Alfred Hitchcock, inventor of the thriller genre and the genius behind such horror classics as “Psycho” and “Vertigo”, is still considered as one of the greatest filmmaker in history. Through pioneering cinematic techniques, psychological effects and innovative film-editing, he took the audience on a rollercoaster of fear and became known as the Master of Suspense.
The young Hitchcock – lonely and sheltered
As the youngest of three children Alfred Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, London in England on 13th, August 1899. Describing his childhood as lonely and sheltered, the 14 year old Alfred left his hometown after the death of his father to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation. After graduating, he worked as a draftsman in a cable company in London, but due to his creative talent he soon changed to advertising. During this time, he started to publish short articles. After working in film production as a title-card designer, he received his first full-time position at the Islington Studios in 1920, which should become the beginning of his great career.
A directorial genius enters the film-industry.
While his first few films weren’t of hoped-for success, Alfred Hitchcock gained recognition with his film “Blackmail” in 1929. The movie, which is often considered as the first British sound feature film, marked the start of two significant Hitchcock traditions: Using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences and the cameo appearances in his movies. With the first guest appearance in his own films, they had already become legendary during his lifetime.
“The Beauty and the Beast” – Hitchock and Grace Kelly
In 1954, after Hitchcock had already produced more than thirty films, he moved to Paramount Pictures and filmed the first of three movies with the young, beautiful and very talented newcomer actress Grace Kelly “Dial M for Murder”, followed by the suspense thriller “Rear Window” in the same year. By combining the elegance and charm of a true American beauty with the directorial brilliance of Alfred Hitchock, the film-productions of the duo reached spectacular successes and attracted the audiences around the world. Their third movie “To Catch a Thief” was filmed at the French Riviera, where Grace Kelly met her future husband H.S.H. Prince Rainer of Monaco. Since Grace Kelly chose love over her career, the marriage of her and Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, rang down the curtain on the glorious collaboration between Hitchcock and the talented actress.
The Vertigo Effect
A few years later Hitchcock followed up to his great success with the suspense thriller “Vertigo”. The movie is frequently considered as one of the greatest films ever made and defines the work of Alfred Hitchcock’s career. The story of a retired police detective, who tries to uncover the mystery behavior of the wife of his client while suffering from acrophobia, presents its high point on a dark staircase that wind up a tower. As the main character races frantically up the stairs, he experiences a crippling bout of vertigo – looking down, the stairs stretch away from him, dizzyingly exaggerating the distance to the ground.
The “Vertigo Effect” a disorienting, opposite camera zoom that seems to cause the ground to drop away from beneath the audience’s feet, did not only become a pioneering stylistic device in the art of filmmaking but also the inspiration behind the design of the spine-thrilling Montblanc Alfred Hitchock Limited Edtions.
Hitchock’s last great films “Pyscho” and “The Birds”
In the 1960s and 1970s Hitchcock followed “Vertigo” with even more successful flims like “Psycho” (1960) and “The Birds” (1963). The famous shower scene of “Psycho” undeniably demonstrates Hitchcocks’s phenomenal cinematic skills. For the 45 long shock moment, which wrote film history, he used approximately 70 camera angles. Instead of showing the offender murdering the woman in cold blood with a knife on screen, Hitchcock allows the audience to imagine it in their minds. This murder weapon also plays a key role in the design of the Alfred Hitchcock Limited Edition, its sinister shape providing the inspiration for the pen‘s clip. After failing health took its toll on Hitchcock, reducing his output during the last two decades of his career, these two films are considered being his last great films. In 1980, Hitchcock died in his home in Bel Air while working on the script for a projected spy thriller, which was never filmed. Until today, he is seen as one of the greatest filmmaker in history, who brought the filmmaking to a new level of sophistication in terms of artistry, technical innovation and pure storytelling.
