Alfred Hitchcock (Pocket Archives Series) [Paperback]

Serge Kaganski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Here is a tiny book with big impact. It begins with a fine overview of Hitchcock's filmmaking career. Trim and compact as the book itself, Serge Kaganski's essay covers every major obsession of the director, from the paranoid terrors of The Lodger and Blackmail to the dreamlike worlds of Vertigo and Marnie. Part 2, which occupies more than 150 of the book's 200 pages, is a series of wonderful posters, stills, and publicity photos. Taken as a whole, this is a terrific introduction to the Hitchcock oeuvre. With words and image, it explains the attraction of the brilliantly talented director better than books four times its size. I can't reproduce the pictures for you here, but I can serve up a taste of Kaganski's enthusiasm:

Suspense is Hitchcock, just as dream theory is Freud, la grandeur is de Gaulle, purges are Stalin, home runs are DiMaggio, genius is Mozart, or Plans are Five-Year. The name Hitchcock has become a sort of trademark, even a term of everyday speech--like Frigidaire or Band-Aid. His name evokes mental images of the innocent and the guilty, of terror and of English humor, of elegant salons and sinister staircases, of breathless action and tormented romance--like an upsurge of the unconscious, a return of the repressed. Not bad for a director whose last shot went into the can more than twenty years ago!

Read, gawk, and enjoy. --Raphael Shargel

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Hazan Editeur (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2850255319
• ISBN-13: 978-2850255311
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,790,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool pix for Hitch fans, April 12, 2000

By 

Joseph W. Smith III - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alfred Hitchcock (Pocket Archives Series) (Paperback)

Kaganski collects numerous rarely seen stills and publicity art from a vast array of Hitchcock films; they're beautifully reproduced and accompanied by a brief but informed essay on Hitch's career. Recommended for serious Hitchcock fans.