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Loading... Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies (2009)by Donald Spoto
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This varies from the American Edition (Harmony Books, 2008) in pagination and the selection of photographs. What made Alfred Hitchcock a great director were the very qualities that made him much less than a stellar human being. Much has been written about Hitchcock's relationships with the actresses who starred in his films, but Donald Spoto makes those relationships the focus of his 2008 book "Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies." Hitchcock was particularly smitten by Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Vera Miles and Tippi Hedren. The latter was a 31-year-model when the director noticed her on television and then, through a third party, signed her to a long-term contract without informing her what the contract was for or with whom. Hedren, with no acting experience, expected a series of bit parts for her $500 a week. Instead she became an underpaid star. He physically and sexually abused her through two films, "The Birds" and "Marnie," before she was able to free herself from his domination. Other directors of his generation infamously used the casting couch method to put actresses in their films. The obese Hitchcock, who by his own admission had sex just once in life, had other approaches to bringing his fantasies to life. He tried to control the lives of his favorite stars, dictating what they wore, where they went and with whom they associated. Perhaps not coincidentally, "Vertigo," believed by many to be his greatest film, is also the movie that reveals the most about its director. In it, James Stewart plays a man obsessed with a certain woman who compels another woman, also played by Kim Novak, to transform herself into that ideal. Spoto goes film by film through all of Hitchcock's movies, although naturally he gives less attention to those starring women the director didn't particularly like. Alfred Hitchcock was something of a mess, both physically and psychologically. His fears, passions, obsessions and insecurities dominated his life and made him an unhappy man, loved by few. Yet somehow he translated all these qualities into his films, loved by many.
In “Spellbound by Beauty,” Spoto, a Hitchcock obsessive, is back to his favorite subject — only this time he has come not to praise Alfred Hitchcock but to reveal him as “a man so unhappy, so full of self-loathing, so lonely and friendless, that his satisfactions came as much from asserting power as from spinning fantasies and acquiring wealth.”
The third volume in a trilogy exploring the life and work of the legendary director examines Hitchcock's life in terms of his relationships with the actresses in his films, including Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, and Tippi Hedren, in a study of his films, rise to fame and power, artistic legacy, unconventional marriage, and obsessions. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)791.43023The arts Recreational and performing arts Public performances Film, Radio, and Television Film Techniques, procedures, apparatus... SupervisionLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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