Often referred to as the “Master of Suspense,” Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most influential movie directors of all time. He directed more than 50 films and was also the host and producer of the American television anthology series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Throughout his six-decade directing career, he produced many films that are now considered classics and helped legitimize the thriller genre.
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This list from the AFI, a nonprofit dedicated to the cinematic arts, ranks the 100 best films of the past 100 years. A jury of 1,500 film experts compiled the list and includes movies from nearly every genre. It’s also an interactive checklist, allowing you to keep track of how many of the films you’ve seen.
Hitchcock flouted convention for “Psycho,” which many consider his masterwork. Hitchcock broke new ground with the 1960 film, with risqué imagery and shocking twists. The film was the most commercially successful in his long and illustrious career.
There may be no more obvious heir to Alfred Hitchcock’s throne than M. Night Shyamalan, the director known for suspenseful films like “The Sixth Sense,” “Signs,” and “The Village.” It should come as no surprise that Shyamalan says he’s a big fan of “the Master of Suspense,” going so far as to cite Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” as a major influence, one he called “epic and haunting.”
Like Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele has built a filmography that’s equal parts thrilling, suspenseful, genre-bending, and literary. It’s no surprise, then, that so many critics have been quick to name Peele as the second coming of “the Master of Suspense.”
Movie nerds Adam Frost and Zhenia Vasiliev break down eight of the director’s “trademark obsessions,” including his penchant for killing blonde leading ladies, the way mothers are portrayed, and the various ways characters are killed.
One of the defining features of Hitchcock’s film “Psycho” (1960) is the music, especially the sounds you hear during some particularly grisly scenes. This analysis from The Music Professor analyzes how that music complements the film, highlighting the way strings match the intensity of the film’s screenplay and black-and-white cinematography.
Famed director Martin Scorsese breaks down what makes four Hitchcock films (“Dial M for Murder,” “Rear Window,” “Vertigo,” and “Psycho”) so remarkable and discusses how Hitchcock’s style influenced his own work, including his 1980 film, “Raging Bull.”
Brian De Palma, director of “Carrie,” “Mission: Impossible,” and “Scarface,” discusses the influence of Hitchcock on his career, including how it led him to abandon engineering and pursue a career in filmmaking. He says Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” in particular changed his understanding of “cinematic language.”
The Alfred Hitchcock Papers are part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Collection, the world’s largest film-related archive. The collection consists of more than 52 million items, including photographs, posters, screenplays, costumes, props, and the films themselves.
Despite being at his peak, iconic director Alfred Hitchcock had many unrealized movie projects in the 1960s. The reasons are manifold, including difficulties with casting, budget limits, and controversies around project themes. This podcast breaks down the mysterious hurdles the director faced.
Art, music, sports, entertainment, movies, and many other subjects—these elements define who we are as a society and how we express ourselves as a culture. Take a deep dive into the topics shaping our shared norms, values, institutions, and more.