Happy Birthday, Alfred Hitchcock

August 13, 1899 is the birthday of the late Alfred Hitchcock. In his lifetime, he was one of the most popular filmmakers in the world, and one of the most recognizable, but since his death in 1980, his stature has grown, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

He was known as “the master of suspense” for the many thrillers he made, but like many writers who specialize in a genre, that meant that his technical skill as a director and storyteller often went unnoticed by many. One of those who didn’t was filmmaker Francois Truffaut who spent more than 50 hours interviewing Hitchcock, producing the great 1967 book Hitchock/Truffaut, which is considered an essential book for filmmakers, scholars and storytellers.

The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, Spellbound, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds and so many more aren’t simply thrillers, aren’t simply entertainment, they’re great films. Rear Window holds up as brilliant. Filmmakers have been trying to make something like To Catch a Thief ever since it came out because it’s light and entertaining and fun and suspenseful featuring beautiful actors in a beautiful setting - only to find that it’s much harder than it looks. Psycho and The Birds freak people out to this day.

And Vertigo is simply one of the greatest movies ever made. I saw it for the first time when it was rereleased and restored in the late 1990s and it was as strange and intense as I imagine it must have been to viewers in 1958. And remains strange and dazzling and unsettling and moving for all the same reasons today.