Monday, 4 August 2008 04:23 pm
(no subject)
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deckardcanineFor my birthday back in May, my sister Sarah bought two tickets to an open-air concert called Dial H for Hitchcock at Wolf Trap. It was advertised as the National Symphony Orchestra playing the scores from To Catch a Thief, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, and North by Northwest, with clips from each movie shown on a screen. Two days ago, we finally attended.
Background: I have seen 26 movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock and can even name them in the order in which I first watched them. Yes, that's geeky of me.
Sarah pointed out the great atmosphere. The concert began at 8:30, when the sky was a light gray. A post-rain mist rolled over the outdoors, where more than half the audience sat on blankets or towels (Sarah and I had the upper deck under cover.) As the night darkened, crickets became audible, which was especially appropriate for the outdoor night scenes in NNW.
The ad description left out a couple things. Naturally, they had to start with the suite from Psycho, tho without anything on screen. Conductor Emil de Cou gave an interesting bit of trivia: Censors were most concerned about the Psycho scene in which... Norman mops up blood and flushes it down the toilet. It was the first silver screen toilet flush. This cracked up my parents later.
After the intermission came the one thing I hadn't seen or heard before: Hitchcock, by Himself. Ostensibly an ad for the then-upcoming NNW, it features the Master of Suspense endorsing a vacation to New York City, using early silent color footage of his family. The audience found it amusing, partly because he rode a bicycle when he was even more obese. I have to say he looked better with age.
It was nice to watch the other films' clips again, even tho I'd seen TCaT only last year. SoaT remains my personal favorite; now I remember what I liked about the music. NNW, in particular, demands another full viewing: It's been long enough that I'm hazier on the story than for any other Hitchcock film. Of course, it could be difficult to make out the dialog over the orchestra. Sarah and I both sometimes forgot we'd come for the music, tho Sarah sometimes watched the orchestra and forgot the big screen.
Upon seeing parts of DMfM again, I wondered how I'd failed to notice Grace Kelly's hotness before. This prompted me to ask Sarah if she ever found pre-1960 actors hot. She said no, because all the would-be hotties frequently played jerks. She definitely has a point: Bogart, Brando, Gable, Mitchum... hard to think of an exception who wasn't gawky like James Stewart.
Anyway, without thinking of the concert, I happened last week to compose the start of a suspense theme in my head. I might set it in Play Music like most of my compositions, but that cheap program produces only piano sounds and this calls for an orchestra. Maybe I'll finally get Finale.
Background: I have seen 26 movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock and can even name them in the order in which I first watched them. Yes, that's geeky of me.
Sarah pointed out the great atmosphere. The concert began at 8:30, when the sky was a light gray. A post-rain mist rolled over the outdoors, where more than half the audience sat on blankets or towels (Sarah and I had the upper deck under cover.) As the night darkened, crickets became audible, which was especially appropriate for the outdoor night scenes in NNW.
The ad description left out a couple things. Naturally, they had to start with the suite from Psycho, tho without anything on screen. Conductor Emil de Cou gave an interesting bit of trivia: Censors were most concerned about the Psycho scene in which... Norman mops up blood and flushes it down the toilet. It was the first silver screen toilet flush. This cracked up my parents later.
After the intermission came the one thing I hadn't seen or heard before: Hitchcock, by Himself. Ostensibly an ad for the then-upcoming NNW, it features the Master of Suspense endorsing a vacation to New York City, using early silent color footage of his family. The audience found it amusing, partly because he rode a bicycle when he was even more obese. I have to say he looked better with age.
It was nice to watch the other films' clips again, even tho I'd seen TCaT only last year. SoaT remains my personal favorite; now I remember what I liked about the music. NNW, in particular, demands another full viewing: It's been long enough that I'm hazier on the story than for any other Hitchcock film. Of course, it could be difficult to make out the dialog over the orchestra. Sarah and I both sometimes forgot we'd come for the music, tho Sarah sometimes watched the orchestra and forgot the big screen.
Upon seeing parts of DMfM again, I wondered how I'd failed to notice Grace Kelly's hotness before. This prompted me to ask Sarah if she ever found pre-1960 actors hot. She said no, because all the would-be hotties frequently played jerks. She definitely has a point: Bogart, Brando, Gable, Mitchum... hard to think of an exception who wasn't gawky like James Stewart.
Anyway, without thinking of the concert, I happened last week to compose the start of a suspense theme in my head. I might set it in Play Music like most of my compositions, but that cheap program produces only piano sounds and this calls for an orchestra. Maybe I'll finally get Finale.
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pre-1960 Hotness
Trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1822621977/
Oh! and Olivier as Max DeWinter in Hitchcock's "Rebecca" 1939 and in "Wuthering Heights". I just love him in those roles.
And, yes, I am in love with the young Jimmy Stewart. This is the magic of movies: allowing us to keep a character frozen in time.
Re: pre-1960 Hotness
Music making