Thursday, December 17, 2009

Hitchcock Rocks!

Have been watching Hitchcock movies in the last couple of days and have fallen in love with the man's style!

Psycho was the first one I watched. Though I kinda guessed the plot half way through, there were some elements in the movie that kept me doubtful until the end. Can guess what kind of a rage this movie must have been in 1960 when it was released. Similar movies are still being made today, 50 years after the master made his version! Hitchcock was surely ahead of the times.

The second one was Rope. A very short movie - just an hour and a quarter. But very stylishly made. Loved the strong characterisations, and the amazing histrionics of everyone involved. Each character was amazingly convincing - especially the important 3 of Brendon, Philip and Rupert.

* Spoiler Alert *
The plot of the movie thickens bang after the titles, when we find Brendon and Philip strangling a friend of theirs - as they converse after that, you chillingly realize that they committed the murder simply to prove that they were capable of doing it! Simply to establish that they could commit the perfect murder and get away with it. As you slowly get out of that, you get to know that they are throwing a party in the same room as the venue of the crime - to be attended by the nearest and dearest of the dead man. What makes it further gripping is that the food is served right on the chest inside which the dead man was dumped! A gripping tale right till the end!

I just loved the dialogues in the movie, especially Brendon's cheeky references to the murder in the presence of others, with a naughty, sly smile. A slew of double entendres!

One aspect of the movie that sets it apart is that the scenes are all loooooong. In the sense, that the camera is kept rolling for a loooooong time. And they have tried to make it seem like the entire movie was made in one shot, but you are able to identify where the cuts are made - something that let me down. Surely, Hitchcock must have known better!

But overall, I am stunned by the man! Hear from a friend that Shining is a great movie of his. Should catch up with it sometime.

--------------- Errata -------------------
Just got an alert that The Shining is a Kubrick movie. Sorry for the faux pas!

5 comments:

Zen said...

Hi Vishy, What a coincidence? I got a lots of free time past few days and been watching Hitchcock movies only...Dont miss North by Northwest (best of the lot taken 50yrs back, amazing), Vertigo (awesome screenplay, dialogues) and Dial M for murder (remade in tamil and also in eng as perfect murder), some of Hitchcock's best movies

Karthik said...

Hitchcock for you - 'if a bomb explodes under a table where people are playing cards, its action. If there is a bomb under a table and people are playing cards and the bomb doesnt explode. it seems'

King Vishy said...

@senthil.. great coincidence indeed :) downloading n-by-nw now..

@karthik.. Guess you meant to complete your line:
when there’s a bomb under a table, and it explodes, that’s action. When we know the bomb is there, and the people at the table play cards, and it doesn’t explode, that’s suspense
Amazing quote da!!

JP Arun said...

"The Shining" is a great movie da...watch out for the camera work in the first few mins of the movie..given that the movie releasesd in 1981...amazing work!

King Vishy said...

Ohh Hitchcock was alive till 81 is it! News to me :) Sure will watch some movie today..