100

(35mm)

North by Northwest is famous because of one scene. Now, that doesn't mean the rest of it is lacking, as it should be common knowledge of its solidified place in the canon of the greatest American films in the history of the cinema, but the zenith is found in a classic Hitchcock concept: the image of the pursuer and the pursued. Its famous sequence of a crop-duster aircraft leaping towards Cary Grant's Roger O. Thornhill in the Midwest countryside - bullets flying near his dives for survival - is constructed through the context of a world unknown: a place not designed for your color or creed or gender or social status. It is an environment, depicted via the…

Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest features a spellbinding first half which makes terrific use of clever humour, elevated tension & elements of mystery or suspense but is unfortunately marred by a lacklustre second half which bogs the story down with a dragged narrative & feels quite overlong in the end although it does have one spectacular sequence that'll be etched in memory once it's seen.

One of the first films to lay down the foundation of modern action thrillers in Hollywood, North by Northwest is a thrilling tale of mistaken identity which concerns an innocent advertising executive who is mistaken for a government agent by an organisation of foreign spies & is pursued by them. The story covers his journey of survival as…

Horizontal meets vertical as the title and crisscrossing credits propose. Cary Grant commits the greatest of horizontal acts (swiping into a cab) and tells the man a lie he's a hero for his immobility. The rest of the film turns a cosmic joke on the star as he runs from East to West in the identity of a man of a shorter suit. The camera arcs in a circular dance as he faces James Mason, the short stature man pulling his weight through lean Martin Laundau, who pours a tall bottle into Grant. "It's so horribly sad...why is it I feel like laughing?" an agent exclaims after a top down shot against the UN makes Grant a small dot in…

Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.68

A benchmark in the action/adventure genre, crafted by one of cinema's masters.

I remembered next no to nothing from this film, apart from its iconic final sequence. It is therefore that I'm still reeling from being transported 50 years back and being swept along on this tale of mistaken identity, romance and espionage.

Hitchcock is of course know as the master of suspense, yet this is perhaps his least suspenseful film. It is, on the other hand, a very exciting adventure filled with the easy charm, class and simplicity of days gone by. I love the fact that practically from the get go, Hitchcock gives us one up on his protagonist. He understands…

98/100

No longer my favorite movie of all time—it's just too weightless for that honor—but still the most nonstop fun the medium has ever produced. Somebody somewhere referred to it as the first James Bond movie, and while it's in some sense absurd to compare a professional secret agent out to save the world with an innocent ad exec just struggling to stay alive, there are enough superficial similarities to make one wish for a 007 adventure as consistently witty and blessedly lull-free. (Hot on the heels of Bardem's hammy work in Skyfall, I also appreciated the low-key, urbane menace James Mason brings to his role as chief baddie here. In general, the more bored and blithely unconcerned a villain…

North by Northwest is a lighthearted stopgap between Hitchcock's two heftiest psychological thrillers—Vertigo in 1958 and Psycho in 1960. Its a film that revels in its own absurdity, with its villains ostensibly wanting to off Cary Grant's quippy Roger Thornhill discretely, yet continually choosing the most conspicuous possible ways of carrying out the deed.

We, of course, are meant to roll with it just as Thornhill does, and that absurdity does lend itself to great sequences. Our main chase sequences increase in absurdity from a blackout drunk car chase, to an attempted murder with a biplane, and finally, an on-foot scramble across Mt. Rushmore, because why the fuck not?

Unfortunately, the film is caught halfway between wanting to be fun…

Hitchcock said that he always saved the overhead shot for a special moment, preferring to shoot at eye level to increase audience immersion within a scene — as if they were a bystander witnessing the events. Overhead shots are therefore reserved for a moment of importance, usually when a character makes a startling realisation. There are a few of these shots in Northwest. The best of which is the ”from a great height” scene with Mason and Landau — it’s a wonderful little touch that punctuates the scene with a bite of dark humour.

Eva Marie Saint, my favourite Hitchcock blonde, is icey, oh-so-cool, and a strong (for the period) female character. Her chemistry with Cary Grant is filled with sexual chemistry…