BFI to celebrate Hitchcock

by Naman Ramachandran

18/04/2012 - The British Film Institute (BFI) is feting the genius of Alfred Hitchcock on an unprecedented scale this summer, exhibiting all surviving works of the revered filmmaker. This is the culmination of a three-year BFI National Archive project Rescue the Hitchcock 9 to restore Hitchcock’s silent films.

These include newly commissioned scores from contemporary musical talent for four of the restored silent films performed at screenings in venues across the capital through June and July as part of the London 2012 Festival celebrations. The Pleasure Garden (1925) will feature Daniel Patrick Cohen’s score for Hitchcock’s first film; Blackmail (1929) will have Neil Brand’s score; The Ring (1927), a film that helped inspire The Artist [trailer, film focus] according to its director Michel Hazanavicius, will have a score by Soweto Kinch; and The Lodger: a Tale of the London Fog (1926) a score by Nitin Sawhney. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation provided principal funding for the restoration of these films.

The BFI Southbank Genius of Hitchcock Season (August – October) will feature all 58 surviving Hitchcock films and will include special on-stage events with Hitchcock luminaries including Tippi Hedren and Bruce Dern and a special live performance of a new score for newly restored Champagne (1928) from composer Mira Calix.

New BFI Hitchcock publication ‘39 Steps to The Genius of Hitchcock’ – original essays from 39 eminent critics, curators and historians including Camille Paglia, Charles Barr, Matthew Sweet, Laura Mulvey and Patrick McGilligan, edited by James Bell will go on sale.