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Alfred Hitchcock

Film

Behind-the-Scenes Photos of Iconic Filmmakers Directing Their Stars

By Alison Nastasi on

There’s nothing more exciting to a film lover than learning how their favorite movies were developed and executed. When we saw some fantastic behind-the-scenes photos from famous films on Every Day I Show, by way of Cinephilia and Beyond, we were blown away. The snapshots of iconic filmmakers directing their equally popular stars offers a peek at the history of cinema in the making. Head to our gallery for a look at directors in action and actors preparing their characters, collaborating on some of film’s greatest stories ever told. … Read More

Art

Incredible Drawings of Hitchcock Film Stills

By Alison Nastasi on

Hitchcock was a master visualist who approached every project with meticulous storyboards, every frame constructed to manipulate his audience’s emotions down to the final minute. The auteur’s style attracted artist Martín Sichetti, who we learned about on Parallax View. When he was musing on the scene in To Catch a Thief, in which Jessie Royce Landis stubbed out her cigarette in a soft-boiled egg, he was inspired to create a series of drawings based on close-up frames from Hitchcock films. “This is what I like the most from Hitch: the humor,” the artist told us. Gloves, suitcases, keys, and other objects — often fetishized by the director — are captured in soft-focus with hands, limbs, and necks the only identifiers of the faceless characters. Sichetti’s background in theater and costume design is an innate connection to Hitch’s expressive, symbolic visuals. Take a closer look in our gallery. … Read More

Film

The Goofiest Technological Gimmicks in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on

When Iron Man 3 premieres in Japan this Friday (yes, a week before us, whatever), audiences there will have the opportunity to see the film — which is already being presented in 3D and IMAX — in “4DX.” And what the hell is 4DX, you may ask, with understandable hesitancy. Take it away, Wired: “This ‘fourth dimension’ experience will offer wind, fog, tilting seats, and odor effects.” Yep, you can’t just watch a movie anymore; you have to be knocked around and inundated with weather and smells. 4DX is already in use in China, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, Mexico, Israel, and across South America, and if you’re jealous of this nonsense, fear not — according to The Hollywood Reporter, the technology’s creators are “reported to be moving ahead with plans to bring 4DX to the U.S. this year, with a view to equipping 200 theaters over the coming five years.” Since the whole concept sounds like noisy, bothersome rubbish designed primarily to tack on even more ticket surcharges, here’s hoping 4DX is about as successful as these earlier, equally silly cinematic technical advances. … Read More

Film

The Best Books by Great Filmmakers

By Jason Bailey on

Movie fans, rejoice: The Friedkin Connection, the new memoir by French Connection and Exorcist director William Friedkin, hits bookstore shelves today, and it’s terrific. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise when a great filmmaker writes a great book; good movies are all about storytelling, and some of our favorite filmmakers have proven equally adept at telling stories on the page as on celluloid. Some stick to their primary area of expertise, with tomes on the craft and life of the filmmaker; others take the opportunity to widen their scope a bit, with fascinating results. After the jump, we’ll share some of our favorite volumes by great moviemakers. … Read More

Film

30 Behind-the-Scenes Monster Movie Photos That Will Blow Your Mind

By Jason Bailey on

Because it came out in the ‘90s and now people old enough to remember it are running websites, a lot of Internet ink has been spilled recently over the 20th anniversary of The Sandlot, writer/director David Mikey Evans’s 1993 remembrance of baseball, boyhood friends, and the summer of ’62. But the most interesting discovery of all of this nostalgia bathing was the unveiling of three photos (by Mr. Evans himself) of the elaborate puppets they used to create “The Beast,” the giant English mastiff that terrifies that neighborhood kids. Looking at those images (and you can check them out after the jump), we get a little nostalgic ourselves — for a time when computers weren’t the solution for scaring an audience, leaving artists and puppeteers to create the horrifying creatures of moviedom. Let’s take a look at how it used to be done. … Read More

Film

‘The Birds’ Turns 50: 7 Horror Filmmakers on Its Influence

By Jason Bailey on

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic The Birds turns 50 years old today, and we’re celebrating in the expected ways: watching the movie, looking up a lot, making sure all of our windows are shut tight. But Hitchcock’s film wasn’t just an effective scarefest; its innovative use of sound, matter-of-fact drama, and unrelenting claustrophobia have inspired horror filmmakers since its release. In celebration of the film’s anniversary, we gathered quotes from seven makers of scary movies, who had a thing or two to say about how the film influenced them, and why it’s one of the all-time great horror flicks. … Read More

Pop Culture

The Intriguing Passports of 20 Famous Artists and Writers

By Emily Temple on

Like business cards, passports can say a lot about a person — where they’ve been, where they’re going, and well, how photogenic they are under the worst conditions. This week, we caught a glimpse of René Magritte’s passport (and pipe!), and so we decided to check out the legal papers of a few more of our favorite artists, from Virginia Woolf to Walt… Read More

Film

The Original Endings of 10 Famous Films

By Alison Nastasi on

A slow dolly shot and the haunting, ethereal sounds of “Midnight, The Stars and You” by Al Bowlly takes us into the closing scene of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The moment leaves us speculating about the film’s supernatural subtext as we catch our breath. It’s one of the most famous endings in cinema, but it almost never happened. Website The Overlook Hotel — a great source for fans of Kubrick’s iconic horror film — recently posted a copy of the director’s original screenplay that includes a deleted scene cut from the film at the last minute. We talk about it more after the jump. Audience feedback, filmmaker OCD, and other factors have helped shape the movies we know and love, changing the course of cinema history. We took a look at other popular movies and their original endings (as always, there may be spoilers). Did the final cuts triumph? … Read More

Film

10 Famous Directors on Movie Violence

By Emily Temple on

The Internet has been abuzz this week about Quentin Tarantino’s explosive interview with a British journalist for Channel 4, in which the director snapped after being asked why he didn’t think film violence and real violence were connected. “Don’t ask me questions like that. I’m not biting. I refuse your question,” he retorted. “I’m not your slave and you’re not my master. You can’t make me dance to your tune. I’m not your monkey.” Though he goes somewhat off the handle, Tarantino is right about one thing — he has been asked about violence quite a bit. And so have many other directors that use it in their films. After the jump, we’ve collected a few of their answers, which range from quippy to sincere, to get a better view of how violent Hollywood views itself. Any good quotes we’ve missed? Add to our list in the comments. … Read More

Film

The Year in Film: 2012′s Biggest Movie Controversies

By Jason Bailey on

In perusing this year’s biggest movie controversies, we found ourselves discussing matters a good deal less trivial than last year. Make no mistake, there are some tempest-in-teapot situations here: ratings woes, questions of reappropriation and hagiography, and (god help us all) frame rates. But we also grappled with issues of artistic responsibility and racial representation, and with the ongoing question of the very health of the form itself. Join us after the jump for a stroll through the year’s memorable movie controversies, won’t you? … Read More