Review: “Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film” /Block Museum

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Alfred Hitchcock once said: “It must always be remembered that the primary aim of pictures is to provide entertainment.” Throughout Hitch’s staggering fifty-year career, he’s certainly enlightened audiences becoming one of the most revered filmmakers of the twentieth century. Film is a very collaborative process and he couldn’t have made his masterpieces alone. The exhibit focuses on Hitch’s relationships with his behind-the-scenes collaborators of production designers, screenwriters and cinematographers who helped him create some of the most famous scenes in movie history. Pencil-sketched storyboards from “Saboteur,” “The Birds,” “Lifeboat” and “North by Northwest” hang on the wall juxtaposed with the edited film sequences screening on monitors. Memos from infamous producers David O. Selznick and Darryl Zanuck are displayed, as is a typed letter from Hitch sent to “The Birds” writer Evan Hunter. The most intriguing artifact is a hand-written shot list of the attacking birds montage in the film. Hitch’s painstaking writing indicates his strong vision as a director. The only disappointment is the lack of memorabilia from one of his greatest films, “Rear Window.” The exhibit is mandatory for Hitchcock connoisseurs and cinephiles to discover the miraculous transformation of art onto celluloid. (Garin Pirnia) Through December 9 at BLOCK MUSEUM

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