0:00:20 > 0:00:23Known to millions across the world as the master of suspense,
0:00:23 > 0:00:28Alfred Hitchcock wasn't just one of Britain's greatest film directors,
0:00:28 > 0:00:30he was one of the most influential
0:00:30 > 0:00:33moviemakers in cinema history.
0:00:34 > 0:00:39Hitchcock's career spanned 50 years from the 1920s to the 1970s
0:00:39 > 0:00:45and in every decade of that period, he created classic after classic.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49He manipulated audiences with movies that were popular,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53pioneering, menacing and macabre,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55and all stamped with his own distinctly,
0:00:55 > 0:01:00visual style and gallows humour.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Hitchcock was also a master self-publicist.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06The cameo appearances he made in most of his films
0:01:06 > 0:01:08and his popular television series,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Alfred Hitchcock Presents, helped to turn him
0:01:11 > 0:01:15into a figure as recognisable as many of the stars of his pictures.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20By the 1960s, at the time of these interviews,
0:01:20 > 0:01:22his image as a manipulator who controlled
0:01:22 > 0:01:27audiences like a puppeteer was well established.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30But as well as playing up to that reputation,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33the conversations also reveal some of his storytelling techniques
0:01:33 > 0:01:37and his passion about cinema as an art form.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43Let's start, Mr Hitchcock,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45by discussing this whole business of frightening audiences.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Do you find that audiences
0:01:48 > 0:01:50are frightened by different things now
0:01:50 > 0:01:52from the things that frightened them
0:01:52 > 0:01:56when you started, what 30 years ago, 35 years ago making films?
0:01:56 > 0:01:57No, I wouldn't say so because after
0:01:57 > 0:02:00all they were frightened as children.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05You have to remember it's all based on Red Riding Hood, you see.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08Nothing has changed since Red Riding Hood.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11What they're frightened of today are exactly the same things
0:02:11 > 0:02:14they were frightened of yesterday.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Because this, shall we call it,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21this fright complex is rooted in every individual.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Do you think when making films, that women are frightened
0:02:27 > 0:02:31by different things from the things that frighten men?
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Erm, oh, I would say so, yes.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39I would definitely say that, after all, women are frightened by a mouse.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44You don't see men jumping on chairs and screaming.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48- There are definitely different things.- So when you make a film,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50are you setting out to frighten men, or women?
0:02:50 > 0:02:55Women, because 80% of the audience in the cinema are women.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Erm, because you see, even if the house is 50/50,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05half men, half women,
0:03:05 > 0:03:11a good percentage of the men has said to his girl,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15being on the make, of course, "What do you want to see, dear?"
0:03:15 > 0:03:19So that's where her influence comes, as well.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Men have very little to do with the choice of the film.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26When it comes to audiences in different
0:03:26 > 0:03:30parts of the world, take American audiences against British audiences,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33instead of men and women for a moment.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Erm, bearing in mind your Red Riding Hood point
0:03:35 > 0:03:38where we're all frightened by the great, simple things.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Are American audiences frightened by different things from European audiences?
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Er, I would say, no.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51You've got to remember the American audience is the global audience.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56As I once reminded an Englishman, I said you don't understand America,
0:03:56 > 0:04:01because you think they are Americans but they're not.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04America is full of foreigners.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08They're all foreigners since 1776.
0:04:08 > 0:04:14Therefore, whatever frightens the Americans, frightens the Italians,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19the Romanians, the Danes and everyone else, you know, from Europe.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Do you think that it does an injustice to you,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26simply to think of you as a man who, above all else,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29has frightened the wits out of audiences?
0:04:29 > 0:04:34Yes, but you have to remember that this process of frightening
0:04:34 > 0:04:38is done by means of a given medium.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42The medium of pure cinema, is what I believe in.
0:04:42 > 0:04:48Erm, the assembly of pieces of film to create fright,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51is the essential part of my job.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Just as much as a painter would,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59by putting certain colours together,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01create evil on canvas.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Now you would go as far as that, would you, to say that to create
0:05:07 > 0:05:10fright is an essential, or THE essential part of my job?
0:05:12 > 0:05:13- Of my job?- Yes.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Only in terms of the audience expect it from me.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Let me put it in another way,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25you're a master, aren't you, of the unexpected?
0:05:25 > 0:05:30That's only because one's challenged by the audience.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35They're saying to me, "Show us" and I know what's coming next.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37I say, "Do you?"
0:05:37 > 0:05:42Therefore, that's the avoidance of the cliche, automatically.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46They are expecting the cliche and I have to say,
0:05:46 > 0:05:48"We cannot have a cliche here."
0:05:50 > 0:05:53When you talk about putting bits of film together,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58and then creating in terms of what you call pure cinema,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01the sequence that you're going for,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04I can imagine that it must've been a bit of a shock to you,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06personally, when talkies came?
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Because, in a sense, you're talking almost about
0:06:10 > 0:06:12a classical technique, aren't you?
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Well, the only thing wrong with the silent picture
0:06:15 > 0:06:19was that mouths opened and no sound came out.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Unfortunately, when talk came in,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27the vulgarians, the money changers of the industry,
0:06:27 > 0:06:33immediately commenced a cash-in by photographing stage plays.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37That took the whole thing away from cinema completely.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41It's like a lot of film one sees today, not that I see very many,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45but to me they're what I call photographs of people
0:06:45 > 0:06:50talking and bears no relation to the art of the cinema.
0:06:50 > 0:06:56The point is, that the power of cinema, in its purest form,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59is so vast because it can go over the whole world.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04On a given night, a film can play in Tokyo, West Berlin,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06London, New York,
0:07:06 > 0:07:13and the same audience is responding emotionally to the same things.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15No other medium can do this.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18The theatre, doesn't do it because you have got different
0:07:18 > 0:07:22sets of people but remember, in a film, they are the same actors.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28A book is translated. How well do we know? I don't know.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32The risk is in translating even a film, what they call dubbing,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36you know, there's liable to be a loss and therefore
0:07:36 > 0:07:39when one's thinking of a film, globally,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43the talk is reduced to a minimum and, if possible,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48tell the story visually and let the talk be part of the atmosphere.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Is it true that you are yourself, erm...?
0:07:53 > 0:07:56I've seen it in newspaper cuttings and this kind of thing,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59that you are yourself a great expert on crime?
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Well, do you mean in committing it?
0:08:03 > 0:08:05I wasn't suggesting - no, no.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07HE LAUGHS
0:08:07 > 0:08:10As a detective, you mean, on that side?
0:08:10 > 0:08:16No, no, I'm interested and, I suppose one has at one's fingertips
0:08:16 > 0:08:20all the details of the famous cases of the past
0:08:20 > 0:08:24and I've often used examples, pieces of them in film.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28- For example, in the film Rear Window. - Yes, I remember well.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31There are two passages in it
0:08:31 > 0:08:34which come from famous English crime.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38A Crippen case, I used a bit of that
0:08:38 > 0:08:40and the Patrick Mahon case, you know.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43Mahon was a man who killed a girl
0:08:43 > 0:08:45and then cut her up into pieces
0:08:45 > 0:08:49and threw the flesh out of the window from a train
0:08:49 > 0:08:52between Eastbourne and London,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55but his great problem was what to do with the head.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59That's what I put in the Rear Window with the dog sniffing the flower bed.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01And erm...
0:09:01 > 0:09:05I remember I was making a movie years ago
0:09:05 > 0:09:09and I employed, as a technical advisor,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13a man who was one of the big four at Scotland Yard.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15He was on this case.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20This man, Mahon, didn't know what to do with the head
0:09:20 > 0:09:23so put it into a fire grate and put a fire under it.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26There was a big storm going on outside,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29it was The Crumbles at Eastbourne on the beach.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32The heat, while this thunder and lightning was going on,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35it was awfully terribly melodramatic,
0:09:35 > 0:09:39the heat under the head caused the eyes to open.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42This poor man ran out into the storm
0:09:42 > 0:09:47and came back in the morning when the fire had done its job.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49This particular superintendent,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51ex-superintendent rather of Scotland Yard,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54told me that he went to the butchers and got a sheep's head
0:09:54 > 0:09:58and put it in the grate to test the time it would take to burn.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01So the head business went into this picture.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05What frightens you, personally, Mr Hitchcock, if anything?
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Any trouble frightens me.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11I was once asked, "What is your idea of happiness?"
0:10:11 > 0:10:14And I said, "A clear horizon."
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Two years after that interview,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19Hitchcock was being questioned again,
0:10:19 > 0:10:24this time by Philip Jenkinson, for the programme Profile.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Do you dream vividly?
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Er... Reasonably so.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35Yes, I think that's almost the basis of one's work
0:10:35 > 0:10:41is the making of nightmares with as much realism as you can.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45- Just as in a dream, it is extremely vivid.- Mm.
0:10:45 > 0:10:50After all, when you're on your way to the gallows in the dream, it is
0:10:50 > 0:10:53so vivid that you're glad when you wake up.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58Have you ever studied, seriously that is, psychological textbooks?
0:10:58 > 0:10:59No.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01I was present a year or
0:11:01 > 0:11:05so ago at a group therapy meeting at a mental hospital where doctors
0:11:05 > 0:11:09and patients alike, I'm afraid, tore Psycho to shreds
0:11:09 > 0:11:11and said that in their opinion,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14it had set back the cause of mental health several years.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18How do you answer critics who say things like this?
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Well, I don't know, um...
0:11:20 > 0:11:24..who they were because people, you know,
0:11:24 > 0:11:30often complain about the effect of films on certain minds,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33but they generalise about this.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36I have to ask them - what minds does it affect?
0:11:36 > 0:11:41When Psycho was made, a man was arrested for murder
0:11:41 > 0:11:47in Los Angeles and he had confessed to killing three women.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50The last murder he committed, he said,
0:11:50 > 0:11:56was influenced by the fact that he had just seen Psycho.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01So naturally, the newspapers got on to me and asked for my comment.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05And I said, "What film did he see when he murdered the second woman?
0:12:05 > 0:12:10"And am I to assume that when he murdered the first woman,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13"he had just finished drinking a glass of milk?"
0:12:13 > 0:12:14Very good answer!
0:12:14 > 0:12:18So, when they say it set it back, what minds were set back?
0:12:18 > 0:12:20Yes, I see the point.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24You see, people always generalise and of course,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27it's the sick mind that is affected by these things.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32- The mind that is already sick long before it sees it, you mean?- Well...
0:12:32 > 0:12:38You know, people, to me, when they complain, say, about Psycho,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42- they lack the sense of humour that I had to have when I made it.- Yes.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Because you couldn't make a picture like Psycho
0:12:45 > 0:12:47without your tongue in your cheek.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49In 1970,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Hitchcock was a special guest of the National Film Theatre where
0:12:52 > 0:12:55he faced questions from an audience of admirers
0:12:55 > 0:12:59and from another British director, the late Bryan Forbes.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01APPLAUSE
0:13:09 > 0:13:13These steps were terribly awkward coming down.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18One had to step them one by one and it reminded me
0:13:18 > 0:13:23of the old lady who was walking with one foot on the kerb and one foot in
0:13:23 > 0:13:26the road and they said to her,
0:13:26 > 0:13:28"Why are you walking like that?"
0:13:28 > 0:13:30She said, "Oh, I thought I was lame!"
0:13:30 > 0:13:33LAUGHTER
0:13:35 > 0:13:39This is obviously going to be my absolute downfall, this interview.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42So I approach you really as the depressed areas'
0:13:42 > 0:13:44David Frost, Mr Hitchcock.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47I don't want to ask you any of the questions I'm sure have bored
0:13:47 > 0:13:50you over the years, I'll try and avoid them anyway.
0:13:50 > 0:13:56What interests me, to start the ball rolling, I'm fascinated by writers'
0:13:56 > 0:14:00diaries, by writers' notebooks, and therefore, as a fellow director,
0:14:00 > 0:14:05I'm fascinated at the point where you feel yourself committed.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Is it in the script, is it in the first day,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09is it long before the script?
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Where do you think it all starts for you?
0:14:12 > 0:14:19Well, for me, it all starts with the basic material first.
0:14:19 > 0:14:26Now, the question when you have your basic material,
0:14:26 > 0:14:32you may have a novel, you may have a play, you can have an original
0:14:32 > 0:14:37idea, you can have just a couple of sentences,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41and from that, the film begins.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45Now, I work very closely with the writer
0:14:45 > 0:14:51and begin to construct the film on paper.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56From the very beginning, we say, we roughly sketch in the whole
0:14:56 > 0:15:00shape of the film and then begin from the beginning.
0:15:00 > 0:15:07And you end up with say 100 pages, or maybe even more, of narrative,
0:15:07 > 0:15:12which is very bad reading for a litterateur.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17I mean, there are no descriptions of any kind, no, for example,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19"He wondered..."
0:15:19 > 0:15:23Cos you can't photograph "He wondered..."
0:15:23 > 0:15:26- No "camera pans right" or any of that.- Not at that stage.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Not at that stage, no.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34It is though you were looking at the film on the screen
0:15:34 > 0:15:37and the sound was turned off.
0:15:37 > 0:15:43And therefore, to me, this is the first stage.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49Now, the reason for it is this, it is to urge one, to drive one,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53to make one, work purely in the visual.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56And not rely upon words at all.
0:15:56 > 0:16:02Because I'm still a purist and I do believe that film,
0:16:02 > 0:16:07being the newest art of the 20th century,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11is a series of images projected on a screen
0:16:11 > 0:16:18and this succession of images create ideas, which in their turn
0:16:18 > 0:16:23create emotion, just as much as in literature,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27words put together create sentences and so on and so forth.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31Do you think, at that stage, in black and white
0:16:31 > 0:16:33or is your preference for colour?
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Do you find yourself thinking in terms of black and white images?
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Not at all.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43No, the colour is part of the structure.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46In other words, you restrain colour,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50bring it in when it's necessary,
0:16:50 > 0:16:56but don't orchestrate it so loudly that later on you may use
0:16:56 > 0:17:02it in a word, a mixed metaphor, you've exploded your gunpowder.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Yes, I mean, there was something behind that question because,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09if I may be so bold, I thought there was only one of your films
0:17:09 > 0:17:11which leaps to mind, which I thought
0:17:11 > 0:17:14would have been better in black and white and that was The Birds.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17I don't know why. This is only a personal preference.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20I would have preferred to have seen that film in black and white.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22I wondered why you opted for colour.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Well, strangely enough you should ask me that,
0:17:25 > 0:17:30I opted for colour because the birds were black and white. LAUGHTER
0:17:30 > 0:17:33- APPLAUSE - Yes.
0:17:33 > 0:17:39So that the faces of the people involved would be
0:17:39 > 0:17:41separated from the birds.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44SCREAMS
0:17:50 > 0:17:54BIRDS SCREECH AND CHILDREN CRY
0:18:06 > 0:18:08SHE SOBS
0:18:11 > 0:18:14CAR HORN
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Yes, my question was really more technical because I felt the
0:18:33 > 0:18:36technique of the birds, the phoney birds, would have been
0:18:36 > 0:18:40perhaps less obvious to me if they'd have been in black and white.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43That was the only thing that I...
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Well, we actually used real birds.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48There were no mechanical birds used at all.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53There were one or two wooden ones or stationary ones, weren't there?
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Er... We hope that it deceived the eye.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59LAUGHTER
0:18:59 > 0:19:04That was purely a matter of quantity rather than quality.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07LAUGHTER
0:19:08 > 0:19:12When you say you start with a script, how many...
0:19:12 > 0:19:15I know my own case, the amount of, as it were,
0:19:15 > 0:19:17stillborn children one has.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20How many times do you think, in your career,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23have you started off with what hopefully you thought was
0:19:23 > 0:19:26something that was going to excite you and alas have had to abandon it?
0:19:26 > 0:19:27Oh, many times.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32In the last two years, I've abandoned two projects
0:19:32 > 0:19:37and the point is you get so far and you realise it's not going to
0:19:37 > 0:19:40work out, so it's better to lose
0:19:40 > 0:19:44150,000 or 200,000 than two million.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47- Yes.- Just dump it and let it go.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50MURMURS OF LAUGHTER
0:19:50 > 0:19:54I've often found myself, and perhaps you have had the same
0:19:54 > 0:19:58experience, that although we dump things, certain things...
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Part of the egg remains and continues to gestate
0:20:01 > 0:20:04and we pull them out of a drawer, out of our subconscious,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07years later and use them in a different context.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10- Does that happen to you?- No, it doesn't happen to me.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15The only thing that I pigeonhole are certain ideas that belong to
0:20:15 > 0:20:21a certain genre picture, the adventure, for example.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26You store up an idea and you put it away and one day it will come out.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30For example, in a picture like North By Northwest, I'd
0:20:30 > 0:20:34waited about 15 years to put Mount Rushmore on the screen.
0:20:34 > 0:20:35Yes.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38So you keep it back in your mind.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out
0:20:42 > 0:20:44because storing this scene up
0:20:44 > 0:20:48and having the pleasure of anticipating the use of it,
0:20:48 > 0:20:52the Department of Interiors step in and say,
0:20:52 > 0:20:57"You mustn't have any character climbing over
0:20:57 > 0:21:01"the faces of the presidents." You say, "Why not?"
0:21:01 > 0:21:05They say, "Oh, because this is the shrine of democracy."
0:21:05 > 0:21:06LAUGHTER
0:21:06 > 0:21:11"You must only have your characters sliding or
0:21:11 > 0:21:14"chasing between their heads."
0:21:14 > 0:21:17And I was completely defeated because I had a lovely idea,
0:21:17 > 0:21:22which I thought, of Cary Grant sliding down Lincoln's nose.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24LAUGHTER
0:21:24 > 0:21:28And then, hiding in the nostril.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30LAUGHTER
0:21:30 > 0:21:32A Kleenex ad.
0:21:32 > 0:21:38And the man in search of him is in the vicinity, but unfortunately,
0:21:38 > 0:21:43Cary Grant hiding in the nostril begins to have a sneezing fit.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45- LAUGHTER - Marvellous.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48And I was never allowed to do it.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52Well, shall we invite some questions from the audience?
0:21:52 > 0:21:55- Yes, let's do that. - On what we've discussed so far.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57Um... That one.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01I wondered had you ever been tempted to step outside
0:22:01 > 0:22:05the sort of thriller limitation and do something completely different,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07or is it the attraction...
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Is the limitation the attraction to do something new?
0:22:10 > 0:22:16It's not for me. It's the public, you see.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19If I made, for example, a musical...
0:22:19 > 0:22:21LAUGHTER
0:22:21 > 0:22:26..the public would wonder - when will the moment come when one of the...
0:22:26 > 0:22:28LAUGHTER
0:22:28 > 0:22:32..when one of the chorus girls will drop dead?
0:22:32 > 0:22:34LAUGHTER And what from?
0:22:34 > 0:22:38LAUGHTER
0:22:38 > 0:22:43The gentleman at the back, next to the lady in green. Yes, you, sir.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Apart from self-satisfaction, Mr Hitchcock,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49what is your basic motive for making the films that you do make?
0:22:49 > 0:22:50Basic motive?
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Money.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55LAUGHTER
0:22:55 > 0:22:58There's an old expression which says,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02"All work and no play, makes Jack."
0:23:03 > 0:23:07LAUGHTER
0:23:09 > 0:23:16Mr Hitchcock, you said that you have in your mental back drawer, mental
0:23:16 > 0:23:20bottom drawer, if you like, a series of bizarre locations or backdrops.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Which one would you most like to use in your films
0:23:24 > 0:23:26and haven't had yet the opportunity to do so?
0:23:26 > 0:23:32Well, I once had an idea that I would like to open a film,
0:23:32 > 0:23:36say at the Covent Garden Opera or the Metropolitan
0:23:36 > 0:23:43or at the Scala in Milan, and Maria Callas is on the stage,
0:23:43 > 0:23:50singing an aria and her head is tilted upwards and she sees
0:23:50 > 0:23:57in a box way up a man approach the back of another man and stab him.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01She is just reaching a high note.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03LAUGHTER
0:24:03 > 0:24:08And the high note turns to a scream
0:24:08 > 0:24:11and it's the highest note she's ever sung in her life.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14LAUGHTER
0:24:14 > 0:24:18The result of which, she gets a huge round of applause.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21LAUGHTER
0:24:23 > 0:24:26I don't know the rest. LAUGHTER
0:24:26 > 0:24:29APPLAUSE
0:24:29 > 0:24:31Make that one for me. I'll buy that.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Um... Just up here, yes.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38No, the lady, please. Sorry.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42Mr Hitchcock, I wanted to know, as I was scared stiff by Psycho,
0:24:42 > 0:24:44what frightens you?
0:24:44 > 0:24:46Policemen frighten me.
0:24:46 > 0:24:47LAUGHTER
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Er... No, the...
0:24:51 > 0:24:54- Not English policemen, surely? - Oh, the worst!
0:24:54 > 0:24:56LAUGHTER
0:24:56 > 0:24:59APPLAUSE
0:24:59 > 0:25:01Because they're so polite.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03LAUGHTER
0:25:03 > 0:25:07Mr Hitchcock, you seem to have a very nice sense of humour,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09which you obviously had before you established
0:25:09 > 0:25:12yourself as a thriller, directing thrillers.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15How come you've never had any comedies?
0:25:15 > 0:25:18But every film I make IS a comedy.
0:25:18 > 0:25:19LAUGHTER
0:25:19 > 0:25:21APPLAUSE
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Mr Hitchcock, could you tell us
0:25:23 > 0:25:27when you first had the idea of appearing in all your films?
0:25:27 > 0:25:30I think it started with The Lodger. And could you tell us why?
0:25:30 > 0:25:33I don't know of any other filmmaker that does it.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36No, in those early days, we ran out of actors.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37LAUGHTER
0:25:37 > 0:25:39That's really true.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43Have you ever bothered to join Equity?
0:25:43 > 0:25:46No, I think they pay a stand-in for me.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48- Are they after you?- Oh, yes!
0:25:48 > 0:25:50LAUGHTER
0:25:52 > 0:25:57Gentlemen in the centre here, or the lady. Were there two hands went up?
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Was it yours, madam? Yes, please.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05Which of your films gave you the most personal satisfaction and why?
0:26:05 > 0:26:06Probably two films.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10The first one is a picture called Shadow Of A Doubt,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14which I wrote with Thornton Wilder and this was one of those rare
0:26:14 > 0:26:20occasions when suspense and melodrama combined well with character.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24And it was shot in the original town
0:26:24 > 0:26:28and at that time they were shooting an awful lot on the back lot.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32So it had a freshness.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35The other film was Rear Window because, to me,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39that's probably the most cinematic film one has made.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44And most people don't really recognise this
0:26:44 > 0:26:49because the man is in one room and in one position,
0:26:49 > 0:26:55but nevertheless, it's the montage and the cutting of what he sees
0:26:55 > 0:27:01and its effect on him that creates the whole atmosphere
0:27:01 > 0:27:04and drama of the film.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10In other words, the visual is transferred to emotional ideas
0:27:10 > 0:27:14and that film lends itself to that.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16Would you say, Mr Hitchcock, it would be fair
0:27:16 > 0:27:21comment to say that your films have never really been concerned
0:27:21 > 0:27:27with social consciousness, as we now bandy around the term?
0:27:27 > 0:27:30You haven't really taken note of your own times.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34- You've ploughed your own furrow, as it were.- That's true.
0:27:34 > 0:27:40Samuel Goldwyn once said, "Messages are for Western Union."
0:27:40 > 0:27:42LAUGHTER
0:27:42 > 0:27:44APPLAUSE
0:27:44 > 0:27:47Yes, I don't think the applause is actually well placed
0:27:47 > 0:27:51because not all films that fall into that category are necessarily
0:27:51 > 0:27:54bad films and Goldwyn was getting a cheap laugh really,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58which has echoed down the years, and may bury him.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03What I meant was, a subject came my way, which is an American subject,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07and would seem to me, on the face of it, to be ideally suited for you.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10It's a true life thing, it's called Witness To A Killing,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14and it's based on that New York murder where 56 people saw
0:28:14 > 0:28:18a girl stabbed to death in the street and did nothing about it.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Would that sort of subject attract you at all?
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Yes, except that it is an objective approach
0:28:26 > 0:28:31and it would be very hard to get an audience involved in it.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34- That's interesting. - It would be hard to...
0:28:34 > 0:28:37It would be objective, from an audience point of view.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41They would be examining the behaviour
0:28:41 > 0:28:45patterns of the people who witnessed it.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50And therefore, the comment would be - can you imagine how
0:28:50 > 0:28:55irresponsible people are when it comes to being involved?
0:28:55 > 0:28:58- They'd rather not be involved.- Yes.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02But the comment would come from the onlooker,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06rather than providing them with any particular emotion.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11Do you get any of your ideas or stories from headlines?
0:29:11 > 0:29:15Sometimes, yes. I made a picture, Wrong Man, once,
0:29:15 > 0:29:20which was a recount of an actual case of wrongful arrest.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25I shot it in the actual places where everything occurred.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29Even, I was allowed to photograph the trial in the same courtroom,
0:29:29 > 0:29:34with the judge sitting beside me as technical adviser.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38And people kept coming up and whispering to me, saying,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41"The judge is wrong. The judge is wrong."
0:29:41 > 0:29:42LAUGHTER
0:29:42 > 0:29:47We had to wait until the judge went out of the court to put things right.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49LAUGHTER
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Take another question from there.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54Mr Hitchcock, what do you think of the current
0:29:54 > 0:29:58trend in the cinema towards nudity and frank love scenes,
0:29:58 > 0:30:02and how will it affect you in the future in your filmmaking?
0:30:02 > 0:30:03Your own appearances?
0:30:03 > 0:30:06LAUGHTER
0:30:06 > 0:30:08- You mean, in the nude?- Yes. - LAUGHTER
0:30:08 > 0:30:13- When can we expect your first nude appearance?- Never!
0:30:13 > 0:30:19I think that's a passing phase. After all, how far can you go with nudity?
0:30:19 > 0:30:22Or sexual relations?
0:30:22 > 0:30:25You know, it would seem that we're all waiting for that
0:30:25 > 0:30:30zoom in to a close up of the sexual act.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32And how close can we get to it?
0:30:32 > 0:30:36Once you've reached that point, then where do you go?
0:30:36 > 0:30:39After all, it makes no difference to me
0:30:39 > 0:30:42because that scene I've already done.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47I did it in the end of a picture called North By Northwest.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51Where I showed Cary Grant pull a girl into an upper berth
0:30:51 > 0:30:55and I cut to the phallic train entering the tunnel.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59LAUGHTER
0:30:59 > 0:31:01APPLAUSE
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Well, Mr Hitchcock, on behalf of this collective audience,
0:31:05 > 0:31:10I'm sure they'd wish me to thank you for your usual inspired
0:31:10 > 0:31:12and urbane performance.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16For myself, I can't say I've actually sat at the feet
0:31:16 > 0:31:21of the master, but in years to come I can say I shared a sofa with you.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24I'm very privileged. Thank you very much.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26APPLAUSE
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Two years later, Hitchcock was interviewed again,
0:31:29 > 0:31:34talking about a film now considered one of his last great pictures -
0:31:34 > 0:31:35Frenzy.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38A certain amount of the press reviews,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41while commenting on the comedy of those scenes, have also commented
0:31:41 > 0:31:45on the violence of the first killing in particular, the overt violence
0:31:45 > 0:31:48and suggested that perhaps you needn't have been
0:31:48 > 0:31:51- quite as explicit as you were. - Why not?
0:31:51 > 0:31:54What is worth doing is worth doing well.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57There wasn't a feeling that you had to live up to Straw Dogs or
0:31:57 > 0:31:59to a new feeling of violence in the cinema?
0:31:59 > 0:32:01I've never seen Straw Dogs.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04So I wouldn't know anything about that.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08I never copy other films ever
0:32:08 > 0:32:14because I usually spend most of the time avoiding the cliche.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19For example, in North By Northwest, I had to put the hero,
0:32:19 > 0:32:25Cary Grant, on the spot, so the cliche would have been
0:32:25 > 0:32:32putting him under a lamp, wet roads, a pool of light,
0:32:32 > 0:32:38a black cat slithering along the wall, a face peering from a window,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40and a black limousine coming along.
0:32:40 > 0:32:46I decided against all that as being the worst kind of cliche for this
0:32:46 > 0:32:53scene, so I decided to do it in the open, bright sunshine, without a tree
0:32:53 > 0:32:58or a house in sight, and then out of nowhere comes a crop-duster
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and chases him around.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05Immediately, that has now become a cliche because the next time
0:33:05 > 0:33:10you saw it was in a Bond picture when Bond was chased by a helicopter.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14You saw a French picture called That Man From Rio,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18where a man is chased by a motorboat.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23Then, in a later film, you saw a man chased by a car.
0:33:23 > 0:33:30So, what was once the avoidance of a cliche has become a cliche.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33I don't think anyone would doubt the tremendous influence you've
0:33:33 > 0:33:36had on other films and other filmmakers, but this in fact
0:33:36 > 0:33:39is the first film you've made in England for something like 20 years.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42- That's right. - What made you come back now?
0:33:42 > 0:33:48The story lends itself to that occasion. No other reason.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52You've cast this film with a great many distinguished character
0:33:52 > 0:33:57- actors, but no stars. - It wasn't necessary.
0:33:57 > 0:34:03I thought that the story would benefit by being a little more
0:34:03 > 0:34:06realistic, especially in America.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09They won't know the people at all.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Is there a feeling that the film will be your film
0:34:12 > 0:34:14- and that you will be the star? - Entirely, yes. Sure.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17- And that's the way you'd like it? - I think so, yes.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19Looking back on the film now,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22are you completely happy with the way it's turned out?
0:34:22 > 0:34:27Pretty well, yes. It was laid out very meticulously to start with.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32And it followed the desired pattern.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36How much do you mind what critics do talk about in the context
0:34:36 > 0:34:40- of your films?- Well, they tend to talk about content,
0:34:40 > 0:34:46rather than the treatment and they worry about the content.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48I don't.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53Any more than if I were a painter, painting say a plate of apples,
0:34:53 > 0:34:58worrying whether the apples are sweet or sour.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01The reason I ask is that very often your films open to a rather
0:35:01 > 0:35:04mild reception and then after about five years,
0:35:04 > 0:35:06they're suddenly rediscovered.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10Always. It takes a year for them to become a classic.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12Psycho is a typical example.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15When that film was reviewed,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18it was said of it, "This film is
0:35:18 > 0:35:25"a blot on an honourable career," and yet, within a year, it's a classic.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28Do you think the same thing will happen to Frenzy?
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Not quite so much.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34No, there have been...rather responsible
0:35:34 > 0:35:36reviews on the picture,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39I don't know whether you've read them all.
0:35:39 > 0:35:40Yes, I have.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43But where do you rate it in your own hierarchy of films?
0:35:43 > 0:35:49I rate it alongside Rear Window and pictures like that.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53But what got you into thrillers in the first place?
0:35:53 > 0:35:56The same that got other litterateurs
0:35:56 > 0:36:00and other English creators into the field.
0:36:00 > 0:36:06After all, in England, the thriller or the suspense story,
0:36:06 > 0:36:13you've got John Buchan, or Conan Doyle, it's first class literature.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15Whereas in America, it's not.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18And yet, once you'd made your name in this country,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22- as a maker of thrillers, you did in fact go to America.- That's right.
0:36:22 > 0:36:29- Was that by choice?- Oh, yes, because it was a challenge to go there.
0:36:29 > 0:36:35My problem with America was to make them recognise that the thriller
0:36:35 > 0:36:42was an important genre of film to make and need not be a cheap thing.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46When you're not making thrillers in California,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49what kind of life do you lead away from the studios?
0:36:49 > 0:36:53I stay at home. And go to bed at nine.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56And read.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59- Not thrillers.- Not thrillers?- No.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02- Alfred Hitchcock, thank you. - Delighted.
0:37:04 > 0:37:10After Frenzy, Hitchcock made only one more film -
0:37:10 > 0:37:131976's Family Plot.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15In 1979, he received
0:37:15 > 0:37:18the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22He joked that it must mean he'd be dead soon.
0:37:22 > 0:37:27And he did die the following year, of kidney failure, aged 80.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33Just a few months earlier, he'd been knighted by the Queen
0:37:33 > 0:37:36and became Sir Alfred Hitchcock.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40His many admirers called it a long overdue
0:37:40 > 0:37:44but fitting title for the man who was, after all,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48Britain's greatest single contribution to world cinema.