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Hitchcock's Early Films at PFA

In a career spanning more than half a century, Alfred Hitchcock fashioned a directorial style which helped redefine cinema. First and foremost, Hitchcock told stories visually. He employed innovative camera angles and editing techniques, while reveling in shots framed to heighten a scene's sense of trepidation. At times, his use of the camera could border on voyeurism.

A master of suspense, many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings, or employ decoys or "MacGuffins" that serve the film's themes and allow for examination of character psychology. Frustration, criminal behavior, muted violence, and murder run throughout the films, as do individuals on the run from the law often alongside alluring, icy blonde women -- the latter being a Hitchcock obsession. And then there are Hitchcock's famous cameos in nearly each of his films. They serve as the  director's signature.

A quiet Catholic boy from London's East End, Hitchcock (1899-1980) began as a production designer during the silent era. He moved up the ranks, and eventually became Britain's leading director before heading to Hollywood in 1939. Hitchcock completed ten films in England before the talkies took over. Nine of those silent films still exist.

Recently, the British Film Institute restored Hitchcock's surviving silents. Missing footage was located and restored, and decades of damage and dirt removed in what has been described as the largest restoration project ever undertaken by the BFI, which holds some of the earliest surviving copies of the director's silent work.

These little-seen films, which have come to be known as the "Hitchcock 9," reveal the seeds of genius. They show an artist working with the themes, motifs and obsessions which would become the hallmark of his best movies. The "Hitchcock 9" includes the director's first completed film, The Pleasure Garden (1925), about chorus girls in London, as well as such rarities as Downhill (1927), Easy Virtue (1928), Champagne (1928), and The Farmer's Wife (1928).

The now familiar Hitchcock style is evident in four of the films, Blackmail (1929), The Ring (1927), The Manxman (1929), and The Lodger (1927). The director himself dubbed the latter film "the first true Hitchcock picture." It also features his first cameo appearance.

Hitchcock once said, "The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema." These early works, starring the likes of handsome Ivor Novello and gorgeous Anny Ondra, shouldn't be missed.

A national tour for the "Hitchcock 9" played at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco in June, and now comes to the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley in a series of screenings through the end of August. The PFA screenings are digital restorations, each with Judith Rosenberg accompanying on piano.

Friday, August 16, 2013
7:00 p.m. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926). Hitchcock’s first foray into the thriller genre, starring Ivor Novello as the eponymous lodger who just may be a serial killer. The director himself called it “the first true Hitchcock movie.” (90 mins)

Saturday, August 17, 2013
6:15 p.m. The Ring (U.K., 1927). In the world of boxing, hungry amateurs vie with professional prizefighters for money, status, and love. (108 mins)

Sunday, August 18, 2013
7:00 p.m. The Farmer’s Wife (U.K., 1928). A widowed farmer attempts to find himself a new wife in this rare Hitchcock venture into romantic comedy. (107 mins)

Wednesday, August 21, 2013
7:00 p.m. The Pleasure Garden (U.K., 1926). Hitchcock’s first feature, a tale of two chorus girls in love, already displays his signature mix of visual invention, sexual provocation, and winking humor. (75 mins)

Friday, August 23, 2013
7:00 p.m. Blackmail (U.K., 1929). A dark, guilt-obsessed tale about a woman who kills her attempted rapist and the cover-up that follows. (78 mins)

Saturday, August 24, 2013
6:15 p.m. Downhill (U.K., 1927). Cynical humor mixes with sexual horror as the film tracks Ivor Novello’s descent from upstanding British schoolboy to Montmartre gigolo. (105 mins)

Wednesday, August 28, 2013
7:00 p.m. Champagne (U.K., 1928). Betty Balfour is a frivolous flapper whose millionaire father looks to teach her a lesson in frugality by letting her think he’s gone bankrupt. (105 mins)

Friday, August 30, 2013
7:00 p.m. Easy Virtue (U.K., 1927). An adaptation of the Noël Coward play, a drama about an uptight British society family. (82 mins)

Saturday, August 31, 2013
6:15 p.m. The Manxman (U.K., 1929). A powerful love triangle set among the fishing community on the Isle of Man. Hitchcock’s last silent. (90 mins)

The Hitchcock 9 is presented in conjunction with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The series is curated by Senior Film Curator Susan Oxtoby.

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Thomas Gladysz is a Bay Area arts and entertainment writer, early film buff, and the director of the Louise Brooks Society, an Internet-based archive and international fan club devoted to the silent film star. Gladysz has contributed to books, organized exhibits, and introduced Brooks' films around the world.
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