Another good place to look is Robert E Kapsis's Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation. This is full of interesting instances of the shifts in Hitchcock's critical reputation. RK talks about a film like Torn Curtain, for example, which was quite poorly reviewed at the time because Hitch's reputation as a "master" of the espionage thriller (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, North by North-West, etc) had become superseded with the advent of James Bond since 1960 and its impact on the genre. To many critics, Torn Curtain appeared outmoded in comparison. - Ian Brookes
________________________________________
From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of George Robinson [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 2:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCREEN-L] Negative criticism on Alfred Hitchcock as an auteur
If you can find Raymond Durgnat's Hitchcock book, he has some
interesting and quirky things to say about the director, stuff that
would certainly leaven your thesis.
George Robinson
--
Man is the only [creature] that kills for fun;
he is the only one that kills in malice, the only
one that kills for revenge [. . .] He is the only
creature that has a nasty mind.
-- Mark Twain
On 10/30/2010 10:23 PM, Peter Longworth wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm an undergraduate student studying Cultural and Media Studies at
> the University of Newcastle, Australia. The reason I am writing is I
> have a major essay on Alfred Hitchcock as an auteur, and to make my
> essay more interesting I'd like to locate articles / books which
> criticise Hitchcock somewhat negatively. I've been directed to
> criticism from feminist scholars, but was wondering where else I
> should be looking, and if anyone could please recommend any articles
> where I may concentrate my study.
>
> Apart from the feminist angle, I know of a couple of articles written
> by Andrew Sarris who comments on Hitchcock's films not being taken
> seriously in the 1960s because they weren't considered serious films
> like what the European directors were making such as Antonioni and
> Bergmann.
>
> Other place I could go with my essay is for Hitchcock's use of
> violence in Frenzy - I actually find the strangle scenes today pretty
> disturbing, and I understand critical reception to the film's use of
> violence was mixed. I think Rope might have been criticised also from
> a moralistic point of view. There is also Hitchcock's attack on
> religion in his films, such as the Catholic church, in how he
> represents / shows nuns in Vertigo, which is the key film i'll be
> discussing in my paper.
>
> I hope someone might be able to recommend me to resources articles
> giving a negative criticism, or mixed criticism of Hitchcock, because
> mostly everyone says positive things about his films. I seek to make
> my essay a mixture of positive and negative criticisms.
>
> Thanks
>
> Peter
>
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