The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

“I was terrified of the police, of the Jesuit fathers, of physical punishment.”

Alfred Hitchcock was terrified of the police because of a childhood jail cell prank. That fear of authority bled into every single movie he ever made.

“The film is made on paper.”

He planned every shot down to the inch before he even got to set. The actual filming was just a boring formality to him.

Food was his armor against the world. He used gourmet meals and heavy drinking to hide a deep sense of loneliness.

“He wanted to own his leading ladies, to create them from nothing.”

His obsession with blonde leading ladies went way beyond professional interest. It was often cruel and deeply unsettling for the actresses involved.