Director Series - Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Birth Name: Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
Birth Date: August 13, 1899
Birth Place: Leytonstone, Essex, England
Date Of Death: April 29, 1980
Features Directed: 54
Features I've Seen: 23 (43%)


Alfred Hitchcock began his career in movies when he was 20 years old.  He began working for Islington Studios in London as a title card designer for silent films.  Within five years he became a jack-of-all-trades as he took jobs as a screenwriter, art director and assistant director.  His first feature film he was allowed to direct, Number 13, went unfinished.  Three years later, in 1925, Hitch directed his first complete feature film, The Pleasure Garden, which turned out to be a big flop in London.  His first real success came a couple of years later, in 1927, when he made The Lodger, a movie that portrayed the chase of a serial killer around London.  This would be the first time, in a career that would span 50 years, where Alfred Hitchcock would be known as "The Master Of Suspense".  While in London, he would go on to make many critically acclaimed and audience pleasing films up until 1939, when he moved to Hollywood.  His first feature in the States, Rebecca, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.  From then on he would direct some of the most beloved, darkly humorous, suspense-filled movies ever captured on celluloid.  He was nominated for five Academy Awards in the category of Best Director but never won.  In 1968 he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his life's contribution to making films.  Although I have seen less than half of all his feature films (some of the early ones are hard to find!), Alfred Hitchcock remains one of my favourite directors for his ingenuity, his darkness, and his ability to make us laugh when we probably shouldn't.  What follows is a list of Alfred Hitchcock's movies I've seen, listed in three different categories, chronologically.  (imdb.com score in brackets):


MUST SEE
The Man Who Knew Too Much - 1934 (6.9): The original that should have been left alone.  Peter Lorre is great!!
The 39 Steps - 1935 (7.8): Intriguing from start to finish, just a fabulous thriller for it's day, and still.
The Lady Vanishes - 1938 (8.0): Another constant thrill-ride with fabulous spots of humour.
Shadow Of A Doubt - 1943 (8.0): The two Charlies causing havoc!
Strangers On A Train - 1951 (8.1): Criss-cross murders, an unbelievable merry-go-round scene and Robert Walker stealing the show.
Dial M For Murder - 1954 (8.2): Grace Kelly and Ray Milland are incredible.  Hitchcock really plays up the suspense in this one.
Rear Window - 1954 (8.5): Easily my favourite of all his films.  Perfect from start to finish!!
The Trouble With Harry - 1955 (7.2): Hilarious and suspenseful.  Just a great time.
Vertigo - 1958 (8.4): Gets better and better after repeated views.  James Stewart is awesome!
North By Northwest - 1959 (8.4): Cary Grant's best Hitchcock film, in my opinion.  James Mason is great, too.
Psycho - 1960 (8.5): Much more than just a shower scene.  Anthony Perkins IS Norman Bates.
Frenzy - 1972 (7.5): Hitchcock's return to England.  Another great thriller.

NICE TO SEE
Rebecca - 1940 (8.2): I liked it, but a lot of folk say this is one of his best...that I disagree with.
Suspicion - 1941 (7.5): Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine are great.  Hitchcock knows paranoia!
Lifeboat - 1944 (7.8): Great idea that could ONLY be done by The Master.
Spellbound - 1945 (7.7): Some great cinematography in this one, including a crazy sequence constructed by Salvador Dali.
Notorious - 1946 (8.1): Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, with Claude Rains.  Pretty good!
Rope - 1948 (8.0): Filmed like a stage play with only 6 edits through the whole film.
To Catch A Thief - 1955 (7.5): Grace Kelly and Cary Grant...all you need to know!
The Birds - 1963 (7.7): Scared the crap out of me as a kid, but has lost it's mph over the years.
Family Plot - 1976 (6.8): Hitch's last film is one of his most light-hearted thrillers.  Offbeat funny.

NO NEED TO SEE
The Man Who Knew Too Much - 1956 (7.5): No comparison to the original, and Doris Day becomes annoying.
Marnie - 1964 (7.2): Disappointing, especially since it stars Sean Connery.  Tippi Hedren is terrible.

And that's The Master Of Suspense.  Next up...Francis Ford Coppola.

Director Series - The Coen Brothers

So, a while ago, like almost five years ago, I started a "Director Series" on this very blog.  The idea was to highlight some of my favourite North American directors, tell you a little bit about them, let you know what I thought of their films and so on.  I started with Woody Allen, then Martin Scorsese, then Steven Spielberg...then I stopped.  I've decided to start again, at least for today.  So, the next in my series, The Coen Brothers.  By the way, if you'd like to read about the other three, here are the quick links:
Woody Allen; Martin Scorsese; Steven Spielberg

Joel Coen                                                            Ethan Coen
Birth Name: Joel Daniel Coen                            Birth Name: Ethan Jesse Coen
Birth Date: Nov. 29, 1954                                   Birth Date: Sept. 21, 1957
Birth Place: Minneapolis, Minnesota                 Birth Place: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Features Directed: 17
Features I've Seen: 16 (94%)

The brothers Coen started making films early in life.  Joel, being the older of the two, saved his money from mowing yards in their Minneapolis neighbourhood to buy a Super 8 camera.  They started making movies based on the shows they would see on TV.  After graduating from university, Joel from New York University, Ethan from Princeton, they started writing what would become their first feature film, Blood Simple.  Although, up until 2004, Joel was the one who received the director's credit, they always wrote, directed, produced and often edited all their movies together.  The Coens quickly became the new great movie makers after Blood Simple won a number of independent awards, including one at the Sundance Film Festival in 1985.  Through the years it was shown that they had a very eclectic sense of humour, both in writing and film making.  Their films have been nominated for 13 Academy Awards over the years, with the brothers winning 4 Oscars.  A new Coen Brothers movie has become an "Event" over the last few years, and they almost never disappoint.  What follows are their movies that I've seen, listed in three different categories, chronologically.  (imdb.com scores in brackets).

MUST SEE
Blood Simple - 1984 (7.7): Their first, and in many ways, their best.  Gets better with repeated views!
Raising Arizona - 1987 (7.4): A slapstick comedy with tons of inventive camera work.
Millers Crossing - 1990 (7.9): A crime drama with wonderful performances, especially from Albert   Finney and John Turturro.
Fargo - 1996 (8.2): Expanded on the brilliance of Blood Simple, with hilarious consequences.
The Big Lebowski - 1998 (8.2): It took multiple viewings for me to love this one, but I now ranking it as my third favourite of their movies.
No Country For Old Men - 2007 (8.1): Slower paced, but so smart, and so involving, and so Javier Bardem!!

NICE TO SEE
Barton Fink - 1991 (7.7): Definitely not for everyone's taste, but very quirky and funny.  John Goodman is perfect!
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - 2000 (7.8):  Loosely based on Homer's "The Odyssey" with some fabulous music.
The Man Who Wasn't There - 2001 (7.6): Rarely seen, but atmospheric, dark and wonderful.
The Ladykillers - 2004 (6.2): Panned by most critics, but I found this remake very entertaining.
Burn After Reading - 2008 (7.0): More quirky hilarity.  Too much going on for some people.
A Serious Man - 2009 (7.0): Slower and often times meandering, but quite often fascinating.
Inside Llewyn Davis - 2013 (7.4): If it wasn't for the amazing performances, I don't know if I would have liked it as much.

NO NEED TO SEE
The Hudsucker Proxy - 1994 (7.3): Trying to recapture the lunacy of Raising Arizona, but didn't.
Intolerable Cruelty - 2003 (6.3): Hugely disappointing.  Easily my least favourite of their films.
Hail, Caesar! - 2016 (6.9): Although there were some moments of greatness, the story is too jumbled and too forgettable.  A real shame, actually.

So the only Coen Brothers' movie I haven't seen is 2010's True Grit, which I really want to see, but I want to watch the original first.  When that happens, I'll add it to this list...maybe...if I think about it.

That's The Coens.  Stay tuned for more directors coming soon.

Traffic....not the band!

So I'm driving down Pape Ave. the other day, heading back to the postal station after a long day's work and I get behind an 18-wheeler.  This was at Pape and Gerrard.  If you're familiar with this area you know that south of Gerrard there are cars always parked in the right lane, forcing everybody to drive in the left lane, until you get to the next traffic light.  This truck was heading south at a speed of, I kid you not, 15 km/h!!  FIFTEEN!!  I know this because I was stuck behind him with absolutely no place to go.  We get to Dundas and I think, ok, I'll head over to the right lane now and pass him....but no!  Someone was turning right and had to wait for pedestrians to cross, so I'm still stuck behind this 90 year old semi driver!!  I travel at this rate of speed until I get to Eastern where I'm finally able to pass him.  Not only me, but the twenty or so other vehicles that this moron had held hostage behind his truck.  Glaciers move at a faster rate of speed than this guy!!  All of this time I had behind him got me thinking about traffic and driving in this wonderful town of Toronto.

There are 75-million vehicles in Toronto.  Well, probably not that many, but it sometimes feels like it.  Most of the drivers on the road have been schooled in the ways of the road.  Drive at a safe speed, be courteous but not overly so, realize there are other drivers around you and act and react accordingly.  I truly believe most of the driving population know what they're doing.  But it's the bad drivers we all remember, and it's the bad drivers that make us all want to scream!  Here are some of the ridiculous things I see on a daily basis...see if you can relate:

The Un-Courteous Driver
The truck driver in my little story above is a prime example of this beast.  I'm not talking about the guy that won't let you merge, because being one car ahead is going to save him time and money, but instead, the people that think they are the only ones out on the road that day.  Without any consideration for the drivers around him, this jerk seemed completely content to watch grass grow driving down a busy street during Rush Hour.  What makes this guy think he's so special??  Is it total ignorance?  Is it just stupidity?  I personally feel its a deadly combination of both!  Someone could get so frustrated with this guy (someone like me) that they may do something even more stupid to get around him, possibly causing an accident, possibly smacking into a pedestrian that they just couldn't see.  And we see this all the time when someone is looking for a specific place that they've never been to before.  We watch them slow down to a crawl, peering out all their windows in a state of confusion, while they tie up traffic for miles behind them.  Here's what you do if you're confused as to where you're supposed to go: KEEP GOING, find a safe place to pull into or pull over, and figure it out!  Realize that you are NOT the only car on the road this day!!  Asshole!

The Long-Turner
This one makes me so crazy.  I actually drew a rudimentary diagram to help explain what I mean by this title:

So I'm the lovely yellow car, waiting patiently to make a left turn.  I see that the green car has their right signal on, telling me he's about to make a right turn...he's slowing down and everything.  With all the traffic cleared, I start to make my turn into the proper lane, only to have to stop short because idiot green car makes a long turn into my lane.  It's MY LANE!!  Turning into proper lanes was taught on, what, Day One of your drivers training class?!?!  Turn into your own damn lane and then come over to the other lane when it's clear.  The Long-Turner is either not paying attention to what's happening around him, or he's just an asshole!

The Late-Merger
I've mentioned this guy to many people in the past, and it continues to be the one driving practice that always baffles me and makes me rant like I was Donald Trump talking about Syrians.  This is the dude that comes onto a highway, takes the ramp at a good speed, sees that there is traffic and, even though others have given him space to merge, continues at the same rate of speed until he gets to the end of the merge lane.  He then, and only then, puts on his left signal, completely stops, bringing everybody that's near him to a stop, and slowly eases into traffic.  Well congratulations.  You're now four cars further ahead and have stopped everybody's progress.  I believe, and I don't know if it can be proven, that if people learned how to merge properly there would be less traffic, at least less stop-and-go.  Keep with the flow and stop making everybody else stop because of your inadequacy and stupidity, asshole!

The Giant-Truck-Turner
I've fashioned another wonderful diagram to help explain this one:

Again, I'm the yellow car, traveling down the left lane, bopping to Ozzy's Boneyard on Sirius.  Green car comes up beside me, wanting to make a right turn at the intersection, and drifts left before making the turn.  Green car is a Camry, or a Civic, or any other vehicle that is NOT a giant truck.  There is no need, ABSOLUTELY NO NEED, to drift left in order to turn right!!!  I can't even calculate how many times I've had to swerve or hit the brakes because I don't know what the hell this dude is going to do.  Is he making a lane change and just can't see me?  Is he having an aneurysm??  Nope, he just thinks he's a giant truck.  If you do this, just stop, 'cause you're an asshole!!

High-Beamers
I've also noticed something else a lot recently, and I'm not sure if its only me or not, so let me know if you encounter it.  At night I've noticed a great influx of drivers with their high beams on.  I was beginning to think my eyes were just too sensitive, but no, these people have their brights on driving on our city streets.  Do they not notice they're on, or, more disturbingly, do they put them on thinking they'll be able to see better??  I really hope it's total ignorance.  But if you're putting them on on purpose....you're an asshole!


Ok, I feel I've ranted enough about this.  If you have any other things that make you homicidal on our roads, I'd love to hear about them.  But, really, most of our traffic problems can be solved if people just stopped...being...ASSHOLES!!