"How difficult it is to murder a man. Alfred Hitchcock in Hollywood" showcase. The showcase will be opened by the screening of "Rebecca".

The National Cinema Museum is presenting a showcase of twenty films by the absolute genius of the thriller genre Alfred Hitchcock at the Cinema Massimo, from Friday 8 September to Sunday 1 October, titled HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO MURDER A MAN. Alfred Hitchcock in Hollywood.

Twenty films by this thriller master from the ones he shot in the United States within the Hollywood production industry (excluding his English digression with Topaz). Works featuring a common tireless analysis of the mechanisms of human nature, in addition to his sophisticated and ever-experimental cinematographic language,.

The showcase will be inaugurated on Friday 8 September at 4.00 p.m. by the screening of Rebecca. Admission 6.00/4.00/3.00 euro.

 

Screenings calendar

 

Rebecca

(Usa 1940, 130’, Hd, b/w, o.v. it. s/t)

The shy, young second wife of Maxim de Winter, a wealthy gentleman from Cornwall, is obsessed, in her mansion at Manderley, by the image of his deceased first wife. After North by Northwest, this is the longest-running film by Hitchcock – at his debut here in Hollywood – which garnered him 8 nominations and 2 Oscar awards.

Fri 8, at 4.00 p.m./Sat 23, at 5.30 p.m.

 

Shadow of a Doubt

(Usa 1943, 108’, Hd, b/w, o.v. it. s/t)

Uncle Charlie returns to his family in the quiet Californian town of Santa Rosa. In spite of the affection and admiration she has always felt for him, his niece starts to suspect he is the mysterious widow-killer the newspapers are talking about. The case is closed, but his niece does not stop suspecting him.

Fri 8, at 6.30 p.m./Sat 23, at 3.30 p.m.

 

Spellbound

(Usa 1945, 105’, Hd, b/w, o.v. it. s/t)

“I wanted to shoot the first film on psychoanalysis. I worked with Ben Hecht, who had frequent contacts with famous psychoanalysts. When we got to the dream sequences, I wished to break off in the most absolute manner with the traditional way in which cinema presents dreams. I wanted Dalì for the clear-cut and sharp traits of his architecture... long shadows, distances that seem endless, lines converging within perspective... the shapeless faces,” (A. Hitchcock).

Sat 9, at 4.00 p.m./Sat 16, at 10.00 p.m.

 

Notorious

(Usa 1946, 101’, Hd, b/w, o.v. it. s/t)

At the end of the Second World War, Alicia – the daughter of a Nazi spy residing in the United States – agrees to marry Sebastian, at the head of a gang of German spies in America, to capture their secrets and reveal them to American intelligence, in order to atone for the evil wreaked by her father.

Sat 9, at 6.00 p.m./Fri 22, at 4.00 p.m.

 

Rope

(Usa 1948, 77’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

“I really don’t know why I allowed myself to be dragged into this mess with Rope... The comedy lasted as long as the action... and there shouldn’t have been any interruption within a story beginning at 7.30 and ending at 9.15 p.m. So I had this rather crazy idea of shooting a film made up of a single framing (in reality the frames are 10, each lasting 10 minutes, meaning the totality of film footage contained inside a single camera cartridge” (A. Hitchcock)

Sat 9, at 8.00 p.m./Fri 22, at 6.00 p.m.

 

Dial M for Murder

(Usa 1954, 105’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

London. Relations between wealthy Margot and her husband Tony are not good. He sponges on her because he knows of no other way; additionally, the woman is in love with American writer Mark Halliday, and is thus pondering divorce, which would mean feckless Tony’s ruin. So he decides to murder her in order to inherit her assets and live comfortably.

Sat 9, at 9.45 p.m./Sat 16, at 8.00 p.m.

 

Rear Window

(Usa 1954, 112’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

Drawn from a story by Cornell Woolrich, scripted by J. Michael Hayes, a challenging film: everything is observed from the protagonist’s viewpoint within a single stage-set. The filmmaker’s favourite film (barring the soundtrack by Franz Waxman), it is a highly poised mix of suspense, humour and acute observation of human weaknesses.

Sun 10, at 4.00 p.m./Tue 26, at 4.00 p.m.

 

To Catch a Thief

(Usa 1955, 102’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

A series of jewellery thefts on the Côte d’Azur induces the police to suspect John Robie, named “the Cat”, a gentleman-thief who retired from “business” many years earlier. Pursued by the police, Robie must catch the new “Cat” in order to prove his innocence. He is aided in his escape by Danielle, the daughter of a Resistance comrade, who courts him.

Sun 10, at 6.15 p.m./Wed 27, at 4.00 p.m.

 

Strangers on a Train

(Usa 1951, 101’, Hd, b/w, o.v. it. s/t)

“As in Shadow of a Doubt, the film is systematically built around the number "two", and here also, the two protagonists could very well be called with the same name, Guy or Bruno, because it is clearly one single character divided in two” (A. Hitchcock). Drawn from a novel by Patricia Highsmith and scripted by Raymond Chandler.

Sun 10, at 8.30 p.m./ Sun 24, at 4.00 p.m.

 

The Trouble with Harry

(Usa 1955, 99’, Hd, col, o.v. it. s/t)

“The film met my desire to establish a contrast, to fight against tradition, against stereotypes. In The Trouble with Harry I remove melodrama from the darkness of night to bring it into daylight" (A. Hitchcock). “All the humour in the film is born from a single mechanism, always the same, a sort of exaggerated composure: they talk of the corpse as if it were a packet of cigarettes” (F. Truffaut).

Mon 11, at 8.30 p.m./Wed 20, at 6.30 p.m.

 

Vertigo

(Usa 1958, 128’, Hd, col, o.v. it. s/t)

Plagued by vertigo following an accident while on duty, John "Scottie" Ferguson leaves the police and accepts a job with an old school-mate who asks him to check on his wife Madeleine. Ferguson is fascinated by the woman and a love story begins between them. But a tragedy is about to upset both their lives.

Tue 12, at 4.00 p.m./Sat 30, at 4.00 p.m.

 

Psycho

(Usa 1960, 109’, Hd, b/w, o.v. it. s/t)

“It’s a great satisfaction for us to use the art of cinema to create mass emotion. And we succeeded with Psycho. The public has not been intrigued a message. It has not been disconcerted by great acting. It has not been lured into a bestseller novel. What moved the audience, was the pure film " (A. Hitchcock).

Tue 12, at 6.20 p.m./Sat 23, at 10.00 p.m.

 

The Man Who Knew Too Much

(Usa 1956, 120’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

Doctor Ben McKenna receives information by chance, whilst on holiday in Marrakech with his family, about the attempt carried out in London against a foreign politician, from a spy about to die. The terrorists, who pretend they are tourists, kidnap his young son to blackmail him and induce him to silence. The sequence of the attempt at the Albert Hall in London is thrilling in its precision.

Sat 16, at 3.30 p.m./Tue 26, at 6.15 p.m.

 

The Birds

(Usa 1963, 120’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

In Bodega Bay, Melanie takes a pair of inseparable budgerigars to Mitch, a young lawyer who lives his mother and small sister. During the crossing over the bay, she is wounded by a seagull. It appears to be an accident, but reality will turn out to be quite different. At the time, it was one of the films with the most frenetic editing ever seen: over 3000 takes.

Sat 16, at 5.45 p.m./Fri 29, at 4.00 p.m.

 

North by Northwest

(Usa 1959, 136’, Hd, col., v.o, sott.it.)

A marketer, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), is mistaken for an agent named Kaplan and kidnapped by a spy ring which tries to kill him. He manages to escape but nobody will believe his story: on the contrary, due to a further misunderstanding, he is accused of having murdered a diplomatic-corps man.

Sun 17, at 3.45 p.m./ Sun 24, at 6.00 p.m.

 

Torn Curtain

(Usa 1966, 128’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

In Cold War Europe, American physicist Armstrong - in Copenhagen for an international conference - announces to his fiancée that he intends to go over and work with scientists behind the Iron Curtain. This incredible volteface however masks a lot more: Armstrong wants to penetrate Eastern Bloc nuclear sanctuaries to capture their secrets.

Sun 17, at 6.15 p.m./Fri 29, at 6.15 p.m.

 

Topaz

(Usa 1969, 125’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

In 1962, charged by the Cia, French agent André Devereaux must infiltrate himself and dismantle a spy ring named "Topaz" working for Moscow, which includes French officials above suspicion. Shot on a big budget in Paris, New York and Copenhagen, Hitchcock’s fifty-first film blends Cold War, thrills and sentimental intrigues.

Sun 17, at 8.40 p.m./Tue 19, at 4.00 p.m.

 

Frenzy

(Great Britain 1972, 116’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

Richard Barney is accused of murdering his wife and the former work colleague who caused his dismissal. In reality the assassin is a friend of his who denounces him to the police, after hosting him at home. Once sentenced, Richard realises his friend’s guiltiness. Hitchcock’s second-last film, with black humour and great largesse of resources.

Tue 19, at 6.15 p.m./ Sun 24, at 8.30 p.m.

 

Marnie

(Usa 1964, 130’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

Marnie is a thief who changes her identity after every theft. She is recognised by Mark (Sean Connery), who falls in love with her and obliges her to choose between jail or marriage. She agrees to marry him, but she is neurotic, cold and subject to awful nightmares. The situation is morbid and terrible. The whole initial part is masterful.

Wed 20, at 4.00 p.m./ Sun 1 October, at 4.00 p.m.

 

Family Plot

(Usa 1976, 120’, Hd, col., o.v. it. s/t)

Blanche Tyler says she can see in the future and in the past. When elderly Mrs. Rainbird asks her to search for an illegitimate nephew of hers, abandoned years earlier, she does not think twice about it. With the mirage of a ten thousand dollar reward, Blanche departs to seek him out. Last film by the seventy-five year old Hitchcock.

Sat 23, at 7.50 p.m.