Hitchcock 9 in US tour

[Chris Knipp]

Hitchcock 9 in US tour

I missed the US debut of this BFI restoration set at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival June 14-16, but I am watching the BFI-restored Hitchcock 9 on DVDs in sequence and will report on them individually on this thread and in the Festival Coverage section rather than the Classic Film section since they debuted at the local festival and are going to screen all over the US. The following introduction to this release is from the Indiewire blog Thompson on Hollywood:

BFI's 'Hitchcock 9,' the Master of Suspense's Earliest Surviving Works, Kicks Off Its Stateside Tour UPDATED

BY BETH HANNA AND RYAN LATTANZIO
JUNE 14, 2013 12:10 PM


Alma Reville, Patricia and Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock fans rejoice. The BFI has kicked off its stateside national tour of "The Hitchcock 9," a program of Alfred Hitchcock's nine earliest surviving works, all in newly restored 35mm prints. It launches at the Castro Theatre (June 14-16 [2013]) for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and will make its way to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (June 18), then to LACMA (June 27 - July 13) and BAMcinématek in Brooklyn (June 29- July 5).
According to the Institute, this is the largest restoration project they have ever undertaken.

Cinephiles across the country will eventually have access to screenings in Washington D.C., Berkeley, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Boston and other American cities. Live musical accompaniment will be featured at several screenings, including, of course, the SF Silent Film Festival.

Made between 1925 and 1929, these little-seen early entries in Hitchcock’s British oeuvre represent early incubations of the auteur’s motifs and obsessions. Films include: “The Pleasure Garden” (1925); “Downhill” (1927); “The Lodger” (1927); “The Ring” (1927); “Easy Virtue” (1928”); “Champagne” (1928); “The Farmer’s Wife” (1928); “The Manxman” (1929); “Blackmail” (1929).

Unfortunately,1926's “The Mountain Eagle” remains lost, but a collection of stills went up for auction last fall confirming the existence of the film.

Individual performances of the films have so far been seen in France, New Zealand, Brazil, Ukraine, USA, India, China, Armenia, Sweden and Spain. Further screenings are planned for 2013/14 in the Czech Republic, Mexico, Germany and Australia with more to be announced.

Hitchcock has been enjoying a renaissance over the past 18 months, from the director's Universal titles in a stunning Blu-ray collection to Fox's "Alfred Hitchcock: The Classic Collection," which includes "Rebecca," "Spellbound" and "Notorious." Our TOH! "Now and Then" column looks at the relationship between Hitch's 40s bad-ass brunettes and those icy 50s blondes.

Hitchcock 9 SFSFF Festival Coverage thread.

[Johann]

Manna for film buffs right there...
I'm more interested in Hitchcock's silents than his famous pictures.
THE 39 STEPS is also one I really like and would single out to anybody to watch.

[Chris Knipp]

HITCHCOCK DIRECTING THE LODGER

The Lodger (1926) seems a huge leap forward from Hitchcock's more conventional previous picture, the love melodrama The Pleasure Garden (1925). Richly atmospheric and exciting from the first few frames. I'f watched Pleasure Garden and am beginning The Lodger. Not that The Pleasure Garden does not have "some good scenes," as Hitchcock said. Made at UFA Studios in Italy and Germany, The Pleasure Garden also shows the influence of expressionist techniques Hitchcock had observed and admired in Germany, where he had seen part of the making of F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh and been impressed by it.

There was a tricky partly mime version of The 39 Steps that played for a year or so on the New York stage recently; I saw it. I've seen the film more than once.

[Chris Knipp]

The Hitchcock 9


MILES MANDER AND NITA NALDI IN THE PLEASURE GARDEN - LEVETT AND HIS
NATIVE MISTRESS

1926 The Pleasure Garden
1926 The Lodger
1927 Downhill
1927 Easy Virtue
1927 The Ring
1928 The Farmer's Wife
1928 Champagne
1929 The Manxman
1929 Blackmail



Two are lost from this period: the 1922 Number 13 and the 1926 The Mountain Eagle, putatively released in the US as Fear o' God. Downhill's US release title is When Boys Leave Home. Blackmail was made in a sound version which is available on DVD. From the silent Blackmail on, Hitchcock worked on talkies. Other than the silent Blackmail, all these are available on DVD. However I am watching the BFI-initiated restorations, which are not yet available. In addition, The Pleasure Garden is reportedly a major restoration, being a collation of many different copies leading to restored segments. "Major narrative strands and twists have been re-integrated" -BFI note[?] from press kit. The new restorations also preserve the alternating color tints of the films' segments, said to be particularly complex in the case of The Pleasure Garden.

Restorations by the BFI National Archive in association with STUDIOCANAL. Principal restoration funding provided by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation.

Reviews or discussions of each of these films will be found on the Festival Coverage thread for San Francisco 2013 Silent Film Festival - The Hitchcock 9, beginning HERE.

[Chris Knipp]

The Hitchcock 9


CARMELITA GERAGHTY AND KARL FALKENBERG IN
THE PLEASURE GARDEN

The Pleasure Garden (Mar. 1926)

The Pleasure Garden, first remaining Hitchcock silent film, is a conventional love melodrama of the period that focuses on two chorus girls, one frivolous and one serious. As has been pointed out Hitchcock shows visual flair from the start in the way he uses closeups of the chorus girls' legs, and a striking image of a thin stairway. However, the unrolling of the story is often obvious, starting with the combination of a show business beginning and an exotic end.

The dates given with the titles are the release dates listed in the BFI's basic Hitchcock 9 restorations flyer.

For the full Filmleaf Festival Coverage review click here.

[Chris Knipp]

The Hitchcock 9


IVOR NOVELLO IN THE LODGER

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (Sept. 1926)

Lots of exciting street crowd scenes begin this thirller, which as is always pointed out, not only takes up for the first time Hitchcock's favorite subject of murder, but also includes the other favorite theme of a wronged innocent man, the lodger of the title, who is false accused of being the serial killer, The Avenger, an assassin, never seen, who repeatedly murders pretty blonde young women (another favorite theme) and leaves a note with this moniker with a triangle or delta sign. Unlike future Hitchcock thrillers, however, this film quickly stops focusing on the murders and zeros in on a handsome, apparently well-off young man who mysteriously comes to rent a room where most of the action takes place.

Full Festival Coverage section review.