Hitchcock -- Unparalled Master of Suspense

I don't figure that short list is "mindboggling" considering the number of movies made since 1900 (well over 20,000.) However, most of them were unsuccessful remakes, save for some like "The Birdcage," "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," and "Twelve Monkeys" which were at least as good as their foreign counterparts. I found the recent "Solaris" to be better than the Russian version, subtitles or not. The lackluster boxoffice of many of these remakes may be discouraging and Hollywood remakes itself as often if not more often.

Probably the worst remake of a foreign film was "Diabolique."

Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is taken from a French novel.

lightwizard, thanks for your comments. Can you think of a Hollywood movie that has been remade in another country?

That's more of a point well taken. Why do you suppose foreign language filmmakers don't remake American movies? I'm sure one could find many Bollywood movies that are actually based on American films. One recent one inparticular but the title escapes me for the moment. Foreign language filmmakers still would like to depend on the U.S. market as selling enough tickets to make their films financially successful. It wouldn't really seem to work the other way around. Making films is an expensive proposition right up to the cost of getting them promoted and distributed so it's an artform that has to depend on gaining enough audience to at least pay for their effort. However, if that's all it does and they do not have unlimited financing, they won't be making many films.

(And, yes, Hollywood is paying homage to foreign language films by remaking them).

sorry, lightwizard, I cannot agree totally. Any good non-american director would rather die than steal a story from a Hollywood movie. Can you see Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini or Truffaut remake a Hollywood film?
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Apparently there are companies in California that search the world for foreign movies and buy the redo rights. It seems sort of sad.
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I read somewhere that some blockbuster movies are hyped so intensely that they make a fortune in the first week before the critics pan that lousy movie.
What a way to make money?

What about the bad non-American directors, or for that matter the average non-American director? You really believe there isn't a lot of foreign made drek out there? You're wrong. The French have barely been able to produce but a handful of great cinema in the past few decades. The problem is, nobody has taken the time to document how many bad foreign films are really uncredited remakes of American movie pablum. Bollywood could single-handedly tip the scales. Naming a few of the foreign film great directors changes nothing. There are just as many great American directors.

There's nothing instrinsically bad about looking for good foreign films to remake. It's whether they do it right or don't do it right.

Films that are hyped rarely do make their cost in the first week -- they actually depend on the cable TV including Pay-Per-View and DVD purchases and rentals. It's been stated that film is the lowest of the artforms and that's likely correct.

Out of the thousands of films made, however, there are hundreds that could be labeled fine art.

Naturally, I'd rather watch "Woman in the Dunes" again than "Spiderman II," but I've always been objective about the film industry having worked in it.

BTW, I don't think you're going to see Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini or Truffaut re-make a Hollywood film anytime soon -- they're all dead, after all. However, wouldn't Fellini's "Ginger and Fred" really be a remake? And will he ever live (or die) down "Casanova," a travesty of a movie?

Since we likely are going to end up agreeing to disagree, back to Hitchcock.

His first American film, "Rebecca" is still one of my favorite Hitchcock films. With Judith Anderson as one of the legendary film villains, he proved in his first American film he could handle actors better than nearly any director. The Oscar thought so as well but this was also the film where Hitchcock was soured on the production policies in the States and we all know the rest. I think his handling of actors culminated with "Vertigo" and "Rear Window." I sure remember the void of that decade where both films were tied up in an estate dispute and finally released in restores versions on DVD. The restored "Vertigo" is even better than I remember it's theatrical Vista Vision release. Vista Vision was different than CinemaScope as a wide screen process as it did not use an anamorphic lense which effected the resolution. The film went through the projector sideways with each frame being the exact width of the image. This is how hi-def IMAX cameras work today.

The scene where Kim Novak is sillouetted against the backdrop of the Golden Gate bridge is iconic.

'Casanova' was sumptious but over the top.
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I agree that in France there is not much happening now. Their decade was the 40s. The German's decade was the 20s.
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I am a sentimental fool about French b&w films. I believe that Raimu was the greatest movie actor, period.
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I have seen some lists about 'The hundred best films' and not many American movies can be found there. (Citizen Cane is almost the very best, though). Orson Welles was not Hollywood, in my opinion.
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Bollywood does not really count; thousands of shallow films for the masses.
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btw, I love Kieslowski.
I apologize for my rants, they have nothing to do with Hitchcock.

If Welles was not "Hollywood," he was lured back to make "The Lady from Shanghai," "Touch of Evil" and "The Stranger." He certainly wasn't a foreign language director and he exerted his independence which is true of many other directors including Stanley Kubrick.

To be fair, it was the French and Italians from the 40's through the 50's. As far as the best French director, I'd nominate Jean Renoir.

You can't discount Bollywood when writing about foreign language films as opposed to Hollywood, nor the Mexican film industry, nor the film industry in any country, small as they may be, including Canada. Lot's of clunkers out there and they are not exclusively American. Better try and sit through the films turned out during the communist regime in Russia -- when you are dead from boredom, don't write me.

Hitchcock divorced himself from the Hollywood machine after "Rebecca" but even the master of suspense didn't always hit the bullseye. He certainly demanded that it be done his way and it even shows in the lesser efforts.

I agree. There was a Hitchcock film called "The Wrong Man" which doesn't seem to be as well known as many of his others. It was a change of pace for Hitch, IMO, because it was based on a true story.

But you can still definately see the Hitchcock "touch" in that film. Great performance by Henry Fonda in that movie too.

As well as in "I Confess" with Monty Cliff -- not the best of Hitchcock but worth watching more than once. It's interesting how we know the plot twists in the best Hitchcock but tend to forget them in the lesser works (probably because we don't make it a point to return to these films?) For instance, I could put the "I Confess" DVD into the player and have no recollection of the story. Well, maybe until I got into the first half hour.

Good Vera Miles too. Too bad she didn't do more with her career. She showed up again in a lot of TV guest spots a few decades later, still absolutely beautiful. This movie had more or less the tone of a documentary. As you say, change of pace for Hitchcock, but a good flick.

Miles also showed up in "Psycho" and I believe she was to be the lead in "Vertigo" but Kim Novak ended up with the role as Vera had become pregnant.

Speaking of a change of pace, was "Dial M for Murder" done in 3D? Many of the scenes seem to have more spatial "depth" than the average film. If it was 3D originally, then I imagine the scene where Grace Kelly reaches back to grab the pair of scissors and plunge them into her attacker must have made quite an impact. It makes an impact even without the full 3D effect!

Ray Milland was an interesting choice to play the husband. He was a sympathetic character at first, because Grace Kelly was cheating on him. But then, of course, you find out he's been plotting her murder all along.

Hitchcock always had some interesting casting in his films.

I saw it in 3-D originally and it's Hitchcock's only 3-D film.

Hitchcock had a sixth sense with casting.

I was watching "To Catch A Thief" the other day, and I heard an interesting bit of trivia I'd never known before. Remember the scary scene in which Grace Kelly is driving over those winding mountain roads, with a very anxious Cary Grant next to her?

I learned that the road in that scene was the very same one on which Grace Kelly (Princess Grace), had that fatal accident many years later.

Eerie -- even for Hitchcock!!

The remake of Psycho was on last night.Despite hating it for so many reasons I taped it just to remind myself how awful it is.

That reads like a classic waste of time.

Im sure it was but I need a 'back up' film if others watch are just as bad.At least the awfulness will entertain me and I can complain about it for weeks.