Strangely enough, even though I'm a huge fan of Hitchcock, I had never seen "The Birds."
And since the sweetie hadn't either, and I had one of my rare Saturday nights off, it was time to rectify that oversight.
Hollywood Bar and Filmworks was having a special showing of Hitch's 1963 flick, complete with an appearance by Tippi Hedren. John and I showed up early, thinking she was going to be giving a sort of presentation about the movie, but no such luck -- she was in the lobby selling autographed pictures and such.
She's very lovely and elegant, and had that jeans with metallic, impossibly high heels look you have to be a celebrity to pull off. But having not seen the movie yet, I didn't feel like interrupting her in the middle of her dinner when I wouldn't even be able to form a reasonably intelligent question. So we kept our distance and left her to her salad.
The movie? Marvelous. I love how Hitchcock can create suspense with the simplest of situations, and that's what "The Birds" is at its heart -- something in the world is not as it should be. And there's no explaination as to why.
I loved the drunk in the restaurant quoting Scripture, btw, and I'm terribly impressed at everything Tippi can do in high heels, a dress suit and a mink coat. I can barely walk in high heels.
Audio effects are used extremely well to heighten the tension -- there's no music to speak of (except in the school scene) but the sound of the birds ... well, lets just say I'm looking at the geese on the pond behind my house differently now.
Add to the craziness a catfight between Melanie, Annie and Lydia simmering beneath the surface and some standout performances by Susanne Pleshette and Jessica Tandy and you've got a classic. This one's getting added to my "Buy on DVD" list.
John pointed out that the claustrophobic waiting scenes and general strangeness were like "Night of the Living Dead" with birds instead of zombies, but "Night" wasn't released until 1968. So "The Birds" could have influenced Romero.
1 comment:
I haven't seen Birds yet either. But you shoulda gone up and talked to the actress.
You coulda said "hey doll, I ain't seen this picture yet, do ya think its any good?"
Post a Comment