As Hitchcock (starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren) gets its cinematic release this week (February 8th), it’s the perfect time to dip into The Space, the on-demand digital arts service developed by Arts Council England in partnership with the BBC, to enjoy a set of specially commissioned short films from the BFI giving context to the Master of Suspense and his early work. They’re a must for anyone who loves Hitchcock and his films and who might have missed them when they were first published on The Space.
The set of short films include:
1. Alfred Hitchcock from the archive
Hitchcock gives a fascinating insight into the workings of Hollywood, talking candidly about stars’ salaries and the difficulty of working with well-known actors.
2. Hitchcock at the Picture Palace
Historians Henry K Miller and Matthew Sweet whisk you back to 1920s Britain – the era of the picture palace that saw the young Hitchcock establish himself as an innovative and ambitious filmmaker.
3. Seeds of genius the Pleasure Gardens
In this short film, the film historian Charles Barr and the BFI’s silent film curator Bryony Dixon explore the genesis of Hitchcock’s unique style of visual storytelling during these early years.
4. Restoring The Pleasure Garden
With the help of the restoration team from the BFI National Archive this video tells the unique story of how Hitchcock’s first film has been restored to its former glory, almost a century after it was made.
5. Scoring The Pleasure Garden
This short film follows composer Daniel Patrick Cohen journey to create a new score for the BFI’s recent restoration of The Pleasure Garden (1925).
Watch here:
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