Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film

by Will Schmenner (Editor), Corinne Granof (Editor)

Alfred Hitchcock is often held up as the prime example of the one-man filmmaker, conceiving and controlling all aspects of his films’ development—the archetype of genius over collaboration. An exhibition at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, however, put the lie to Hitchcock-as-auteur, presenting more than seventy-five sketches, designs, watercolors, paintings, and storyboards that, together, examine Hitchcock’s very collaborative filmmaking process. The four essays in this collection were written to accompany the exhibition and delve further into Hitchcock’s contributions to the collaborative process of art in film.

Scott Curtis considers the four functions of Hitchcock’s sketches and storyboards and how they undermine the impression of Hitchcock as a lone artist. Tom Gunning examines the visual vocabulary and cultural weight of Hitchcock’s movies. Bill Krohn focuses sharply on the film I Confess , tracking its making over a very cooperative path.

Finally, Jan Olsson draws on the television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents , to show the ways that collaboration contributes to the formation of his well known public persona. Anchored by editor Will Schmenner’s introduction, this book represents an important contribution to Hitchcock scholarship and a provocative glimpse at his unsung strength as a collaborative artist.

Genres: Biography

168 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2007

Reviews

[Marsena Adams-Dufresne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was excited when I saw this book; it has beautiful stills from Hitchcock's movies as well as sketches and excerpts from the director's own notebooks. But the writing is dense and scholarly in the worst sense; I dislike writing that a) makes simple ideas sound more complicated than they really are, b)is more interested in making the author sound intelligent than in conveying information, and c)uses sixty words where five would suffice beautifully. If you're a Hitchcock fan, you might want to look at the pictures, but keep your expectations low.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is cheating. I am mentioned in the acknowledgments of this book. Nevertheless, for a detailed study of Hitchcock's collaborative process--as well as a number of incredible documents related to the director's career and a debunking of the auteur theory--I can think of no better book. Articles by Chicago-area university scholars including Tom Gunning and Scott Curtis.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essays are interesting - the second half on Plates is a good study on preproduction and collaboration