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BFI Film Classics
Kuşlar
The Birds / Kuşlar (1963), Hitchcock'un Psycho / Sapık'tan sonra yaptığı filmdir. Daphne du Maurier'nin bir öyküsüne olduğu kadar, Kaliforniya'da kuş saldırılarıyla ilgili gazete haberlerine de dayanılarak yapılan; endişe, cinsel güç ve doğanın şiddetine dair bir film olan Kuşlar, Hitchcock sinemasının özüdür. Camille Paglia, bu ustalıklı çalışmasında, filmin estetik, teknik ve masalsı niteliklerini bir araya getirerek, filmin cinsiyet ve aile ilişkilerini resmedişinin bir çözümlemesini yapmaktadır.
154 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
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About the author
Camille Paglia
28 books1,200 followersCamille Anna Paglia is an American social critic, author and teacher. Her book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, published in 1990, became a bestseller. She is a professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She has been variously called the "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist feminist," one of the world's top 100 intellectuals by the UK's Prospect Magazine, and by her own description "a feminist bisexual egomaniac."
She has been variously called the "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist feminist," one of the world's top 100 intellectuals by the UK's Prospect Magazine, and by her own description "a feminist bisexual egomaniac."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
March 1, 2010
So credit where credit is due: by sadistically characterizing the terrorized schoolchildren as "little snacks" for the birds, Paglia has offhandedly offered one of the funniest things I've read in film writing in a long, long time (and I'm up to my ears in it these days).
I was fully expecting to just glance through this book, but once I started I couldn't put it down and read it in (nearly) one sitting, a rarity for me. Oh, certainly the merits of this book-length essay and Paglia's approach to the material can be debated, but I have to admit that I found this an immensely pleasurable read from start to finish. It's best to have a some kind of grasp of Paglia's aesthetic theories, as laid out in Sexual Personae, going into it, as statements like "...after the first flash of real horror, I generally settle down to laughing and applauding the crows, whom I regard as Coleridgean emissaries vandalizing sentimental Wordsworthian notions of childhood" are occasionally dropped but not explained in any real detail.
But thankfully Paglia actually keeps this kind of rather one-dimensional windiness in check and instead wholeheartedly indulges in what I think she does best: taking a small details like a chipped fingernail or a barely-glimpsed recording of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and going into a kind of associative reverie, making really unexpected and often insightful connections not only between Hitchcock's own films (which she appears to be thoroughly familiar with) but between completely disparate works of art and artforms—she intriguingly finds a lot of Picasso and Cubist techniques in The Birds, for example. I thoroughly love this kind of associative writing, and with each passing page I became more and more eager to see what Paglia came up with next.
I also found Paglia's unabashed crush on Tippi Hedren, undoubtedly the least favored of all Hitchcock's famous blondes, terribly amusing, and eventually became quite charmed by Paglia's gushing over everything from Hedren's features to the way she elegently holds a cigarette. This also means that the scenes between Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette get a lot of focus, which is probably my favorite dynamic in the film but also one that's rarely discussed in analyses of the film.
When it comes down to it, one's enjoyment for this little tome more or less comes down to one's tolerance for Paglia herself. I personally find her intriguing—almost because of what I find problematic in her work and her theories than despite it—and I have to say this makes me wish that Paglia had gone ahead with a second volume of Sexual Personae, which apparently was going to have a lot of focus on cinema.
I was fully expecting to just glance through this book, but once I started I couldn't put it down and read it in (nearly) one sitting, a rarity for me. Oh, certainly the merits of this book-length essay and Paglia's approach to the material can be debated, but I have to admit that I found this an immensely pleasurable read from start to finish. It's best to have a some kind of grasp of Paglia's aesthetic theories, as laid out in Sexual Personae, going into it, as statements like "...after the first flash of real horror, I generally settle down to laughing and applauding the crows, whom I regard as Coleridgean emissaries vandalizing sentimental Wordsworthian notions of childhood" are occasionally dropped but not explained in any real detail.
But thankfully Paglia actually keeps this kind of rather one-dimensional windiness in check and instead wholeheartedly indulges in what I think she does best: taking a small details like a chipped fingernail or a barely-glimpsed recording of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and going into a kind of associative reverie, making really unexpected and often insightful connections not only between Hitchcock's own films (which she appears to be thoroughly familiar with) but between completely disparate works of art and artforms—she intriguingly finds a lot of Picasso and Cubist techniques in The Birds, for example. I thoroughly love this kind of associative writing, and with each passing page I became more and more eager to see what Paglia came up with next.
I also found Paglia's unabashed crush on Tippi Hedren, undoubtedly the least favored of all Hitchcock's famous blondes, terribly amusing, and eventually became quite charmed by Paglia's gushing over everything from Hedren's features to the way she elegently holds a cigarette. This also means that the scenes between Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette get a lot of focus, which is probably my favorite dynamic in the film but also one that's rarely discussed in analyses of the film.
When it comes down to it, one's enjoyment for this little tome more or less comes down to one's tolerance for Paglia herself. I personally find her intriguing—almost because of what I find problematic in her work and her theories than despite it—and I have to say this makes me wish that Paglia had gone ahead with a second volume of Sexual Personae, which apparently was going to have a lot of focus on cinema.
July 30, 2020
Palja ko Palja, nikad nije dosadna. Može joj se zameriti svašta, ali nikada nedostatak strasti o stvarima koje piše, što je retkost među današnjim proučavaocima humanistike. Palja je barem cvetuljak osobene vrste, te nije pogodna za svačiji želudac.
Esej se brzo čita, isto onoliko koliko Palja u prirodi brzo priča. Kao da gledate sa njom „Ptice” a ona vam nonšalatno komentariše radnju. Ta spontanost je prezabavna, bilo da pada u trans kada govori o tome koliko je Tipi Hedren lepa, „boginja”, „umetničko delo”, „vrhunski domet civilizacije” (postoje nekoliko pasusa rasutih po tekstu o estetici Tipi kako drži cigaru), ili kako uvek viče na ekran kada se junakinja ne seti da spusti ručnu i na taj način pokrene automobil parkiran na nizbrdici ili kada napiše da bi devojčici Keti zavalila šamarčinu jer joj ide na živce ili kako uvek navija za ptice da što bolje izgrickaju te „ukusne zalogajčiće”.
Neke interpretacije stoje, neke su zategnute, neke su.. hmm neobične; od tumačenja, kako tašnica glavne junakinje simbolički predstavlja vaginu kojom je došla da ulovi Miča, do pravih „otkrovenja” poput onog da je hidrogen peroksid samo naizgled tu zbog dezinfekcije rane na temenu glave, te da je važnija uslovljenost između hidrogena i plave kose, i da je zato dovoljno malo hidrogena prsnuti u predelu glave kontuzovane plavuše kako bi se ona osvestila i postala zanosna. Još jedan dokaz da plavuše u Hičkokovih filmovima funkcionišu kao posebna artificijelna bića drugačija od ljudi (ni Hičkok ni Palja nisu omiljeni kod feministkinja).
Sve je zabavno i provokativno, ali esej boluje od skarabudženosti. Palja, samoprodeklamovana esteta, nekad bi mogla da poradi na formalnim stranama svojih tekstova, a ne da izgledaju kao da je sebe snimila, a onda iskucala to što je zabeležila na traci. Njeni misaoni asocijativni tokovi svega i svačega često nemaju ni meru a ni smisla. A i formalno sadržaj je valjalo bolje organizovati i grupisati, umesto, kako je ispalo, linearnog prepričavanja filma uz usputnu analizu. Najviše mi je žao zbog nerazrađenih ideja. Recimo, tvrdnja da su ptice Kolridžovi izaslanici u napadu na Vordsvortovu idilu zaslužuje mnogo više od usputne rečenice.
Nikad neću da prežalim što je Palja odbila ponudu Vol Strit Džurnala da napiše tekst o Hariju Poteru. Umesto nje, tekst je napisao Harold Blum, a manje-više svi znamo kakva je to bila senzacija. A nešto mi govori da je Palja pisala, zabava bi bila barem tri puta veća.
Esej se brzo čita, isto onoliko koliko Palja u prirodi brzo priča. Kao da gledate sa njom „Ptice” a ona vam nonšalatno komentariše radnju. Ta spontanost je prezabavna, bilo da pada u trans kada govori o tome koliko je Tipi Hedren lepa, „boginja”, „umetničko delo”, „vrhunski domet civilizacije” (postoje nekoliko pasusa rasutih po tekstu o estetici Tipi kako drži cigaru), ili kako uvek viče na ekran kada se junakinja ne seti da spusti ručnu i na taj način pokrene automobil parkiran na nizbrdici ili kada napiše da bi devojčici Keti zavalila šamarčinu jer joj ide na živce ili kako uvek navija za ptice da što bolje izgrickaju te „ukusne zalogajčiće”.
Neke interpretacije stoje, neke su zategnute, neke su.. hmm neobične; od tumačenja, kako tašnica glavne junakinje simbolički predstavlja vaginu kojom je došla da ulovi Miča, do pravih „otkrovenja” poput onog da je hidrogen peroksid samo naizgled tu zbog dezinfekcije rane na temenu glave, te da je važnija uslovljenost između hidrogena i plave kose, i da je zato dovoljno malo hidrogena prsnuti u predelu glave kontuzovane plavuše kako bi se ona osvestila i postala zanosna. Još jedan dokaz da plavuše u Hičkokovih filmovima funkcionišu kao posebna artificijelna bića drugačija od ljudi (ni Hičkok ni Palja nisu omiljeni kod feministkinja).
Sve je zabavno i provokativno, ali esej boluje od skarabudženosti. Palja, samoprodeklamovana esteta, nekad bi mogla da poradi na formalnim stranama svojih tekstova, a ne da izgledaju kao da je sebe snimila, a onda iskucala to što je zabeležila na traci. Njeni misaoni asocijativni tokovi svega i svačega često nemaju ni meru a ni smisla. A i formalno sadržaj je valjalo bolje organizovati i grupisati, umesto, kako je ispalo, linearnog prepričavanja filma uz usputnu analizu. Najviše mi je žao zbog nerazrađenih ideja. Recimo, tvrdnja da su ptice Kolridžovi izaslanici u napadu na Vordsvortovu idilu zaslužuje mnogo više od usputne rečenice.
Nikad neću da prežalim što je Palja odbila ponudu Vol Strit Džurnala da napiše tekst o Hariju Poteru. Umesto nje, tekst je napisao Harold Blum, a manje-više svi znamo kakva je to bila senzacija. A nešto mi govori da je Palja pisala, zabava bi bila barem tri puta veća.
March 7, 2021
An entertaining and insightful analysis of The Birds. This has long been my favorite Hitchcock movie and one of my favorite movies of all time. In the introduction to the book, Camille Paglia says that the goal was "for readers to experience the film, with all its quirky twists and turns, as if it were literally unfurling before their eyes." And that precisely describes this book!
The in-depth analysis draws on Paglia's extensive knowledge of Hitchcock's work, love of cinema, and ability to connect to other art forms (music, poetry, cubist painting). Ruthlessly detailed and injected with wry wit, the book gives a fascinating look at the film and the underlying drama created through key interactions between the female characters. Tippi Hedren gets the most screen time, but the contributions of Suzanne Pleshette and Jessica Tandy are crucial. All in all, it's a movie that brilliantly captures the eeriness and horror of Du Maurier's classic short story.
Recommended to fans of Hitchcock and The Birds.
The in-depth analysis draws on Paglia's extensive knowledge of Hitchcock's work, love of cinema, and ability to connect to other art forms (music, poetry, cubist painting). Ruthlessly detailed and injected with wry wit, the book gives a fascinating look at the film and the underlying drama created through key interactions between the female characters. Tippi Hedren gets the most screen time, but the contributions of Suzanne Pleshette and Jessica Tandy are crucial. All in all, it's a movie that brilliantly captures the eeriness and horror of Du Maurier's classic short story.
Recommended to fans of Hitchcock and The Birds.
February 24, 2019
I’ve never been a fan of the Hitchcock movie The Birds, but I am a fan of insightful, invigorating criticism that is a pleasure to read. Ms Paglia draws on her knowledge of Hitchcock and his work as well as film and literature in general in this well written critique with a sense of humor. I’m not exactly converted, but I’ll know what to look for next time. Read for class on Alfred Hitchcock movies.
August 23, 2012
Paglia's little book of feminine wisdom and study ought to please a cursory or perusing reader equally. Her attention hits every detail of the background and fore; she places shapes on the screen into peculiarly fitting places and reads all small deeds as purposive. Sharp praise layers onto swift prose: the effect is an avocado verity.
May 12, 2016
Fascinating scene by scene exposition of this curious movie. I can't say it's ever been one of my favourites in the Hitchcock canon - the ending left me bewildered and dissatisfied when I first saw it, and after reading Paglia's book it seems to me that there's almost no plot. It's all smoke and mirrors and occasional horrors.
But Paglia makes a great case for it being one of Hitchcock's classics, and her careful dissection of each scene (sometimes she overdoes the sexual aspects, I think, but that's not surprising, given this author), shows that there is as much craft in this movie as in Hitchcock's best. She picks up detail after detail that could pass you by in a casual viewing of the movie.
It's also good to see Tippi Hedren so validated: she wasn't much loved by the critics, nor even the movie-going audiences as I recall, but Paglia shows how time and again she did extremely good work in this movie. And literally suffered in the making of it, because there was a lot of injury on the set.
Rod Taylor gets very little mention by name in the book (his character, Mitch, is discussed much more), yet Taylor brought some warmth to the film and some humanity. Hedren and Jessica Tandy's characters are both pretty cold (Hitchcock's intention rather than that of the actresses).
But Paglia makes a great case for it being one of Hitchcock's classics, and her careful dissection of each scene (sometimes she overdoes the sexual aspects, I think, but that's not surprising, given this author), shows that there is as much craft in this movie as in Hitchcock's best. She picks up detail after detail that could pass you by in a casual viewing of the movie.
It's also good to see Tippi Hedren so validated: she wasn't much loved by the critics, nor even the movie-going audiences as I recall, but Paglia shows how time and again she did extremely good work in this movie. And literally suffered in the making of it, because there was a lot of injury on the set.
Rod Taylor gets very little mention by name in the book (his character, Mitch, is discussed much more), yet Taylor brought some warmth to the film and some humanity. Hedren and Jessica Tandy's characters are both pretty cold (Hitchcock's intention rather than that of the actresses).
November 20, 2020
Insightful and fascinating critique of an iconic film. Hitchcock’s films can be studied in an academic way and much as a Shakespearean scholar will find nuance and different interpretations of any given scene it is possible with film to study almost every single frame and reveal that nothing is wasted. The genius of the actors is as appreciated as that of the writer, director and crew.
Also, who knew that the lady on the poster is NOT Tippi Hedren but Jessica Tandy?
Also, who knew that the lady on the poster is NOT Tippi Hedren but Jessica Tandy?
September 21, 2015
Fantastic analysis and background to "The Birds". I've read this a couple of times now (and watched the movie of course, it is probably impossible not to after this book). A lot of books offers insights and fun trivia to movies, others enhances the movies to a whole new level - Camille Paglia manages to do the latter, with a film that was a masterpiece to begin with!
August 12, 2025
There’s never a dull moment when a mind like Paglia’s interacts with a text as sophisticated and abstract as one of Hitchcock’s best: Dionysus, Magritte, kabuki, Ipheginea, Martha Graham, S & M, Dante, MAD Magazine, The Brothers Karamazov, Giacometti, The Rolling Stones, and Helen of Troy.
February 2, 2018
while i am not a fan of some of her writing, paglia might have been the best person to pen this essay - she's really paying attention, adds historical background (but very little there new for the deep hitchcock fans), connects the dots with earlier hitch films (and other works in multiple disciplines), adds a generous dash of humor and will do well to build on just about anyone's understanding of this film, which has vexed me for many years.
October 9, 2020
Tippi Hedren's Talons
Plague-like and airborne,
“Angry Nature” swarms
to peck and claw civilization
to ruins – but not before
haughty Tippi Hedren
wards-off the harpies
with her blood-red
lacquer tips (and matching
lips), poison-ivy suit,
a Valkyrie helmet of hair,
and about 17 cigarettes.
Plague-like and airborne,
“Angry Nature” swarms
to peck and claw civilization
to ruins – but not before
haughty Tippi Hedren
wards-off the harpies
with her blood-red
lacquer tips (and matching
lips), poison-ivy suit,
a Valkyrie helmet of hair,
and about 17 cigarettes.
July 21, 2022
When the analysis is on point, it's great. However, this is a fairly sexist defense of Hitchcock and his views of women from a self-proclaimed feminist. The following quote is particularly troubling: "What I value about this scene [the 'meet cute' between Melanie & Mitch], and what I have taken away from so many great film-makers, is the way that sexual attraction is shown surging back and forth beneath the level of language (hence my rejection, for example, of rhetorical rubrics like 'No always means no' as useless in the date-rape debate." This is after basically re-framing Hitch's behavior toward Hedren - in C.P.'s post-#MeToo introduction - as that of a troubled artist, and how it's okay - along with the advent of Modernism - for our artists to contain flaws and deficiencies. Alas, I'd like to argue that some flaws and deficiencies are greater than others. Hitchcock pressing himself upon Tippi Hedren in the back of a limo to sexually assault her, is not merely a "slap on the wrist" transgression; it's predatory and unchecked behavior.
C.P. defends Hitchcock's portrayal of women, through his camera's male gaze, by claiming: "'Misogyny is a hopelessly simplistic and reductive for the passionately conflicted attitude of major male artists towards women.' What Hitchcock records in his films is 'the agonized complexity of men's relationships to women.'" So basically, it's okay that Hitchcock made a movie about punishing a woman with a blitzkrieg of bird attacks - because, you know, he's working out his shit. Well, to be honest, it seems like his shit is misogynistic and unfair to women. All he ever does is torture bottled blondes. Blondes HE created by adding peroxide to their hair for his roles.
Otherwise, there's some good analysis to be had, once C.P. quits pushing her dated, second wave feminism on us, but also just as many moments of analysis overreach.
Like it's subject, Hitchcock, it's a very readable essay, but also very very troubling in its attitude toward women.
PS. I love The Birds; it's one of my favorite Hitchcock movies as far as the mechanics, script and visual construction go, and a really good example for any burgeoning filmmaker for how to squeeze as much tension as possible out of silence. That being said, it does have a fairly terrible outlook on sexual politics.
C.P. defends Hitchcock's portrayal of women, through his camera's male gaze, by claiming: "'Misogyny is a hopelessly simplistic and reductive for the passionately conflicted attitude of major male artists towards women.' What Hitchcock records in his films is 'the agonized complexity of men's relationships to women.'" So basically, it's okay that Hitchcock made a movie about punishing a woman with a blitzkrieg of bird attacks - because, you know, he's working out his shit. Well, to be honest, it seems like his shit is misogynistic and unfair to women. All he ever does is torture bottled blondes. Blondes HE created by adding peroxide to their hair for his roles.
Otherwise, there's some good analysis to be had, once C.P. quits pushing her dated, second wave feminism on us, but also just as many moments of analysis overreach.
Like it's subject, Hitchcock, it's a very readable essay, but also very very troubling in its attitude toward women.
PS. I love The Birds; it's one of my favorite Hitchcock movies as far as the mechanics, script and visual construction go, and a really good example for any burgeoning filmmaker for how to squeeze as much tension as possible out of silence. That being said, it does have a fairly terrible outlook on sexual politics.
October 26, 2018
It would be helpful to have two separate star ratings for this edition of the BFI Film Classics series about Hitchcock's The Birds: three stars for the readable, entertaining prose, and two stars for her ideas and aesthetics. Camille Paglia is a good writer with some irritating quirks, but I find her public persona annoying and I don't share much common ground with her approach to analyzing art. Paglia and I both love Alfred Hitchcock's films, his visual construction of the frame, and the personal stamp he puts on his movies, but Paglia sees a work of art as a puzzle or series of puzzles to be decoded and/or a collection of symbols to be translated, which doesn't interest me much. I'm more concerned with the artwork's visceral, surface qualities and its connection to lived human experience as well as the mysterious, ineffable, dreamy, atmospheric stuff that, to be fair, is nearly impossible to describe or write about successfully. Paglia the writer and I the reader are only going to meet in the middle occasionally. I was also annoyed by Paglia's barrage of comparisons of moments in The Birds with various other works of art (movies, books, pieces of music, architecture, paintings, sculpture, myths) because of how tenuous many of those comparisons were. Paglia seemed to be using these comparisons to brag about her own breadth of knowledge instead of using them to shine new light on Hitchcock's film. I'll stop before I get into my many other small complaints, but it was an enjoyable book to argue with.
December 27, 2021
I've seen The Birds over 60 times, and I was sharing with a friend my latest insight --- that I believe the atmosphere Hitch created in the shots in the first scene that take place on the street that Annie Hayworth's house and the Bodega Bay School are on were inspired by the landscapes Hopper painted in the 1920's on Cape Cod, and in Gloucester and Maine.
As I explained my analysis he mentioned that Paglia had written a book about The Birds, and suggested I read it.
So I just got online and did a search for the book, and clicked on the link to this page. As I began reading the reviews I thought, "Wow, these reviews are so pseudo-intellectual in nature, this is unusual for Amazon reviews, which are usually direct and straight-forward, and not packed with the overwrought embellishments I was finding here."
Then I glanced at the URL and saw I was not on Amazon, but on Goodreads. I rolled my eyes and thought, "Oh, sure, that explains it."
I will say, however, that I'm very grateful that I've read seven or eight reviews and haven't yet had to suffer through someone characterizing the book or Paglia as "delightful".
As I explained my analysis he mentioned that Paglia had written a book about The Birds, and suggested I read it.
So I just got online and did a search for the book, and clicked on the link to this page. As I began reading the reviews I thought, "Wow, these reviews are so pseudo-intellectual in nature, this is unusual for Amazon reviews, which are usually direct and straight-forward, and not packed with the overwrought embellishments I was finding here."
Then I glanced at the URL and saw I was not on Amazon, but on Goodreads. I rolled my eyes and thought, "Oh, sure, that explains it."
I will say, however, that I'm very grateful that I've read seven or eight reviews and haven't yet had to suffer through someone characterizing the book or Paglia as "delightful".
April 6, 2019
Part of the BFI Film Classics series, this is a fantastic read; packed with cinematic detail and a deep insight into the relationships and power plays of one of Hitchcock's very best, and underrated films. Underrated because the more you delve into this film the more you can appreciate the depths in this film, let alone the incredible detail of the special effects. Camille Paglia has a wicked sense of humour, akin to that of Hitchcock himself, and I would love to have watched this with the two of them!
The book also led me to an article in Cinefantastique which is an absolute must for anyone interested in this film:
http://the-eye.eu/public/Books/Cinefa...
I have a stack of these BFI's on my shelf to read and can't wait to get stuck in...
The book also led me to an article in Cinefantastique which is an absolute must for anyone interested in this film:
http://the-eye.eu/public/Books/Cinefa...
I have a stack of these BFI's on my shelf to read and can't wait to get stuck in...
November 13, 2020
She goes over The Birds in great detail, scene by scene, with some original ideas, and I would've given this work 4 stars except for her irrational hatred of Cathy, portrayed very well by Veronica Cartwright.
She admits to cheering when Cathy gets attacked, and just finds her to be 'icky sweet' who she wants to slap. She claims other critics are wrong to think Cathy represents a child's innocence and emotional openness (which she does)---giving as proof that Hitchcock had an unpleasant child in his next movie (Marnie). And she also commits a whopper of an error when she states that Barbara Bel Geddes was in 'Rear Window' (page 66). For fans of The Birds, I recommend it. And see the movie again for the details she points out. Just beware of the kid-hate.
She admits to cheering when Cathy gets attacked, and just finds her to be 'icky sweet' who she wants to slap. She claims other critics are wrong to think Cathy represents a child's innocence and emotional openness (which she does)---giving as proof that Hitchcock had an unpleasant child in his next movie (Marnie). And she also commits a whopper of an error when she states that Barbara Bel Geddes was in 'Rear Window' (page 66). For fans of The Birds, I recommend it. And see the movie again for the details she points out. Just beware of the kid-hate.
September 14, 2022
My first time reading Paglia, so I don’t have any reference for her writing or thinking (I’m lying, but about what?). What better way to bond than to read her love analysis to one of my favorite movies, The Birds. Paglia’s appreciation of Tippi Hedren, her theory on a battle of female dominance and independence, and her free association between the disciplines makes this wittle booky wooky extra fun. I am a convert to Paglia when it comes to all things The Birds and an devotee of…The Birds. BFI, more like Birds Flying In(to my heart). Read it if you like critical analysis of movies.
April 26, 2022
I really foud this book interesting!! Though I wanted to read it to use in a philosophical work about the fears found in this book and it did not talk expressively of it. To analyse the movie itself, it is in fact very usefull!!!! Have a good read and have a great day:)
August 23, 2023
Interessantissimo saggio sul film "Gli uccelli" di Alfred Hitchcock in cui si mette in luce un ulteriore aspetto del genio (la messa in scena del potere sessuale femminile): "Hitchcock vede nelle donne ciò che hanno di magico: un potere sessuale al di là e al di sotto del sociale e del razionale".
June 11, 2021
Love this book almost as much as Hitchcock’s movie.
October 30, 2022
Reading Paglia is like witnessing a celebration of academic writing
March 6, 2012
This was such a pleasure. Camille walks the reader through each significant scene of this film, which is so full of puzzling implications, where nothing adds up neatly (so much of it is open to interpretation, and Tippi Hedren's journey goes in such odd directions, that it's still startling that Hitchcock managed to turn it into a mainstream hit), mixing standard critical observations with more personal responses. These are especially interesting regarding the women in the film, and how they interact. The human drama is partly there to lead the audience down one path, so that they could be all the more shocked by the sudden bursts of violence from the sky, but Hitchcock paid great care to this aspect of the film, resulting in a combination of elements that can really get under your skin.
Camille is attracted to aspects of Tippi Hedren's stunning performance that often get overlooked. She notices everything, from the way she holds her cigarettes, to the glances between the female characters that tell a story beyond the dialogue. In a Hitchcock film, with his intense interest in aspects of production that other directors ignored, its perfectly possible to read meaning into a leading lady's hairdo or handbag. Everything on screen was there for a reason that Hitch deemed proper for the emotional responses he was aiming to get. Camille understands this, and is obviously immensely fond of the film and it's leading lady. I've always loved this film, and throughout this whole book I felt gratitude that I was on the journey with Camille, and not your standard film critic.
Camille is attracted to aspects of Tippi Hedren's stunning performance that often get overlooked. She notices everything, from the way she holds her cigarettes, to the glances between the female characters that tell a story beyond the dialogue. In a Hitchcock film, with his intense interest in aspects of production that other directors ignored, its perfectly possible to read meaning into a leading lady's hairdo or handbag. Everything on screen was there for a reason that Hitch deemed proper for the emotional responses he was aiming to get. Camille understands this, and is obviously immensely fond of the film and it's leading lady. I've always loved this film, and throughout this whole book I felt gratitude that I was on the journey with Camille, and not your standard film critic.
July 17, 2010
This is the first book I have read by Camille Paglia and I was expecting something much different. This is a wonderful critique (more like a guided tour) of Hitchcock's The Birds . The Birds is one of my most cherished movies and I was dreading a feminist diatribe against it. I was delighted with the humor, incisiveness and respect that Paglia showed for the film. Every once in a while some strident comment slips out, but I forgave her mostly for her humor and love of the film - at one point she offers to sacrifice 'Iphiginia Brenner' in exchange for more scenes with the recently killed Annie Hayworth. Hilarious. She just hates Cathy and almost made me a partisan.
Her knowledge of the film is deep. She even interviewed Tippi Hedren in preparation. Her insights are fascinating and the parallels she draws within the film and to other Hitchcock films is never forced. I have seen The Birds at least thirty times and many of her observations made me see things for the first time.
I thoroughly enjoyed this volume and would be interested in reading more Paglia and also more in the BFI Film Classics series
Her knowledge of the film is deep. She even interviewed Tippi Hedren in preparation. Her insights are fascinating and the parallels she draws within the film and to other Hitchcock films is never forced. I have seen The Birds at least thirty times and many of her observations made me see things for the first time.
I thoroughly enjoyed this volume and would be interested in reading more Paglia and also more in the BFI Film Classics series
January 29, 2012
Camille Paglia writes in a perceptive and challenging manner on issues relating to gender. To her close reading of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1962), Paglia brings her truly impressive erudition, a comprehensive knowledge of how everything from art history to politics to sociology to biology can somehow be brought to bear on Hitchcock's classic suspense film about bird attacks in the northern California coastal town of Bodega Bay. Paglia's diligent research provides the reader with helpful tidbits of information that enhance and expand one's knowledge of the circumstances that prompted and influenced the making of The Birds, from a reproduction of a 1961 Santa Cruz Sentinel headline (a real-life bird incident that seems to have helped inspire the film) to an original interview with star Tippi Hedren that reveals much regarding the sometimes difficult circumstances of the film's production. Recommended for fans of Hitchcock's work generally, or of The Birds in particular.
November 1, 2007
Paglia's in-depth analysis of the Hitchcock classic is a real treat for fans of the movie. Rather than getting bogged down in dull film theory, she examines every detail of the film in order to show how each element, from Tippi Hedren's wardrobe to the Modigliani print on Suzanne Pleshette's wall, contributes to the overall themes of the film. Her shot-by-shot commentary leads the reader through the film and reveals the richness of Hitchcock's vision. Paglia's trademark irreverent humor is also in evidence: she remarks that she usually "cheers" when the character Cathy is first attacked by a gull, and later notes that she would gladly sacrifice Cathy "for more Suzanne Pleshette scenes." By focusing on the visual/aesthetic elements of the film, Paglia produces a highly-accessible work that celebrates the art of cinema and the art of Hitchcock.
August 15, 2012
Camille Paglia’s devotes an entire book on Hitchcock’s The Birds. One of the obvious challenges in dealing with a film that has been written about countless of times is to find something different here to say. Here, Paglia is concerned with discussing the history of the film, chronicling the entire plot and characters, all while providing and illuminating discussion and making the film experience her own. She does focus on the female aspects on the film, but with an obvious admiration of the film, which enables her dissect the film’s gender implications and suggest food for thought regarding what the film attempts to say about the women in the film and their role within society and family. Reading this book, ultimately, resembled revisiting an old classic with a film watching companion whose discussion and thoughts make the watching experience better.
November 1, 2012
As with all BFI books it's a little hard to critique something that's already a critique. But here goes. This was interesting but I wished the author would've gone into some of the technical aspects of the movie on top of the story and character. This is Hitchcock after all and there's precious little talk about how the movie was made. That said, this is an intelligent analysis of a great movie made more interesting in that it was written in 1998: pre-DVD and internet. This adds a layer that the author couldn't have predicted. What else is there to say? If you like the movie, you'll like the book.
December 28, 2008
Kind of thin on the analysis. Trudges through the movie scene by scene. Some interesting observations, but some of the interesting ones fall in the category of: Oh, that's the interesting point I would EXPECT Paglia to make. Have not read others in this series so I do not know if the restrictions were those of the series or the limits of the author's imagination when it came to this project...which feels like an assignment. But it HAS made me hunt down and put on my To Read list, DuMaurier's short story The Birds, set in Scotland!
March 8, 2016
An absolutely brilliant, frame-by-frame deconstruction of the Hitchcock classic. The fire-breathing critical faculties that made "Sexual Personae" so unforgettable a work of art and literary criticism are used to phenomenal effect here, and the reader will never view "The Birds" the same way again. Essential reading for Hitchcock and Paglia fans.
June 8, 2016
Insightful and fun. Paglia's myth-busting analyses delivered in her trademark un-P.C. style will trigger the callow but thrill the more sophisticated thinker.
I finally understand The Birds. The super glamazon of the world is put in her place on the pecking order by other lesser woman. Tippi is brilliant as the goddess cut to size by the women of Bodega Bay.
I finally understand The Birds. The super glamazon of the world is put in her place on the pecking order by other lesser woman. Tippi is brilliant as the goddess cut to size by the women of Bodega Bay.
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