Apr 18, 2010

Hitchcock or how I became a classic movie lover

I just finished watching "Rear Window" for the umpteenth time and I had to comment something about it. I started writing about how cool Hitchcock's movies are, but I realized that what I really wanted to say is how grateful I am to Hitch and how nostalgic watching his films makes me.
I think the first time I heard about Hitchcock was at high school. Our philosophy teacher made a test in which you had to interpret some drawings and write what it was. I was a very good student but when this thing came up I just didn't know what to answer. I mean, really, what the heck is this?


No one at my class knew. I was very angry with my teacher. She said: "well, that's Hitchcock, you really haven't heard about him?? Ever??". Of course not!
He made his second apparition at university, second journalism year, when we had to watch a movie called "Rear Window" for our weekly media test. Like pretty much all our homework it was just that, another thing to do. So maybe that's why I don't remember the first time I watched a Hitchcock film. Or maybe I didn't watch it at all and I just asked a friend what was it about. Yeah, that's what happened. 
Then I took a course called "Audiovisual Review". Since I was a child, I watched with my family classics like "The Sound of Music" & "Gone with the wind". But I preferred modern movies and I thought I knew a lot about cinema. In that class I learned I didn't.
We had this teacher who was talking about many films, things and people I hadn't heard about. Like Billy Wilder and a French magazine called Cahiers du Cinema. We saw an old movie starring some guy called Cary Grant and a lady called Ginger Rogers. And Marilyn Monroe was there too. At least I knew who she was. Kind of. We saw "Ace in the hole" and we had to review it. I really liked it, but I remember I wrote an awful text, kind of "the movie is in black and white, so that reflects its mood" or something***. 
We were in one of the last classes, we had seen movies like "The Royal Tenenbaums" (I liked it), "Raging Bull" (too violent for me...says the girl who loves "Kill Bill") and "Dead Ringers" (too gross for me).

Then, we saw "Vertigo".

Wow.
The class was quiet, it was a winter afternoon.
It was dark.
I was immersed in Hitch's oneiric world. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. 
I'd never seen Jim Stewart or Kim Novak before. But their performances trapped me. 
And that was it. 
I think I bought like 20 of his movies to a guy who also loved Hitchcock. I liked them all.
I also remember this fan said "I think the girls in classic movies are much prettier and classier than modern actresses". Now I now what he meant. And that goes, of course, for the boys.

Then came Audrey to finish what Hitchcok had started. 
But that's another story.

*** I've been looking for that class notepad, but I haven't found it. I wish I could read the things I wrote 4 years ago and how I probably misspelled all these names that now are so familiar to me.

5 comments:

  1. aww qué bonito post, me siento rara comentando en español jaja oye pero qué genial, yo la vdd no recuerdo cuándo conocí a Hitch, creo q su nombre siempre fue familiar para mí pero la primera película q vi de él estoy casi segura q fue REBECCA y me encantó, era genial ese hombre!!!

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  2. Hola, mi inglés es bastante malo, aunque lo comprendo al leerlo, otra cosa sería intentar hablarlo.
    Las películas de Hitchcock siempre me han gustado, aunque hay algunas, especialmente de su período inglés que las encuentro flojillas, pero Vértigo, Falso culpable (The wrong man), Los pájaros, ésas no me canso de verlas. Y por supuesto la ventana Indiscreta.
    ¿Has visto Náufragos? Es increíble como se las ingenió para aparecer haciendo su cameo.
    Saludos y buen domingo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lola, gracias por comentar. Qué bueno q entiendes el inglés escrito y te animas a escribirme :), porque últimamente los post me salen en inglés :)
    Sí, vi Náufragos el mes pasado, y me pareció muy buena, y me fijé en el detalle de Hitch en el diario!! Lol, tb se las ingenió para aparecer en "La soga", como la historia transcurre con pocos personajes en un mismo cuarto, se le ocurrió poner su perfil en un edificio luminoso que se ve por una ventana :)
    Y bueno, de las más antiguas he visto "The Lady Vanishes" que es muy buena...
    Este mes fue el de Hitch en TCM, así que feliz revisitando su trabajo :)
    Pronto espero escribir un post de mini reviews sólo de Hitch, a ver si te pasas :)

    Que tengas una excelente semana,
    -Clara-

    ReplyDelete
  4. Renita, sí Hitch era genial, por eso le perdono que haya tratado mal a algunas actrices (Tippi Hedren habla pestes del sr.)...Rebecca es muy buena, recuerdo que mi abuela hablaba de esa peli y se la lleve un domingo en dvd para que la volviera a ver :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lola, gracias por comentar. Qué bueno q entiendes el inglés escrito y te animas a escribirme :), porque últimamente los post me salen en inglés :)
    Sí, vi Náufragos el mes pasado, y me pareció muy buena, y me fijé en el detalle de Hitch en el diario!! Lol, tb se las ingenió para aparecer en "La soga", como la historia transcurre con pocos personajes en un mismo cuarto, se le ocurrió poner su perfil en un edificio luminoso que se ve por una ventana :)
    Y bueno, de las más antiguas he visto "The Lady Vanishes" que es muy buena...
    Este mes fue el de Hitch en TCM, así que feliz revisitando su trabajo :)
    Pronto espero escribir un post de mini reviews sólo de Hitch, a ver si te pasas :)

    Que tengas una excelente semana,
    -Clara-

    ReplyDelete

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