SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents

Part of our ALFRED HITCHCOCK: THE MASTER Series, Saturday, September 16, 2023

LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021

*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the 1917 Bay St building. Our entrance is NOT on Bay Street. You access our entrance from Wilson Street by turning into the street art alleyway/corridor in the back of the building. Look for our signs which are always posted on Wilson and in the corridor to guide the audience.

730pm ROPE (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Universal, USA, 80mns, 35mm)

930p THE BIRDS (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Universal, USA, 119mns, 35mm)

Tonight, we dive deep into experimental Hitchcock. What's fascinating is how Hitchcock almost unparalleled in the American movie industry (save for maybe Stanley Kubrick) was able to smuggle in wildly avant garde movies, get them financed, and even see them become huge commercial successes.

First up is Hitch's 1948 Rope which plays like a gripping first draft for Rear Window.

Rope, an adaptation of a single set play (a New York apartment), where two young men commit the “perfect murder”, stuff the body in a chest, then invite acquaintances including their Nietzche loving philosophy professor (James Stewart!) to a cocktail party for kicks!

Rope is one of Hitchcock’s experiment movies. He wanted to see if he could make a film that felt like one SINGLE shot. So Hitch composed the movie with eight ten minute long master shots where the cut from one shot to the next is often hidden with a character wipe on screen or a move into another room, etc.

He also continued his exploration of the single set movie (Lifeboat which we’ll screen upcoming had been made just four years before) here. The party takes place from late afternoon to evening so we see the sun set and night begin outside the huge glass windows that look out onto a New York skyline.

In many ways, Rope feels like a dry run for Rear Window. We get Hitch’s first collaboration with Jimmy Stewart and already see Hitch subverting Stewart’s all-American good guy persona to interesting effect. The New York apartment contained setting and Stewart’s ultimate ascension as the one who may have to solve the murder also pre-shadow Rear Window.

What sets Rope apart though from almost every other Hitchcock movie are the succession of mind-blowing masters (single shot takes) that make up the movie. Hitchcock “edits” in the shot through choreography, camera movement, actor movement, so that rather than feel bored, you feel an exhilaration at the cinema.

The master shots in Rope feel of a piece with the Orson Welles’ masters in Citizen Kane, Magnificent Ambersons, and Touch of Evil and Steven Spielberg’s masters in almost every movie he’s made. In other words, single shots of virtuosic cinema that paradoxically work hard NOT to call attention to themselves.

We follow this with one of Hitch's late period masterpieces, often considered one of his greatest works, 1963's The Birds. Tippi Hedren plays Melanie Daniels, a free spirited lusty woman, who pursues newfound crush Mitch Brenner (Rod Daniels) to his home in Northern California's Bodega Bay only to find herself in the middle of an unexplained and horrific bird attack on the townspeople.

It's hard in hindsight to appreciate what a gamble this movie was. Yes, it's true that Hitch had just proved himself with another gamble 1960's Psycho. But one still wonders what the studio executives thought when Hitchcock pitched a movie in which everyday Birds would become apocalyptic messengers of God's (?) The Earth's (?) vengeance for the folly of humanity.

Add to this a truly remarkable soundtrack by Bernard Hermann where his usual orchestral compositions are replaced with cacophonies of bird screams, a commitment to leave the animals' motivation an utter mystery, and a "trapped in a house" finale that is exponentially more frightening on the big screen with cinematic sound than it ever plays at home and you have one of Hitch's most perverse, unsettling, masterful works.

And it of course became one of his biggest hits paving the way for Spielberg and Jaws to trump the trump just twelve years later.

So join us for a night of experimental Hitchcock. On 35mm!

Best always,

Craig Hammill

Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer

*Please note that though we strive to always show titles on 35mm film if advertised, we may have to screen digitally if the print we receive is in such bad shape or if we don't receive the print in time because of a shipping delay. We will do our best to alert the audience. When this does occur, we will offer each ticket holder who chooses not to attend a complimentary ticket to a future event in exchange. (Disclaimer: Good for 90 days – Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

REFUNDS:

We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.

However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)

HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:

We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.

There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.

HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?

You can follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm

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HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:

You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.