If you could read my mind
The Talking Dead: Director Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred, take a look around, what it is goes up in here?
I don’t know. Life is a flower, a lesson — you learn it when you’re through. I’m not forward-thinking. Nowadays we talk too much. We both know what it is. What goes up must come down. What must rise must fall. And what goes on in our life is written to all of these folks crawling ‘round.
If all things must fall, why build a miracle at all?
I’m feeling very still. I guess my spaceship knows which way to go. Take a look around! All of these faces, all of these signs and gestures people are used to set and make. All on the run — used to let the guilt go. Caught up in the greeds of our times. I can’t get this boy over there out of my head. Maybe it was the way he smiled. Maybe it is the way you laughed. I don’t know just what it is.
Who’s this boy?
I’m old enough to see behind me — young enough to feel my soul. If you could read my mind it’s me. What a tale my thoughts could tell. A ghost from a wishing well. Just like an old time movie. There’s a peace inside us all — this boy’s got it.
What is it about?
First of all he’s addicted to serenity — sane enough to act the insane. A daysleeper. A Hans in Luck. He has fair hair and blue eyes — looks like an angel on his bike. By looking at he tells anything: this impish, scampish, this prodigious knack for getting into trouble — this contrary to what most people around him think. He’s not malicious — but he does not think ‘bout all of these consequences of his actions. On the surface. Beyond he’s very resourceful. Take a look at! He’s thoughtful. He creeps, pokes along, muses — ’til he’s seized. Then he really thrives.
Right about now, a real master of suspense?
I can imagine him to grow up into a resourceful and responsible man — maybe he becomes actor or director one day. A tangible and versatile showman he’s already. Not a clown at all. Not one of all of these broken ones. He’s still got the eyes of a child — he’s already got the blues. Take a look! Send him stage directions — and he’ll do it. Probably.
Think of the pet store over there. Should we set him there to play a scene outta The Birds?
A real family plot. Take a look at the sun — shining ‘bove the right side of the roof. Fix your clock! See over there, our neighbour at the table next. What he does do, he’s taking his camera, on to target his frame — then he creates a shot. Take a look over there, the boy with the contrabass. Actually he’s on to miss his bus — north to northwest.
Do you think he even walks a few dogs outta store?
Who exactly? (muses)
Our little beggar.
Ah … Take a look! He’s doing it already.
Pretty well. Hope he didn’t buy ’em all …
How should I know. He looks amused, isn’t it?
See what we’ve made of. A little bit dangerous it is — mindcontrol in the name of everyday amusement?
Kind of that. I’m loving it. I hope he’s allowed to take ’em back — to get back the money. But that goes without saying, hardly needs mentioning. Hopefully he’s just on to take a walk in the park. Definitely as usual for the pet store. Lots of kids lend or rent pets in there. Otherwise all of these animals would go coo-coo — probably the stuff as well.
If you could read my mind it’s me.
I appreciate. Sitting, waiting, wishing in a bar, smoking a cig, enjoying a drink. It’s like talking to the clouds. Exploring the space to be around, observing all of these folks passing by. Most of the things we create and do are fictional: monologues, dialogues, photography, mind-, stage- and screenplays. As a writer I create the stuff worth spreading, as a scenographic the sceneries. The rest is about acting on the stages that mean the world.
What exactly is it making an actor?
First of all he needs 3 basic skills: A sense of style, means the spirit of fashion and costume. A sense of speech. Means: An overtuned voicebox that works in a pidgin of 300 languages and 400.000 tunes each blink of an eye. It’s about modulating all of this input to a more or less sane act of speech — connected to all of these multimedia networks around. Thirdly, signing. A matter and manner of bodylanguage and gestures it is. Made to level and offset excesses — to set signs that make others understand what goes up in one’s mind and tide. For example: One kicks a ball — the node-wired folks row back to absorb the pressure. The art of the sign is not that important than the idea involved.
How to learn stage-worth speaking?
Most of our acting schools start with a cork in the mouth. To teach a lucid, understandable art of speaking. Impersonating and imitating others, that’s the art of — in all of their pathological traits and oddities. And it means to have a sense of all of these spaces. In a nutshell: Speaking stage-worthy is made to scale all of these emotional excesses and modulations brought to mind and tide. The greater aim: Spread serenity! The best tool to learn is to play an instrument and to sing along. Like a guitar. There’s no greater thing to learn all of these basics of scaling all of these small things considered within the scope of voice interaction.
Which it is, your favorite character in screenplays’ history?
Complicated to decide. Every character is specific. I’ve always preferred the role behind the scenes. A capable, tangible and versatile actor needs the quality of seduction. Means to inspire the audience to fell in love with. To identify, to be interested in more details about. From this perspective it’s actually myself. Me as a more or less undiscovered character — appearing somewhere within. It’s only ‘bout a few cut-ins. But who likes the thrill may know what I mean.
Is there a difference in directing or acting on a stage or in front of camera?
In comparison to a movie the stage is made to draw outside the lines. Exaggerated speech, gestures and mimics hold up a mirror to the audience. Nowadays it can’t be lunatic and insane enough. To an actor it means: In contrast to the stage acting in a movie is much easier — in signing and the speech on the dot.
Why it is this way?
No prompter will ever replace an elaborated work on lyrics and vocals. A movie has got lots of sequences — regularly shot in myriads of units. It’s got a demand of naturalism — often even a lot too much. Actors are social seismographs. The real sacrifice is to act and direct everyday life. What brings about the downfall of filmmakers is the solitude of demands and sales. What goes up must come down. What must rise must fall.
– ALFRED HITCHCOCK –
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13th of August 1899 to 29th of April 1980) is an English film producer, director, and actor. Times he’s called ‘The Master of Suspense’. Indeed, Hitch pioneers elements of silent movie and psychological thriller. His stylistic trademarks are a movement of camera that mimics a person’s gaze — forcing the audience to engage in a art of voyeurism. And a mystical twist of thrilling plots and closure — featuring depictions of murder, violence, strong sexual overtones, and cameo appearance, means cutting-in his self beyond as within the plot.
His works illustrate psychoanalysis — his shots maximize anxiety, fear and empathy. In 1978 a critic describes Hitchcock as ‘the most universally recognizable person in the world’ — and an ‘artistic genius’. He directs more than 50 films in a career spanning 6 decades. For example: The clash of cultures and prototype of pride and downfall, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). The comedic exaggeration of relations, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941). The script of stupidity, disorder and upset, Stage Fright (1950). The technical and artistic masterpiece, Rear Window (1954). The tale of gender studies, aggression and visual control, Vertigo (1958). The ironic filmization of clarity and fulfillment of romance, Psycho (1960). The probably most famous work and prototype of suspense, The Birds (1963).
Alfred Hitchcock is successful in British cinema with both, silent films and synchronized sound-on-talkies — the pathbreaking element to sound-on-shot and its merging. He is renowned as England’s best, moves to Hollywood in 1939, becomes citizen of the United States in 1955. His silent movies inspire the generation of film noir — the vampire, mystery-crime genre of the 1940s and 1950s. He dies on renal failure in 1980 — and left fragments of a last spy thriller, The Short Night (1979).
