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I will re-watch 'The Village' - maybe you and Professor Doctor GH are right.
It does raise a question I have - Gareth (or Jett, I can't recall which) made a statement in discussing Shyamalan that perhaps some of his movies may be more well-received 20 years from now....weren't several of Hitchcock's movies criticized when they originally came out, only to be revered years later? I could be completely wrong on this...
But here's the thing; right around the birth of the silent era Hitchcock stopped talking of himself as an artist, replacing that public persona with that of a showman, an entertainer. He still was an artist of course but he realized that didn't sell as well. He had to wait a couple of decades for popular culture to catch up.
Psycho was a HUGE commercial hit, (especially considering its production cost - after all it was shot with a TV crew on a TV budget); its reputation as a great art film, (see the Turner Prize winner 24 Psycho as an example / Gus Van Sant's 'Psycho' commentary as well for examples), came later.
Interesting about 'Psycho'...
Personally, "Rear Window" has always been one of my favorite movies.
just wished to intervene in the midst of the rumblings about my alleged disdain for mr hitchcock...i refer the listener with respect to what i actually said on the last episode...which was merely to pose a question, not to make a statement...all the points about alfred being taken more seriously after his death (or by the french critical community while he was alive) implying that m night might effect the same response seem entirely valid to me. dear listener (and dear co-host), i trust that you will forgive any potentially blasphemous outpouring against mr hitchcock, and allow for the elegance of language to sometimes run the risk of obscuring the truth.
for what it's worth, i see 'vertigo' every time it screens in belfast.
And 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' are two of my favorites - saw them both for the first time on a double bill during the Universal re-release of the mid-eighties, (though now that I'm older I can see where Hitchcock was coming from re: hating to have to use Kim Novack in Vertigo - she's not the best at projecting intelligence and mystery).
And apologies Gareth, you were actually raising a question as opposed to knocking Hitch entirely.
I sure hope that M Night's work is reavaulated as time goes by.
1. I have placed a review on iTunes (even though the T Shirt deadline has passed - such selflessness!)
2. I think 40 mins should generally be the maximum length. I love your witty and incite full film reviews and film related discussions (even when I disagree - see 3.) but sometimes I think "For the love of (insert appropriate deity here) - stop waffling and get back to the film!"
3. OK - I'm willing to accept that M. 'Night to Remember' Shalamar is misunderstood, that The Village is underrated and that The Lady in the Water has some redeeming features. But (and it's a big but) how you can think The Happening is anything other than terrible amazes me. Hard to know where to begin but easy to know where to end - the script! The plot is so bad and the dialogue so ludicrous that this has to be the worst script for a major film that I have seen in a long time. And Gareth - putting in a load of sub Hitchcock references doesn't make it Hitchcock. To say if this is no good then neither is Psycho or The Birds makes no logical sense at all (though I think an "is Hitchcock as good as everybody thinks" discussion would be interesting).
- Still love the show though!
As for ´The Happening´= when I saw it in the theatre the whole room was filled with dread and people were really freaked out = this phenomena (sic) of context releted perception is one I´ll continue to explore on TFT.