Cinema is a screen onto which we can project our fears, torments and the monstrosities of the world. The screen protects us from what we see, but cinema has also permanently anchored our nightmares around a few powerful images (empty houses, hostile attics and basements, demonic masks, bloodcurdling grimaces, disturbing postures). Throughout the summer, the Cinémathèque québécoise will be presenting a series of films encompassing more than one hundred and twenty years of horror, reminding us that what scares us most is to make the deepest of our fears tangible and credible.
When things go wrong at work and in love, Marion Crane runs away with the $40,000 her boss entrusts to her, hoping to start a new life. On her way, she stops at a sad motel, where the manager, Norman Bates, takes care of her possessive mother. The place seems strange, but all is well... until Marion takes a shower.
Alfred Hitchcock
Born in a working-class suburb of London in 1899, Alfred Hitchcock began his career in the film industry as an intertitle designer. He then held various positions on the set, including assistant director. He was given his first projects as a director by producer Michael Balcon, including the acclaimed The Lodger in 1927. Hitchcock then directed the first British talkie, Blackmail, which was a great success. The following films made him one of the most popular British directors of the time, appreciated even in the United States. Producer David O'Selznick invited him to Hollywood, where he directed, from Rebecca in 1940 to The Birds in 1963, from studio to studio, his most famous work. This American career was only interrupted by the war effort (Hitchcock participated as a director and editor) and by the last great success of the director, Frenzy, shot in Great Britain in 1971.
