Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film [Paperback]

Will Schmenner (Editor), Corinne Granof (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 2007

Alfred Hitchcock is often held up as the prime example of the one-man filmmaker, conceiving and controlling all aspects of his films’ development--the archetype of genius over collaboration. An exhibition at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, however, put the lie to Hitchcock-as-auteur, presenting more than seventy-five sketches, designs, watercolors, paintings, and storyboards that, together, examine Hitchcock’s very collaborative filmmaking process. The four essays in this collection were written to accompany the exhibition and delve further into Hitchcock’s contributions to the collaborative process of art in film.

Scott Curtis considers the four functions of Hitchcock’s sketches and storyboards and how they undermine the impression of Hitchcock as a lone artist. Tom Gunning examines the visual vocabulary and cultural weight of Hitchcock’s movies. Bill Krohn focuses sharply on the film I Confess, tracking its making over a very cooperative path.

            Finally, Jan Olsson draws on the television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, to show the ways that collaboration contributes to the formation of his well known public persona. Anchored by editor Will Schmenner’s introduction, this book represents an important contribution to Hitchcock scholarship and a provocative glimpse at his unsung strength as a collaborative artist.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Will Schmenner is the assistant film curator at the Block Museum

 

Corinne Granof is Associate Curator at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. She has organized numerous exhibitions of modern American and European art and has written on a broad range of topics, with a focus on early twentieth-century German art.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press; 1 edition (October 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810124475
• ISBN-13: 978-0810124479
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,631,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Some disappointing contents, June 22, 2009

By 

Reader "Reader" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film (Paperback)

Gunning's essay is excellent, Krohn's essay is informative, but Scott Curtis's essay is a disappointment. Curtis is out of his league; he's no Hitchcock scholar and proves it here.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting exhibit, November 17, 2007

By 

George Kaplan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film (Paperback)

This book accompanies the current exhibit at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University highlighting Hitchcock's collaborative achievements. While I fully expect the book to be delightful, I have not yet read it. Instead, this review addresses the Block exhibit while it is still open.

Some decades ago, the auteur theory proposed that some movies possessed a signature visual style that acted as their artistic backbone. The theory identified the director as prime mover for these films and saw Hitchcock, Welles, Ray et al as the auteurs of the films they directed. This theory is now accepted wisdom, much to the chagrin of screenwriters and actors everywhere. The Block exhibit advances the curious notion that the success of many of Hitchcock's films was the result of collaborative efforts, not a single defining vision.

The exhibit, while small, contains some interesting items. First and foremost is Hitch's four-page hand-written outline for the crow sequence (Melanie smokes while birds congregate) in the Birds. Evidently, this scene sprung to his mind almost fully formed. Fantastic.

Other attractions of the exhibit for the Hitchcock buff are a fascinating sequence of written exchanges between Hitch and Darryl Zanuck over Lifeboat. Catch Hitch's wild use of the noun "mental". His exchange with Evan Hunter as the Birds script developed is also interesting. Here, Hitch cautions Hunter about avoiding "non-scene scenes". There are some very nice storyboards that capture the evolving creative process of a number of films (Saboteur, NxNW).

The exhibit seems well-attended and its producers and promoters have done a good job. However, the museum-goer must walk out far from convinced that the excellence of these films was a result of collaborative efforts. In actuality, the exhibit soldifies our view that Hitchcock masterminded most (all?) of his films from stem to stern. If every major creative decision was ultimately made by Hitch, as this exhibit evidences, how can the "collaborative" proposition be upheld?

That Hitchcock's influence over modern-day cinema is larger than ever is demonstrated by this exhibit. It includes the famous list of about 60 possible titles, some quite humorous, for what eventually became Vertigo. (Thankfully Hitch made the right choice.) But notice how many of the possible titles have subsequently been commandeered by other directors over the years for their own films.