Director Research - Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director and producer, at times affectionately referred to as "The Master of Suspense". His career spans over more than half a century.

Hitchcock pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres. He had a hugely successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as England's best director. He then moved to Hollywood in 1939.

Hitchcock created a recognisable directorial style for himself. His stylistic trademarks include the use of camera movement that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative forms of film editing. His work often features fugitives on the run alongside "icy blonde" female characters.

Hitchcock became a highly visible public figure through interviews, movie trailers and cameo appearances in his own films, and also hosting the television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

In 1978, film critic John Russell Taylor described Hitchcock as "the most universally recognisable person in the world", and "a straightforward middle-class Englishman who just happened to be an artistic genius".

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades and is often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker.

 He came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from viewers) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else."

Hitchcock's Filmography is vast and full of truly brilliant and ahead of the time films. He is most know for the 1960's film Psycho which he both directed and produced. The film  is centred on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath.

At the time of the release it received a variety of reviews with a whole mixture of opinions. However as time has passed his work in general has become more and more looked on as the best of British and American cinema.

Hitchcock was a multiple nominee and winner of a number of prestigious awards, receiving two Golden Globes, eight Laurel Awards, five lifetime achievement awards (including the first BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), as well as being nominated five times for an Academy Award for Best Director (however never winning).

After refusing a CBE in 1962, Hitchcock received a knighthood in December 1979 when he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year Honours.

He was asked by a reporter why it had taken the Queen so long, Hitchcock replied, "I suppose it was a matter of carelessness".

An English Heritage blue plaque, unveiled in 1999, marks where Hitchcock lived in London.

In 2012, Hitchcock was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, in order to celebrate British cultural figures whom he most admires.

In June 2013, nine restored versions of Hitchcock's early silent films, including his directorial debut, The Pleasure Garden (1925), were shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre. Known as "The Hitchcock 9", the travelling tribute was made possible by a $3 million programme organised by the British Film Institute.

Hitchcock was seen as a revolutionary when it came to the thriller genre and creating suspense with his out of the box thinking and shots.

In a 1963 interview with Italian journalist, Hitchcock was asked how in spite of appearing to be a pleasant, innocuous man, he seemed to enjoy making films involving suspense and terrifying crime. He responded:

"I'm English. The English use a lot of imagination with their crimes. I don't get such a kick out of anything as much as out of imagining a crime. When I'm writing a story and I come to a crime, I think happily: now wouldn't it be nice to have him die like this? And then, even more happily, I think: at this point people will start yelling. It must be because I spent three years studying with the Jesuits. They used to terrify me to death, with everything, and now I'm getting my own back by terrifying other people."