Not only in the FILMSTARTS ranking of the best films of all time, but also in many, many other studies, “Vertigo – From the Realm of the Dead” (1958) emerges as the winner, as the best of all good films. In addition, Alfred Hitchcock created a whole series of other masterpieces, which not only received the full five stars in our reviews, but for the author of this article even overshadowed “Vertigo” – from “In the Shadow of a Doubt” (1943). ) to “On Call Murder” (1954) and “The Window to the Yard” (1954) to “The Invisible Third” (1959) and of course “Psycho” (1960).
Those films and other works by appear in countless best lists and underline his reputation as one of the best directors in film history – even more than 40 years after his death in 1980. Similar to perfectionist and film legend Stanley Kubrick (“2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Shining”), who often had scenes shot more than 100 times (!) until they finally met his expectations, But Hitchcock also resorted to methods that generated many talking points…
Actors are not cattle, but should be treated as such
‘Actors are cattle’ is still one of the best-known statements by the British thriller master, made in June 1972 during the was presented as fact – even though Hitchcock never did it that way. He responded shortly afterwards with a public statement clarifying the matter: “I would never say something so insensitive and rude about actors. What I was probably saying was that all actors should be treated like cattle. In a fun way, of course,” says Hitchcock.
How many what that will ultimately be remains to be seen. Yet such statements make it clear why the filmmaker has always experienced filming as a difficult task. His top priority was always the preparations, the script, the sets and the technology. Once everything was in place, the tedious part of implementing his vision finally began, as he repeatedly emphasized in countless documents. Ultimately, he now had to hand over a large part of the responsibility to his actors – but ideally as little as possible.
“My idea of a good actor or actress is someone who can’t do anything really well,” Hitchcock said in 1967. Emotions or the control of the voice come later, but his top priority over his actors is authority – from which the timing in front of the camera, all of which is crucial, emerges. He once made it clear to Bryan Forbes what he thought about method acting – which was simply incompatible with his meticulous preparation and planning. “That’s not acting, that’s writing.”
Although his reputation always preceded him, many of Hitchcock’s film partners always spoke highly of the director. And it’s no wonder he was able to push big stars like Grace Kelly, James Stewart and Cary Grant, who always loved appearing in front of Hitchcock’s camera, to achieve some of their best career performances. Quentin Tarantino, on the other hand, probably won’t be a fan anymore: