The Birds
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.
At a bird shop in San Francisco, chic socialite Melanie Daniels meets Mitch Brenner, an attractive lawyer who, pretending to think she's an employee, asks her for some lovebirds to give to his younger sister. The next day, on an impulse, Melanie decides to take said lovebirds to Brenner's apartment, but when she arrives at his home, she learns that he's gone to Bodega Bay for the weekend. Melanie Daniels climbs into her car with the birds to drive there. As soon as she arrives in the small town, Melanie, Mitch and all the other residents fall victim to an inexplicable massive birds attack.
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 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.
Bio & photo: Cinémathèque québécoise
