Alfred Hitchcock was an English filmmaker who produced some of the most suspenseful and intense psychological thrillers in all cinema, also dabbling in silent films establishing himself as a truly great director through the early stages of talkies. He became an American citizen in 1956 when he moved to Hollywood and produced his vast back catalogue of films through 1921 - 1976, an inspiring and prolific career.
He described his childhood as sheltered, plagued by his obesity and loneliness and inspiring many of his films. After caught misbehaving by his father, he was sent to the local police station with a note to lock him up for 10 minutes. He was treated with distance and a strictness by his parents - made to address his mother from the foot of her bed, and sometimes forced to stood for hours and his father tragically died at the age of 14 - a memory amongst others which inspired the character of Norman Bates in his magnus opus, Psycho.
His films always included unexpected twists and thrilling plots, laced with violence, murder and sex and he became notorious for pushing the conventions of every genre he dabbled in. Hitchcock also liked to make cameos in his films in all his films, for example trying to get a double bass onto a train.
“Psycho” Produced in 1960 on a controlled budget of $800,000, shot in black-and-white and considered his greatest masterpieces. The exceptional violence of the infamous shower scene, the early downfall of the heroine, the innocent lives ended by a disturbed murderer were copied in many subsequent horror films.
“The Birds” Inspired by a Daphne Du Maurier short story combined with an actual news story about a mysterious infestation of birds in California, this was Hitchcock's 49th film, released in 1963. The scenes of the birds attacking included hundreds of shots mixing actual and animated sequences. Therefore some of the conventions we follow today come from Hitchcock and the 60+ films which he directed.
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