17.8.12

The Birds (1963)

Time to tackle one of the big masters, as we duck and cover for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

Evan Hunter wrote the screenplay, Tippi Hendren and Rod Taylor play the leads - and the film offer fantastic contributions from effect wizard Albert Whitlock.

On this track we cover:

- The original short story
- Production stories
- Visual effects
- The Hitchock style and legacy
- The Tippi Hendren controvercy

DOWNLOAD

Download the mp3 file here. Link.

Subscribe to the commentary podcast in iTunes. Link.

STATS

Participants: David Bjerre and Dennis Rosenfeld.
Day of recording: August 16th, 2012.
Version: NTSC DVD or Bluray
Movie runtime: 1:59:28

SCREENSHOTS

Who did YOU have to sleep with to get this part?

The view of the bay, courtesy of Mr. Whitlock.

She's prettier than the last one your brought home.

Elegant composition, let's give credit to cinematographer Robert Burks.

You would need alcohol too, to make that backdrop look convincing.

The title characters take a break.

Those odd kinda-still-frames-but-not-really.

Mr. Whitlock paint the God's eye view. Appropriate.

Another elegant composition.

That final haunting shot.

LITERATURE

Cinefantastique: Volume 10, No. 2
- The Making of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, article by Kyle B. Counts.

Hitchcock: A Definitive Study of Alfred Hitchcock, by Francois Truffaut.

The Birds And Other Stories, by Daphne Du Maurier.

AUDIO/VIDEO

All About The Birds, directed by Laurent Bouzereau.

The Trouble with Marnie, directed by Laurent Bouzereau.

The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style, directed by Gary Leva.

DVD extras.

LINKS

The Matte Paintings of The Birds. Link.

Matte Shot blog: History of the World. Link.
Matte Shot blog: The Hindenburg. Link.

Every Hitchcock Cameo Ever. Link.

Variety review. Link.

NY Times review. Link.

The Birds - BFI Film Classics, by Camille Paglia. Link.
- an unintentionally hilarious attempt to analyse the film.

IMDb. Link.

Wikipedia. Link.

CORRECTIONS

Dennis accidentially said that The Blair Witch Project was from 1994. It's from 1999.