Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock     

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, born 13 August 1899 and died 29 April 1980, was an English film director and producer whose films mainly focused on the psychological thriller genre.

After a successful career in British cinema filming both the original silent films and early sound films, renowned as England's best director, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955.

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories often feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime. Many of the mysteries, however, are used as decoys or MacGuffins that serve the film's themes and the psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual overtones.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." The magazine MovieMaker has described him as the most influential filmmaker of all time, and he is widely regarded as one of cinema's most significant artists.

His films are widely famous and is regarded as one of "the greatest artists of this century." Films such as:

Alfred Hitchock had also a film dedicated to him after he died named Hitchcock. Starring Antony Hopkins and Helan Mirron, the film was a 2012 American biographical comedy-drama directed by Sascha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.