“Hitchcock prolongs his prelude to horror for more than half the film, playing with audience suspense with comedy and romance while he sets his stage. The horror when it comes is a hair-raiser.” - James Powers, Hollywood Reporter
“Few films depict so eerily yet so meticulously the metaphysical and historical sense of a world out of joint.” - Richard Brody, New Yorker
Monday, September 2, 6:00 p.m. | I began my undergraduate education at the University of Iowa in the fall of 2000 with my major confidently declared: cinema studies. I packed up my collection of VHS tapes and arrived on campus thinking I knew a lot about film (my high school job was at the movie rental joint in my hometown of Winterset, Iowa, and I had seen THE SEVENTH SEAL; obviously I was an expert). For my first class—Introduction to Film Theory—we were assigned the fifth edition of David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s Film Art: An Introduction (featured on the cover: a still from THE MATRIX and the Warner Bros. frog). It was in the pages of that book that they explained what film actually is: the physical medium of celluloid, the art of crafting a visual story, the business of production and distribution. The biggest revelation for me was Bordwell and Thompson’s chapter on editing. Using Alfred Hitchcock’s deliciously eerie THE BIRDS, the authors described “shot reverse shot” (showing a character, and then cutting to what or who that character is looking at, and then cutting back to the character again), explained the magic of such an edit to put the viewer into the perspective of the character, linking what’s happening in the scene with what’s happening on the screen, and how Hitchcock employs the technique to an unsettling and chilling effect. After reading that chapter, I began to look for the edits, and understood cinema in an entirely new way. (Rebecca Fons, Director of Programming, Gene Siskel Film Center)
Awards & Nominations
Nominee - Best Special Effects, Academy Awards
Nominee - Best Motion Picture, Edgar Allan Poe Awards
Winner - Most Promising Newcomer (Tippi Hedren), Golden Globes
Remembering David Bordwell: David Bordwell (1947–2024), a beloved film scholar, passed away earlier this year at the age of 76. Bordwell’s impact and legacy is widespread: film curators and critics, cinephiles and casual viewers have been shaped, educated, and invigorated by Bordwell’s perspectives. With this series, we invited friends and colleagues of Bordwell’s to select a film that was special to him, in the hopes that, through these titles, we can pay tribute to his enthusiasm for cinema through our own. Read more
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu