Variety (2012) - A Personal Pitch from Hitch
Details
- magazine article: A Personal Pitch from Hitch
- author(s): Peter Debruge
- journal: Variety (03/Dec/2012)
- issue: volume 429, issue 4, page 16
- journal ISSN: 0042-2738
- publisher: Reed Business Information, Inc. (US)
- keywords: "Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation" - by Robert E. Kapsis, "Que Sera, Sera" - by Doris Day, Academy Awards, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV), Alfred Hitchcock, Appreciation, Bates Motel, Birds, Cahiers du Cinéma, Covent Garden Market, London, David O. Selznick, Donald Spoto, Doris Day, Eva Marie Saint, Family Plot (1976), Filmmakers, Frenzy (1972), Gregory Peck, I Confess (1953), Ingrid Bergman, Ivor Novello, James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Marnie (1964), Motion picture directors & producers, Motion picture trailers, Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, Norman Bates, North by Northwest (1959), Notorious (1946), Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), Rebecca (1940), River Thames, London, Robert E. Kapsis, Rope (1948), Saboteur (1942), Sean Connery, Spellbound (1945), The Birds (1963), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Theater, Tippi Hedren, Topaz (1969), Works
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Abstract
Arguably, no filmmaker has had a more natural gift for self-promotion than Alfred Hitchcock, and while the director carefully positioned his movies via myriad creative methods (from personal appearances to pre-recorded instructions to theater personnel), nothing demonstrates his mastery better than a tour through the trailers created to promote his oeuvre over the years. According to biographer Donald Spoto, when "The Lodger" opened in 1926, Hitchcock garnered more press attention than leading man Ivor Novello.
Article
Cinema has never been short of showmen; flair comes with the territory. Arguably, no filmmaker has had a more natural gift for self-promotion than Alfred Hitchcock, and while the director carefully positioned his movies via myriad creative methods (from personal appearances to pre-recorded instructions to theater personnel), nothing demonstrates his mastery better than a tour through the trailers created to promote his oeuvre over the years.
Thanks to Blu-ray and YouTube, the teasers that once hyped Hitch's pictures are now easily accessible to film historians and fans. Unlike today's movie previews, Hitchcock's trailers were often as high-concept as the pictures they touted, from the six-minute guided tour of the Bates Motel and mansion produced for "Psycho" to his tongue-in-cheek monologue about "the birds and their age-long relationship with man" for "The Birds."
This year, moviegoers experienced a return of sorts to this type of limitedtease, director-focused sales pitch with the Web trailers for "Prometheus" and "Looper" (the latter featuring helmer Rian Johnson and star Joseph Gordon Levitt describing the trailer that would debut three days later on Apple). All too often, however, contempo trailers merely condense a 24-hour movie into 24 minutes of money shots. Largely lost is the more tantalizing art many Hitchcock films used of having the director or star walk out and personally talk through the film's highlights.
The best example is "Rope," whi...
