Hitch is quite probably the most influential filmmaker of all time, and certainly the most referenced in the work of other filmmakers. He was also a populist with a television show and big box office. Hitch proved that you could have the commercial success and still have people like Francois Truffaut fawn over you artistically. And in the last decennial Sight and Sound poll in 2012, Hitch's Vertigo became the first movie to dethrone Citizen Kane at number 1 since the 1952 poll.
So much has been said about Hitchcock over the years though, let's just say what he means to us. For me, he's a surprisingly emotional filmmaker. Vertigo moves me every time I see it. Yes it's a waking nightmare that descends into death and madness, but it's also the story of a really lonely guy losing himself because people fucked with his mind and heart. Notorious is a great love story of people not communicating enough to realize that they're both sacrificing themselves for the other one and would be happier if they didn't. And the way Hitch played with fear, it's very affecting emotionally the way he'd use suspense and horrific situations. He knew how to elicit emotions from his audience and manipulate in just the right way as a storyteller. He's never been bettered in that way.
My ratings of what I've seen from the Master of Suspense:
- Vertigo - 10/10
- Notorious - 10/10
- Strangers on a Train - 10/10
- Psycho - 10/10
- Frenzy - 9/10
- Foreign Correspondent - 9/10
- Rear Window - 9/10
- Shadow of a Doubt - 9/10
- North by Northwest - 8/10
- The Birds - 8/10
- The Lodger - 8/10
- The 39 Steps - 8/10
- Rebecca - 8/10
- Rope - 8/10
- Lifeboat - 8/10
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) - 7/10
- Sabotage - 7/10
- Suspicion - 7/10
- Saboteur - 7/10
- The Lady Vanishes - 7/10
- Dial M for Murder - 6/10
- To Catch a Thief - 6/10
- Marnie - 6/10
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) - 6/10
- Spellbound - 5/10
- Torn Curtain - 5/10
- Topaz - 5/10
- Under Capricorn - 4/10
- Jamaica Inn - 3/10
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