Tuesday

I've enjoyed the films of Alfred Hitchcock since before I knew what I was enjoying, since before VHS was replaced by DVD*, at least. I liked them partly because Hitchcock shares the same birthday as me (as does Fidel Castro, which is why I used to say I was going to grow up to be a Communist filmmaker), but I suppose what I liked most was the ideas and the stories, Rear Window being my favourite. As I grew up I watched them less and less. I hadn't seen one in perhaps a year or more until today, in my lunch-break, I watched part of North by Northwest. It had never been one of his films that I'd seen much of, but now it has me thinking it may be one of the best films ever made...

Everything I saw was excellent. His films are clear and precise. There is no excess, it always seemed to me. Everything leads effortlessly onwards. Nothing is ever overstated or overdone. Dialogue is not necessary, but when it comes it is razor-sharp. The editing is so natural, and of course the plane sequence is perhaps one of the best action scenes ever filmed. The users of IMDb voted it in at number 25. I'd say it could be higher.

*I know this because I have a VHS box-set of Hitchcock films which is enormously heavy, and which I have had to lug around when moving houses 4 times in the last two years.