Alfred Hitchcock

Although this is meant to be looked at more than read, you should choose this volume if you want to splendour occasionally over some very interesting Hitchcock movie frames, `on the set' photographs and family album memorials, this is more of a film makers enlightenment than a Hitchcock tome for information. There are hundreds of photographs, black & white and colour, many covering a full 20cm x 25cm page, or even two of them. There are plenty of shots of Hitchcock in the middle of direction, standing by an actor or beside a camera, waving his arms about or pulling a face. It is interesting to see the early Hollywood sets and dollies, the kind used by Orson Wells to the new wave 70s helicopter rigs flying alongside the river Themes. It is not the kind of book that we are supposed to read from back to back, but is there for our amusement as a coffee table picture book and certainly a fine reference manual for any film making enthusiast. I highly recommend it to complement a Hitchcock DVD film collection. I often turn the pages to reference a film I have just watched to see some of the set design. It also covers some interesting topics like where and when Hitchcock appears in his movies with still-frames for orientation. The binding is high quality. There is tons of stuff on framing and lighting including the dynamics of camera elevation. Each image is something to be deeply considered. I can not see a film maker go wrong using these images as a director's template. It is a bit of imaging bible in that respect.

Not much new here in the way of text, but the book does contain plenty of excellent photographs, many of which I have not seen before. A seriously great price for such a nice publication. Taschen certainly puts out some great stuff!

I do some writing and lecturing on film and find this book to be an ideal reference source. There are succinct and to-the-point plots, subtext and 'making of' sections for each of Hitch's 50 odd films. It's author Paul Duncan has fitted it all in considering the size of the book, and at this price you can't go wrong! The author has also peppered the text with his own opinions and has the nerve to rate the films - quite accurately pointing out that Hitchcock made bad films as well as good ones. I can see how this irreverent attitude to Hitchcock could get up the noses of some academics, but I found it refreshing. His opinions, I find, are also good starting points for discussions about Hitchcock. At the back, there is a reference section where Paul Duncan gives his opinion about other reference books - something I have not seen done elsewhere.