Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock is regarded one of the most influential and best film maker of all time. He is also known as "The Master Of Suspense"

Hitchcock directed almost more than 50 silent and early talkies films. Some of his most famous works are Vertigo 1958 and Psycho 1960 which had him nominated for the Best Director prize.

Alfred Hitchcock is also known to have many consistent themes throughout his films. Some of these themes are;

- In almost all of his films there are countless images of Birds or even references to birds. For example in Vertigo Gavin's last name is Elster which is German for mocking bird.

- One of Hitchcocks favourite devices to drive films and create suspense is MacGuffin. Many of his films revolve around this device in which by inciting curiosity and desire, this drives the plot and motivates characters, but whose specific nature and identity is unnecessarily to the plot of the film. For example in Vertigo, Carlotta Valdes is a MacGuffin, she never appears and details of her death are unimportant to the viewer but her ghost's haunting of Elster is what the drives the plot.

- Another one Hitchcocks unusual themes throughout his films is blonde women he claimed the audience would be more suspicious of brunettes

-The "nice" criminal. The villain in many of Hitchcocks film are percived to be nice and charming, rather than your typical vulgar criminal

- One of Hitchcocks most useful plot devices in my opinion is the use of Suspense, Hitchcock himself prefered the use of suspense rather than surprise the difference being as he stated "Theres two people having breakfast and theres a bomb under the table, if it explodes its a surprise if it doesn't ....

Hitchcock became famous for his expert and largely unrivaled control of pace and suspense, and his films draw heavily on both fear and fantasy. The films are known for their droll humour and witticisms, and these cinematic works often portray innocent people caught up in circumstances beyond their control or understanding.