Your top 5 five Hitchcock films
 

Here's my list (but it changes frequently):
The Rope
Psycho
Lady Vanishes
The Birds
Rear Window

1. Vertigo
2. Rear Window
3. Frenzy
4. North by Northwest
5. Rope

Frenzy - great use of London, actors who are not models - apart from Billie Whitelaw, and so brilliantly shot
Vertigo
Lady Vanishes
Strangers on a Train
Young and Innocent

1. Rope
2. Rear Window
3. Marnie
4. Psycho
5. Vertigo

I think I might be one of the only people who isn't that big a fan of Hitchcock. Anyway. Here's my list of 'faves':

1. The Birds
2. Vertigo
3. Psycho
4. The Trouble With Harry
5. Shadow of a Doubt

Well, rather, I'd rather watch the people he inspired, like DePalma and Argento. Not to take anything away from Hitchcock, he was one of the best directors of all time. I just prefer the directors who took his techniques and did crazy shit with them.

Although I probably don't quite share your enthusiasm for DePalma (who I don't like at all) or Argento (who I blow hot and cold over) I do see what you mean about Hitch's influence in some ways surpassing his actual movies.

He's clearly brilliant, but i think that's the problem. His films tend to make me think of intricate, perfectly tuned machines, where the components works in complete synchronicity with one another. As such, I can admire his movies, but tend to find them all a bit lifeless. The only one I really like is The Birds, simply because it seems to be his 'loosest'. For that reason I love what, for example, The Coen Brothers did with the film Blood Simple, or David Lynch with Blue Velvet, both of which seemed to take the skeleton of Hitch and then completely open it up and fuck with it, Shaolin necro-style.

You don't like DePalma at all? Hi Mom? Blow Out? Body Double? Sisters? Obsession? Dressed to Kill? Femme Fatale (so underrated!)? Yeah, he has a few stinkers.. but.....

OK, fair enough. I do quite like Blow Out, and Dressed to Kill is a great excuse for a wank, and I really like Hi, Mom and Greetings (his two least Hitch-like films). My problem with DePalma in terms of films like Body Double though is that he seems almost overawed by Hitchcock. It's like some undergraduate project in how to make a film as closely like Hitch's as possible. And he seems to pick up on the things about Hitchcock that I'm not that big a fan of in the first place: his taughtness.

EDIT: I keep forgetting that Scarface is a DePalma film, which I re-watched the other day and just thought was phenomenal.

Yeah, Scarface is amazing! I forgot about Greetings.... OH, what about Phantom of the Paradise, the best rock musical ever? How about Carlito's Way? How about the Untouchables? One talented, diverse, amazing director in my eyes. I even love Wise Guys! Let's not discuss Black Dahlia or Bonfire of the Vanities.........

I really love Body Double, it's such an obvious, obvious Hitchcock homage for a lot of it, but it's way dirtier and sleazier and sillier too. It's like if Hitchcock decided to direct a grindhouse film or something and still put all his little stylistic touches on sleaze. Haha.

I'm actually planning to watch Scarface again because I HATED it the first time round. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

Yeah. I went right off it for years. Then I watched it again, half expecting to hate it and just thought it was great.

Hmm. This is annoying because I'm having to back-pedal like a bastard here. Yep, Phantom of the Paradise is a great movie. Although I can at least partially adhere to my original position by saying that I don't understand the appeal of Carlito's Way at all, and as for The Untouchables ... I think I preferred Bonfire of the Vanities. I mean if you're gonna cock things up, then you may as well really cock them up.

But yeah, on further consideration, maybe I don't dislike DePalma nearly as much as I originally thought.

Thought we had done a favorite Hitchcock thread before anyways, in no order and based on the ones I've seen:

Notorious
North By Northwest
Rebecca
Rope
Psycho

Hmmm, let's see. I've seen Psycho, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo, The Birds, To Catch A Thief, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, and The Trouble With Harry.

I'd go
1. Psycho
2. North By Northwest
3. Rear Window
4. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Jimmy Stewart version)
5. Vertigo
6. Strangers on a Train
7. Shadow of a Doubt
8. The Man Who Knew Too Much (black and white version)
9. The Trouble With Harry
-everything else I've seen
last. The Birds


I need to watch some of his other movies, I know the 39 Steps is supposed to be awesome.

Hmmm, I hated the Birds.

The first version is kinda cheap, but there's a great scene in a church that makes the film worth watching to me (and it does not appear in the 56 version).

1. Vertigo
2-5. Not sure.

Which Hitchcock should I start with? Everyone seems to have a different favourite.

Blackmail: his first "talkie" (1929)
Very good imo.