Afraid to wash her hair?

Les Diabolique (1955, French)

Nowadays, abuse does not just encompass physical and sexual kind. In development psychology, a different type of abuse is often quoted as having a detrimental effect on the maturing mind. One with no physical evidence but is said to leave a mark so deep that it may just jostle the living daylight out of a person's future. They call it psychological abuse. The constant advice (imparting of knowledge or life experience or nagging as the receiver perceives it) is so painful that living seems not worth it!

I find this a little perplexing. I thought what does not kill a person, only makes him stronger! And how is one to know his real potential if he does not scrape the barrel's bottom? The world would have no Michael Jackson if his father just gave in to his whims and fancies of the unknowing child who does not know the purpose of repeated and gruelling training. Nevertheless, that is the recipe of modern parenting for you - a liberal dose of mollycoddling, sprinkled with helicopter parenting to cushion the trauma of a fall and avoidance of negative vibes at all cost!

This classic French psychological thriller is said to rival Hitchcock's 'Psycho'. Apparently, Hitchcock failed to secure this film's rights just a few hours before it was taken up.

This film has nothing to do with parenting but all to do with psychological abuse.

An uncouth headmaster, Michel Delassalle, is running a boarding school with an iron fist. The school is actually owned by his wife, Christina, but he runs like his own, shoving his orders to the teachers and punishing the students indiscriminately. He even has the gall openly to have an affair with one of the teachers, Nicole. The timid wife, the headmistress, is just a passive one resigned to her fate. All these changes one day when Nicole turns up with a black eye, allegedly beaten up by Michel.

The devoted wife and temptress

The two women scorned plot a devious plan to kill off the headmaster during the long weekend. Christina, the timid one, is literally steamrolled to be a reluctant accomplice in this exercise. She lured him to Nicole's out-of-town apartment by informing him that she wants a divorce. When he turns up to persuade her, he is drugged and drown in a bathtub. His 'body' is brought back to the schoolyard and dumped into the school pool, made to look like a suicide.

Things get complicated when the headmaster's body fails to float. If fact, it is nowhere to found even when it is drained for another reason. To turn the notch a step further, a student was seen punished after receiving marching orders from the 'headmaster'! All these proved too much for the weak-hearted Christina, the meek wife. A retired police detective ala Columbo (chomping on an unburnt cigar donned a trench coat asking annoying questions repeatedly) takes an interest in the case when Christina, after being coaxed by Nicole, turns up at the local morgue to identify a body which turned out not to be of the headmaster, naturally.

Staying loyal to the director's plea not to divulge the ending of the story, you have to watch the film in entirety to appreciate why it had been labelled as one of the scariest movies of all time. It is comparable to Hitchcock's classics.

A man wrote to Alfred Hitchcock: "Sir, After seeing 'Diabolique,' my daughter was afraid to take a bath. Now she has seen your 'Psycho' and is afraid to take a shower. What should I do with her?" Hitchcock replied: "Send her to the dry cleaners."

Assassination of the character kind?

The Girl (2012)
This controversial film produced by HBO and BBC put the legendary Alfred Hitchcock in a bad light. It is the product of the interview of a down and out actress Tippi Hedren whom Hitchcock introduced in 'Bird' (1963).
Hitch's fascination with blondes continues after Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergmann and Kim Novak. In comes Tippi  Hedren a blonde with Nordic roots, a single mother, a model with a child. After an unpleasant encounter with Vera Miles who became pregnant during Hitchcock's earlier film, he is happy with her single status.
Tippi, on her side is smitten for having a chance to work with a director of his stature. He promises to elevate her career to that of Grace Kelly, who stopped acting after marrying Prince of Monaco.
Shooting of 'The Birds' commences (no pun intended). Slowly, Hitchcock starts controlling her dressing and even her make-up. We, the viewers, can see that Hitch is made to look like sexual predator, have long stares at Tippi whilst leaving to our imaginations of what actually goes through his mind!

BBC drama on Hitchcock attacked by former colleagues
Toby Jones (Hitchcock) and Sienna Miller (Tippi Hedren)
Both nominated in 2013 Golden Globe Award

He even tries to steal a kiss from her during one of their trips from the shooting scenes. To get back on her refusal, he insists on using live bird instead of the mechanised birds in crucial scenes of shooting of 'Birds'. He insists on repeated takes of the same scenes for days resulting in an exhausted and injured Tippi. Amidst this background, Tippi completes the film, albeit with some soul searching. Of course, the gifts and special treatment helped. This resiliency was the character admired by Hitch, that he casted her in his subsequent film, Marnie. Hitch's advances continues.
Mrs. Hitchcock (Alma) is fully aware of her husband's fascination with his heroines but decide to stay aloof and look the other way.

Tippi Hedren

Hitch starts stalking Tippi. Alma leaves Hitchcock temporarily. Hitch then started demanding sexual favours for bringing her to dizzying heights and even proposed that they should elope. Tippi completes her film and a leaves. She, however, does not get the chance to get into other films because of a clause in her contract that bars her from working with any other studio!
The film was received with mixed reviews, mainly because it was based on character assassination of a legend based on one person's interview of something left buried 60 years previously. Some are wondering whether it is just tears from a grieving star. On top of that, other Hitchcock's heroines like Doris Day (The Man who knew too much), Kim Novak (Vertigo) and Eve Marie Saint (North by Northwest) had nothing but praise and respect for this man. Anyway, Hitchcock is not around to defend himself. The actors (Toby Jones and Sienna Miller) in the film, however, did a excellent performance that they have been nominated for the 2013 Golden Globe Awards.

He found his elusive dream blonde in his wife!

Hitchcock (2012)
I guess that it is a must-see film for suckers of Hitchcock films, of which I am guilty of. Whatever the reason may be for watching this flick, one can understand that many tears, heartaches, gambles, feuds, anxiety and initial naysayers a part and parcel of the background in the production of anything earth shattering, like the production of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 blockbuster 'Psycho'.
Hitchcock's 'Psycho' broke the standard mould of a scary movie by venturing one step further by suggesting murder and violence without actually showing the act. Even this met great resistance from the censorship board those days.
After his success in 'North by Northwest', he was taken aback when a reporter asked him whether it was an opportune time for him to retire! This only ignited his desire to recreate another with the same passion that he had in his earlier days. Somebody suggests a novel based on a real crime by a Ed Gein. Even though, he was  told that such a story was not palatable to general viewing, this man, Hitchcock, whom his wife, Alma, describes as obsessed with murder, goes on with it. He buys all the novel in the bookshops so that nobody knows the ending of his film.

Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh

Hitchcock, as seen in the movie, is not the most pleasant man to live with. His wife, despite his idiosyncrasies and sarcasm, stands loyally behind him supporting him and giving her valuable advice.
In the meantime, a bored Alma tries to add spark to her life by writing a screenplay with a friend, Whitfield, who also hopes that his manuscript would be accepted by Hitchcock.
Hitchcock has to mortgage his house to finance his next film, Psycho, as his studio, backs off. Facing mounting challenges in the form of resistance from the censors, delayed shooting, illness and the suspicion of his love of his life having an affair, Hitchcock crumples. His wife, however, rises to the occasion and saves the day.

Anthony Hopkins

Alfred Hitchcock

In the course of the movie, we discover that Hitchcock really enjoys his food and drinks. He has a fetish for beautiful blondes and is even portrayed as a peeping Tom. He is seen having hallucinations of having conversations with the killer upon which the film 'Psycho' is based on. His build-up of oppressed anger is said to have produced the outrageous shower scene when he himself swang the knife in a frenzy to vent his anger, giving Janet Leigh a fright of her life.
The release of the film also met a hitch. It was scheduled to be screened in a few theatres only with minimal marketing. Hitchcock successfully spiced up the curiosity of the public by, for the first time, forbidding entry after the movie had started! It met with outstanding public reception taking Hitchcock to the pinnacle of his artistic career.
The film ends with him giving a speech to the audience pondering on his next film just when a bird perches on his shoulder hinting to us of his 1963 'Birds'.
Anthony Hopkins gives a sterling performance as the Man himself with his mask-like expressionless face and bombastic expressive sentences filled with cheeky word play. I wonder what happened to his daughter, Pat who is nowhere to be seen in the movie. Overall, an entertaining flick.

Hitchcock's Most Memorable Scenes

http://entertainment.time.com/2012/11/19/spellbinder-hitchcocks-10-most-memorable-scenes/slide/all/#ixzz2Crh0cLv8

• The Crop Duster in North by Northwest

• Robert Donat’s Nonsense Speech in The 39 Steps

• Judy Becomes Madeleine in Vertigo

• Crows on a Jungle Gym in The Birds

• The Killing of Gromek in Torn Curtain

• Joseph Cotten’s Dinner Monologue in Shadow of a Doubt

• Raymond Burr Looks Into James Stewart’s Camera in Rear Window

• Grace Kelly Attacked in Dial M for Murder

• The Wine Cellar in Notorious

• The Shower Scene in Psycho

Only for collectors!

Elstree Calling (1930)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock et.al.

At a time when Hollywood was churning out colourful lavish feather in the hat type of 'Copacabana' styled performance, 'Elstree Calling' was London's premiere studio's
1930 answer to their trans-Atlantic cousins. This one of the earlier talkies was made at a time when the British Empire was on the decline, but its culture was the envy of the world over. Trouble was already brewing over the Empire as the fall had started at the turn of the century.

The movie at best can be referred to a collection of songs, dances and sketches ala-Donny and Marie (a variety show) of the 70s! There is a bumbling master of ceremony who gets all his scripts mixed up but manages to introduce the performers. He goes on to give announcements out of context, like a child looking for her father who left her 22years previously and so on. There is a funny running sketch of a man fiddling with his primitive temperamental TV set which only works when the compere bade farewell! This script was apparently choreographed by Hitchcock. One can see the influence of Hitchcockian humour in a few of the skits. In one, an enraged man shoots a couple embraced in passionate kiss only to realise that he is in the wrong flat!

Tuning in J L Baird's invention
Need much tinkering like our set in RRF!

Moving talkies were its infancy, and they were experimenting with colour. Dances ala-can-can were shot in monochromatic yellow hue (Pathecolor stencil).
This presentation is of historical value and is only for die-hard Hitchcock fans.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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A lesson in champagne life!

Champagne (1928)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

1928 must have been a very good year for a young Alfred Hitchcock. His maiden film as a director as well as a few others came alive on screen and since then champagnes have been popping. News had it that Hitchcock did not really enjoy post-production cocktail parties and was rarely seen after shooting times. The silent movie 'Champagne' is a 1928 production that made its way to my collection of Hitchcock's movies - that means only 'No. 13'(1922-lost film), Mountain Eagle (1925-lost film), 'Always tell your wife' (1923) and 'Elstree Calling'(1930) are still elusive!

'Champagne' starts with a Wall Street magnate fuming mad (literally, evidenced by puffs of cigar fumes) whilst reading about the antics of his headstrong daughter flying across the Atlantic to meet up with her secret lover. In the next scene, passengers of a cruise ship are excited over the apparent rescuing of a stranded plane in the middle of the ocean.
The lovers meet on board but they do not show their affection in public. Meanwhile, there is another gentleman on board who has both eyes set on the heir. The lovebirds' plan to be married by the Captain crumbles after a lovers' tiff.

The ship reaches Paris. Betty has a whale of her time immersing herself in luxury. Her father appears at her doorstep to inform her that they were poor now after Wall Street crash!

Betty starts working as a flower girl in a nightclub. The earlier suitor (aboard the ship) befriends her. Talk about coincidence, her boyfriend also appears there. Furious that her sweet girl is working in a place like that, he brings in her father who clarifies that the whole story of insolvency was made up to make her realize the importance of money. Angry for being fooled, she follows the suitor who incidentally was going back to America. As in all good Indian movies, the happy ending is told aboard the ship - that the suitor is actually her father's good friend who was summoned by Betty's father when he got news that she was planning to elope. After discovering that the boyfriend is a good guy, the father consents to the marriage and they toast to the union.

Hitchcockian humour in a musical?

Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
At a time of financial weakness and desperation, Alfred Hitchcock must have made his first and last musical drama. It has a lot of Hitchcockian eccentric comedy of sorts , poking fun at the life of the rich Viennese aristocrats. Johann Strauss Jr., a disillusioned young man ridiculed by his famous composer father for his 'laughable' compositions, tries desperately to have his composition heard.

He befriends a young pretty countess who takes a liking to his abilities and takes it upon herself to get his composition public. This infuriates Jr's baker's daughter girlfriend, Rasi who is quite contended with him donning baker's hat and getting his hands dirty with flour. 

The countess plans a devious scheme to delay Senior Strauss' arrival at a private presentation whilst Jr. is coaxed to lead the rostrum to the demands of a boisterous Viennese aristocratic crowd to lead the  waltz 'Blue Danube' to a petrified crowd. Through a spat of confusion of events, Johann Jr. reconciles with Rasi and countess leaves the young lovers alone.The animosity between father and son continues, however. 

This is an adaptation of the story young Johan Strauss, in real life, whose father wanted him to be a banker. The music in him could not be contained and the result is the evergreen, ever popular "Blue Danube'.

One memorable moment in this movie is when Rasi is caught kissing her boyfriend by her baker father. He said' "Do you know that I was allowed to kiss your mother only 6 months after the wedding?" To which she replied, "Father, is that why you were 50 when I was born?"

Not the "Pleasure Garden" as they look for!

This is the earliest of the collection of the silent movies that is currently in my possession. When I told one of my friends that I was going to watch a 1925 (released in 1927) silent movie called 'Pleasure Garden', he asked whether it was an adult themed porn flick!
Of course not, it is Alfred Hitchcock's directorial debut. Pleasure Garden is the name of the hall where Jill and Patsy were dancing girls.
Jill's fiancé, Hugh, who is working in an estate overseas visits her with his friend, Levet. After a brief vacation, Hugh returns to work. Jill's fame skyrockets afterwards and is wooed by a rich prince. Patsy's advice to Jill on being level headed and faithful to Hugh falls to deaf ears and their relationship sours.
Patsy is smitten with Levet and decide to tie the knot. Towards the end of her honeymoon, Patsy realizes Levet's true colour. Levet returns overseas to continue his work.

Virginia Valli as Patsy 

In one of the rather infrequent letters sent to Patsy, Levet mentioned of him suffering from a nasty tropical fever. Thinking of the worst, Patsy rushes to care for her husband only to discover of his alcoholic lifestyle and sinful liaison with a native woman. Patsy is abused. She is rescued only to discover that Hugh is stricken with 'love-sickness' after discovering that the love of his life, Jill, is to marry someone else. Patsy nurses Hugh back to health and they become a couple only to return home and live happily ever after.
One interesting scene that captured my imagination in this otherwise not so fantastic movie happened in the earlier part of the show. Jill's dog, Cuddles, started licking Patsy's sole when she was kneeling at her bed praying. Irritated, she kicked the dog away to the dog's howling whilst she continued her divine obligation! It is said that these are the subtle brickbats that Hitchcock hurls at his strict Catholic upbringing in his childhood.

Pact of loyalty at a price

Downhill (1927)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
People may frown and sneer at me watching silent movies. After all the advancement in acting and sound systems, it can be mind boggling to have one sitting through a full length silent movie as if you are living in a world filled with the hearing impaired or speech challenged people! What is important to me in a film is not the glitz of props and razzmatazz of ornaments draped around the actors but rather, I am a sucker for good stories. Of course, a silent movie is not silent. There is an ascending and descending crescendo of musical score. Only the actors are acting, not speaking to be heard.

I recently watched one of the oldest silent movies that I have watched - Downhill, a 1927 Alfred Hitchcock directed British film.
There is more to silent movies than Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin's antics. As speech expression is a handicap, the players compensate with sometimes, exaggerated, facial expressions and hand gestures. It is interesting to see the fashion sense of the swinging twenties. Actresses have started expressing their independence and escaped domestication by leaving behind the long mane and were seen all spotting well oiled short boy-haircuts. Hats were the favourite fashion of the day but I cannot help but compare their bucket hats with drooping brims to the Penang City Council night-soil workers of 60s, but that is just me!
The fixation to pearly whites had not set in as their teeth (of the actors) appeared stained like a betel leave and nut or paan chewing addict!

The story... may appear melodramatic, ala-Indian movie like!
Bretwick, an all rounder school captain is accused of inappropriate behaviour with a school canteen servant. Being a true friend, he takes the blame knowing well his best friend is the culprit and that the friend may lose his scholarship if convicted. Bretwick is then expelled. Coming from a high heeled family, he leaves his affluent life after a tiff with his father for not believing his sincerity.
Working as an assistant with a drama company, he befriends a famous actress with expensive taste. Inheriting a £30,000 windfall from a dead Godmother makes it easier to win her heart who obviously is interested in his bank balance. They marry and as soon as his money runs out, her liaison with her old boyfriend is rekindled. He is chased out penniless.
Starting anew in France as a fifty-francs-per-dance dancer to entertain old bored housewives, he realises the obvious fakeness of mankind. Well, in the 50s in Malaya, this type of job would be called (for the female) 'perempuan ronggeng' or gigolo in modern times. He is in the lowest ebb of life, depressed and homesick.

From Marseilles, 'rats from the docks' type of kind souls, actually, ship him back to England.
He becomes delusional and his entire life appears in front of him. When all avenues were deemed close, in blind instinct, the prodigal son comes back home to the open arms of the parents. Truth is known, everything is forgotten, forgiven and life is reinstated in its previous glory.
Outdoor shooting was still at an infantile stage here, maybe neonatal, as evidenced by jerky penning and limited brisk exposure of shots. It is interesting though to glimpse at the real streets of London. It is the street, not studio as I do not think they had mammoth studios with make believe towns yet! They did not know the importance of spring cleaning and gotong royong, the lanes were strewn with garbage. I think only when Dr Ronald Ross impressed upon   people the relationship of clean air and malaria, was proper street cleansing understood. [Malaria, mal=bad, air=air]
 Overall, it was an entertaining flick. Just that the Western story lines have changed over the years, Indian movies have got suspended in time still churning out one melodramatic feat after another.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents S5E0: Death of poetic justice?

One of my favourite TV series that never fail to impress me each time I watch is the 1955 to 1962 production of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents'(AHP). Over the past few years, Universal Studios have had the joy of sadistically slow release of these old TV shows' DVDs at a snail's pace much to the disappointment of die hard mature Hitchcock fans. There was a lot of excitement recently in November when news broke out that the 5th season DVDs were due to be released on 3rd January 2012! For those who have been living in outer space and are in the dark about AHP, these are 25-minute shows (before the current familiar 45-minute format was norm) that dwell on morbid subjects like death and murder (usually of spouse) presented by Alfred Hitchcock himself. In a sense, Hitchcock was just a compere who introduces the show in a witty way and finds joy taking jabs at the advertisers, at the beginning of the show, at beginning of the take-over of the world by advertisers and commercialism! If fact, Hitchcock with his peculiarly wicked British wry sense of humour and word play, is itself an attraction of the series.
In most of these shows, the perpetrator usually comes out smelling of roses after having apparently committed a perfect crime. In keeping with poetic justice and not too outwardly implying that crime actually pays, Hitchcock will announce before the closing credits how justice eventually prevailed!
Talking about poetic justice...
I pre-ordered the copy on Amazon. It was released in US on 3.1.12 and I received it on 6.1.12 all crisp and new, undamaged. Why? Because I have ordered on express mail (FedEx), that's why! So, why am I complaining?
Normally I ordered my DVDs with regular postage via US postal service and it takes a good 2 to 3 weeks to arrive after being stranded in Malaysian airports like forever to be cleared by Customs. With a little bit of mullah, everything is speeded up. That is life is it not? With a little bit of greasing, everything can go through the fast express lane whilst enforcement just looks the other way, whether you are in USA, Bangkok, KL or Timbuktu! Those who are financially challenged or believes in equality and justice will just have get in line and wait for their turn. Life is never fair. Justice in life sometime seems not fair but we can always pacify the losers that there is always a bigger eternal court which would be just and sometimes the sentences meted out can be for a very long time, like forever! And the promise of virgins for martyrdom?@*!

POETIC JUSTICEIn literature, an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded, usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate.The term was coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer in the 17th century, when it was believed that a work of literature should uphold moral principles and instruct the reader incorrect moral behaviour. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer)