars, the pouring rain, the wafting music from other apartments. The ambient sounds of city life, unadulterated. It avoids overselling the action and makes us feel even closer to the protagonist.
Vertigo (1958)
Hitchcock is one of the people who helped popularize the dream sequence, and he uses it to iconic effect in Vertigo. It’s not as ambitious as Spellbound’s Dali-derived montage, but the nightmare Scottie (James Stewart) experiences is arguably more memorable. This time, we get animation thrown in alongside live action, with strong colored lighting on-set that echoes other scenes. Meanwhile, the visual of Scottie’s disembodied head plunging through space towards the camera as the sequence climaxes is remarkable. Again, this technical achievement justifies itself by driving the story forward.
Another groundbreaking feature of Vertigo is the dolly zoom. That’s the jarring effect achieved by moving the camera away from or toward the subject while adjusting the field of view by zooming in or out. You’ll have seen it in everything from Jaws to Lord of the Rings, and it’s perfect for conveying the feeling of vertigo.
Psycho (1960)
If you’ve heard of one Hitchcock movie, this is it. What’s most remarkable about its fame is that the director had to fight to get it made. He put his own money on the line, pushed the boundaries of taste, and made cinema history.
The notorious shower scene, in which a silhouetted figure murders a screaming motel guest, is a major talking point. Hitchcock combines over 60 shots and 50 rapid-fire cuts to disorient and shock us, breaking the 180-degree rule. The soundtrack’s stabbing strings and the attack’s gratuitous length seal the deal. It’s no surprise that it took a week to shoot this three-minute scene.
The knock-on effect of Pscycho’s release was the birth of the slasher genre. It gave us Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream. While these movies debuted decades after Psycho hit cinemas, they used the same technical strategies to scare audiences stiff. The rapid cuts and multitude of shot types featured in the shower scene even influenced other genres. In particular, the action and martial arts movies of the 80s and 90s owe a debt to Hitchcock.
The Birds (1963)
Hitchcock went all-in on special effects to bring The Birds to life. With almost 400 effects shots, it has nearly the same number of enhanced shots as The Matrix. Achieving this without the aid of computer-generated graphics is staggering.
Disney and MGM delivered much of this magic, and vast teams worked long hours on separate sequences at each studio. This made the extensively storyboarded bird attack scenes a savage cinematic reality. Of course, without sound, these scenes verge on the laughable. Hitchcock lets screeching audio overwhelm our ears and keeps music out of the equation altogether.
Frenzy (1972)
Hitchcock was a filmmaking innovator well into his 70s. Frenzy is full of his trademark touches and a few original ideas that stand out. It was also his most violent film, made possible as censorship loosened its grip on the silver screen.
The movie’s most memorable sequence harks back to Blackmail. Serial killer Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) lures a victim up a flight of stairs to his apartment. The camera lingers in the hallway as he tells her she’s his type of woman and closes the door. The camera then draws backward, smoothly descending the stairs as if backing away from the horror of the crime. In an unbroken shot, it pulls out of the entryway and onto the busy street beyond. The sounds of the city flood our ears as the camera tilts up slightly. It’s a stark contrast between everyday life and the depravity that’s just out of sight.
Putting Hitchcock Back in the Frame
There’s more going on in the average Hitchcock movie than in some directors’ entire filmographies. If you’ve not given him a shot or only dabbled in the big hitters, I urge you to change that. You’ll discover technical tropes we still use to this day. You might see something that’s totally unique. Even his missteps have something to teach us, so you’ve got nothing to lose.
Most importantly, Hitchcock’s films are never dull. They rattle along at a pace modern audiences will appreciate. The acting and dialogue can be old-fashioned, but the storytelling is still thrilling. These experiences engage your critical faculties and simultaneously spark your lizard brain. Perilously few modern directors come close, so savor them.