Casting a Shadow – Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film (2)
Using the example of PSYCHO (USA 1960, March 4, introduction by Peter Mänz), the camera will be the subject of closer examination. In numerous interviews, Hitchcock explained what he understood as "pure cinema" – pure, visual cinema. It is striking how many pivotal Hitchcock scenes are entirely without dialog; emotions are staged all the more eloquently by means of camera and montage. The director of photography in PSYCHO was John L. Russell, who also shot various episodes of the TV series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". The famous shower scene was conceived in great detail in a number of storyboards by the graphic artist Saul Bass.
The great importance of studio production is highlighted by LIFE BOAT (USA 1944, March 11, introduction by Anja Göbel). In 1939, producer David O. Selznick had brought Alfred Hitchcock to Hollywood. In the following years, Selznick repeatedly lent Hitchcock to other studios. That is why Darryl F. Zanuck with 20th Century Fox produced Hitchcock's LIFE BOAT. It was Hitchcock's third film in a row that dealt with the Second World War. The only setting was a life boat, a technical challenge that really attracted him.
On March 12, in cooperation with the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the special event "Suspense and Incitement. Alfred Hitchcock's Opening Scenes" will take place in the Museum für Film und Fernsehen at 6:30 p.m. The film theorists Britta Hartmann and Gerhard Midding discuss Hitchcock's collaboration with Saul Bass, who with his animated, graphical openings set new standards. Afterwards at 8 p.m., Arsenal will screen NORTH BY NORTHWEST (USA 1959, March 12) with the opening credits designed by Saul Bass. The exhibition "Vorspannkino" (Cinema of Titles) at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art addresses the topic in more detail.
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (USA 1943, March 18, introduction by Vera Thomas) is dealt with under the aspect of screenplay. At the beginning of the 1940s, Hitchcock worked with the most famous American writers including John Steinbeck, Dorothy Parker and Raymond Chandler. For SHADOW OF A DOUBT, he was able to win Thornton Wilder as a screenplay writer. Particularly in regard to the portrayal of the American small town, Wilder was a great enrichment for the Briton Hitchcock; they selected the shooting location together. The film series is concluded with the humorous encounter "Loriot meets Alfred Hitchcock". The two curators of the exhibition "Loriot. An Homage", Gerlinde Waz and Peter Paul Kubitz, present DAS EI (1977), ADVENT (1969) and LIEBESGESCHICHTE (1972), while Kristina Jaspers and Nils Warnecke give an introduction to Hitchcock's black-morbid crime grotesque THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (USA 1955, March 25). (Kristina Jaspers, Nils Warnecke, curators of the exhibition)
Further information at www.deutsche-kinemathek.de
