Author: Paul Duncan
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Taschen
Release Date: April 1, 2011
Our Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
“Mystery is mystifying; it is an intellectual thing. Suspense is an emotional thing.” — Alfred Hitchcock
Who doesn’t love the work of Alfred Hitchcock. He is the master of suspense and will never be forgotten in the world of cinema. Taschen really scored another winner with this release. It is about 200 pages, hardback and yet sells for a very reasonable $10 dollars. It is a real celebration of Hitchcock’s work and covers his complete film history. I think the book could be a little more in depth like Taschen’s “The Stanley Kubrick Archives” but this definitely does the job, especially for its price.
The best part of this book are the pictures and their captions. They are presented in large scale and really sharp presentation. This is not the most in-depth analysis of Hitchcock but it definitely satisfies the basic fan of his work. The book does provide a decent overall of his classic films like “The Birds”, “Vertigo”, “Rear Window” and of course “Psycho”. It ranges not only from his earliest silent films to his last picture in 1976, it also focuses on his life. One of my favorite parts of this books is the list of his cameos, that is always just a fun task while watching his films.
The images in the book are very high quality and if they are in black and white or color, they still are very clear and looks fantastic. I also like the behind-the-scenes look into his films, I have never seen some of these images before and it is a real treat. Hitchcock was such a unique filmmaker with techniques that will never be able to be replicated. For people looking to find out some interesting information of Hitchcock’s career, this would be the book for that. Taschen delivers another hit and I look forward to future topics that they will cover.