Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE, was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as "The Master of Suspense". He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres. He had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as England's best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a US citizen in 1955...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth13 August 1899
CityLondon, England
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
I am to provide the public with beneficial shocks.
Give them pleasure - the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.
Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table.
A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.
Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them.
Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?
In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today. They don't want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an ordinary human being with failings.
The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.
Mystery is an intellectual process... But suspense is essentially an emotional process.
There is something more important than logic: imagination
Drama is life with the dull bits left out. There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. I believe in putting the horror in the minds of the audience, and not necessarily on the screen. The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
A woman, I always say, should be like a good suspense movie: The more left to the imagination, the more excitement there is. This should be her aim - to create suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to tell him.