Phoenix Tapes

Shepperton Babylon

2005

A sardonic look at the dark secrets of the British Film Industry of the 1920s and 30s, where scandal and sordid behaviour was almost as rife as in Hollywood.

78/52

2017

The most famous murder scene in movie history comprises 78 camera settings and 52 cuts: the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. 78/52 tells the story of the man behind the curtain and his greatest obsession.

Obsessed with Vertigo

1997

A documentary about the making and restoration of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece "Vertigo." Narrated by Roddy McDowall, with behind-the-scenes talk from Barbara Bel Geddes, Henry Bumstead, Robert A. Harris, Patricia Hitchcock, James C. Katz, Kim Novak, Peggy Robertson and Martin Scorsese. Brings fresh perspective, not just to the film and the director, but to the Fifties Hollywood as well.

Beyond Doubt: The Making of Hitchcock's Favorite Film

2000

A short documentary about the Making Of Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943).

'Rear Window' Ethics: Remembering and Restoring a Hitchcock Classic

2001

A documentary about Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1954 film Rear Window.

The Illustrated Hitchcock

1972

Film director Hitchcock discusses his life and career in long talks with Pia Lindstrom (newscaster and daughter of Hitchcock star Ingrid Berman) and with film historian William Everson. Excerpts from several films illustrate these interviews. Discussion topics include: what is fear?, method acting vs. film acting, the difference between the usual "Who Done It" mystery and what he considers to be real suspense. His choice of leading ladies and why (Bergman, Baxter, Kelly, Marie Saint, Leigh, etc.).

Mystery Train: Hitchcock and The Lady Vanishes

2007

This video essay, featuring film scholar Leonard Leff, addresses the 1938 Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes' British context and political underpinnings and the details and techniques that undeniably make it a 'Hitchcock picture.'

Screenwriter John Michael Hayes on 'Rear Window'

2001

Screenwriter John Michael Hayes reminisces about his partnership with Alfred Hitchcock during the making of the classic 1954 film Rear Window.

Eyes of Hitchcock

2014

When characters stare at the camera in the films of Alfred Hitchcock, the look is almost always associated with the threat of death (through the eyes of a victim, a murderer, a witness). This momentary suspension between death and life is partly what makes Hitchcock the indisputable master of suspense.

The Key to Reserva

2007

Finding an unfinished script written by Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese attempts to recreate it himself as Hitchcock would have.

Do You Like Hitchcock?

2005

A nerdy film student and lifelong voyeur begins to believe that two lovely young strangers may have conspired to commit a brutal murder.

Hitchcock

2012

Following his great success with "North by Northwest," director Alfred Hitchcock makes a daring choice for his next project: an adaptation of Robert Bloch's novel "Psycho." When the studio refuses to back the picture, Hitchcock decides to pay for it himself in exchange for a percentage of the profits. His wife, Alma Reville, has serious reservations about the film but supports him nonetheless. Still, the production strains the couple's marriage.

The Girl

2012

Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’s leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock’s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios, Hedren was shocked when the director, at the peak of his career, quickly cast her to star in his next feature, 1963’s The Birds. Little did Hedren know that as ambitious and terrifying as the production would be to shoot, the most daunting aspect of the film ended up coming from behind the camera.

Clássico

2013

Crop Duster Octet

2011

One of the most iconic sequences in the history of Hollywood cinema (from Alfred Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST) is deconstructed and reassembled to illuminate the patterns, rhythms and choreography of the original so as to break through and make for an eight banded kinetic tour de force. As the piece progresses the temporal displacement of each band gets closer and closer until they all unite into a remarkable grand finale.