My cultural education has always been arse-backwards. I'd read every novel by James Herbert before I digested one word of Dickens, I could tell you more about the production of 1971's sartorial apocalypse Jason King than I could about I, Claudius and — up until a day or two ago — I'd seen more movies by Jesus Franco* than I had by Alfred Hitchcock.

This being Christmas, the season of the bargain boxed set, I finally remedied the latter. One of my requests was for Hitchcock 14 Disc Box Set [DVD] , fourteen of his movies in one box. This set has been knocking around at a £75.00 discount on Amazon for a long time and I've frequently ogled it, at just over a pound per movie how could it fail to be money well-spent? Last night, full up of company and the hangover of whatever bastard virus Debs and I picked up while in the UK I sat down to watch Rear Window.

I can hardly be the first person to comment on how wonderful it is. In fact, even mentioning it seems absurdly stupid, rather like describing a fillet steak as "meaty". Still, for a movie that's nearly sixty years old to feel so sharp, witty and unnerving, it shouldn't surprise me (I do class ">The Ladykillers as my favourite film of all time after all) but I will ashamedly admit it did. How perfectly constructed this thing is, from the expansive set that exposes the residents of this Greenwich apartment block to the pacing that draws you in so that the final twenty minutes punches as hard as it should. Everything is perfectly weighted and extremely naturalistic, wonderfully crisp dialogue and a delightful pair of leads (am I the last man in the world to realise how lovely Grace Kelly was?).

I find myself in the wonderful position of staring in awe at a body of work barely touched, secure in the knowledge that I am about to enjoy myself a great deal in the company of one of the finest film directors ever known. Who cares how long it took for me to get around to appreciating him?

*It is difficult to know how to describe Franco, one of the crassest, jaw-droppingly lurid and exploitive fimmakers to have lifted a zoom lens. In fact, when trying to think of a couple of words to describe him I end up achieving the opposite, two words that fail to capture his talents then: "film director".