Customer Reviews

Hitchcock Style

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this book after seeing it in a brief magazine write up. The book has way too much text and a fraction of the documentation of the Hitchcock Style that I had anticipated. I attempted to read the text, but the the author's frustrating writing style kept me from succeeding. Maybe something got lost in the translation from French to English? Anyway, for those able to survive the awkward jumping back and forth between periods in time, beware. Just from skimming the text I found one glaring error. The author refers to Grace Kelly as being deceased in 1979, when she actually passed away in the early 1980s. Save your money. You can thumb through this book in a few minutes at your local library or bookstore.

I wholeheartedly agree with the previous review! The book is LOADED with glaring errors! 3 that come to mind: North By Northwest's famous cropdusting scene was set in Illinois, not Texas, which he mentions more than once. Grace Kelly did not die in 1979 and there is a great picture, elsewhere, of GK and "Hitch" at the function this author uses for a reference point of Hitch's dead friends and sad end of life, and he refers to Patricia Collinge as Joseph Cottens mother in "Shadow Of A Doubt": She was his loving sister. He also misquotes Psycho and several of the biggest films in AH career. Didnt this guy have a fact checker to help him? He is also very coarse in his descriptions of people in Hitchcocks life: Anthony Perkins looked like a retarded child? I only gave it 3 stars for the rare pics that are included. Buy it when its in the remainder bin or used on Ebay!

If you can get past some of the obvious technical errors about Hitchcock's film this is actually a well thought out and visually attractive book. It presents many vivid photographs and images from his films. The point of the book is draw attention to the visual aspects of Hitchcock's films. There is a certain look that Hitchcock brought to his films and created for the viewer. It may have been use of the camera, lighting, set design, art design, shooting locations, casting and so forth. These are all visual elements that go in to making a film and show up in the final product. Even advertising and promotion are a key elements to Hitchcock's films. Hitchcock created a mood or an impression for the viewer that in many cases has had a lasting effect of anyone who has seen his films. This is the intent of the book. The images in this book are as indelible as what Hitchcock brought to the screen and they are very impressionable. Quite honestly I dismissed the text of the book and just savored the visual images, which are exquisite and stimulating. These images speak for themselves much like a soundtrack from a film does through music and sound. A mood is created and one is able to engulf and savor their remembrances and recall the initial reaction they experienced upon first seeing a particular film. This is an outstanding book in that regard, and I find it to be a handsome collection to my other Hitchcock film books. I truly recommend this book.

I bought this book despite a couple of bad reviews. I wholeheartedly agree that the writing/translation is not very good. In addition to factual errors, there are sentence structure problems and schizophrenic writing. I am glad I bought the book because there is enough here (photos mainly) for it to be useful to me for my purposes, but this is not a book for the casual or very unintentional. This could have been an amazing book because I think this is a very good conceptual approach to Hitchcock's work. I cannot recommend this book for everyone.

This is a colorful and imaginative book. I really like the way the photos are presented. You can see that much thought went into this book. It is very original in its concept. It brings back many memories and emotions. Outstanding and somehow misunderstood, this is a very good book.

This is an outstanding Book. The idea is an incredible insight into the mind of Hitchcock. I love the images in this book. They bring back feelings I had when I first saw many of Hitchcock's films. Images are indelibly etched into our minds. That's what it's all about.