Movie Discussion: The Birds (1963) by Alfred Hitchcock
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In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 suspense classic and follow-up to Psycho, chic socialite Melanie Daniels enjoys a passing flirtation with an eligible attorney in a San Francisco pet shop and, on an impulse, follows him to his hometown bearing a gift of lovebirds. But upon her arrival, the bird population runs amok. Suddenly, the townsfolk face a massive avian onslaught, with the feathered fiends inexplicably attacking people all over Bodega Bay.
"Hitchcock's most abstract film, and perhaps his subtlest, still yielding new meanings and inflections after a dozen or more viewings." (Chicago Reader)
"Few films depict so eerily yet so meticulously the metaphysical and historical sense of a world out of joint." (New Yorker)
"The essential Hitchcock movie, the purest and most confident, a brilliant distillation of the themes that have fueled him." (The Guardian)
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Let's discuss The Birds (1962), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchock, recently voted the 185th greatest movie of all time in Sight & Sound's international survey of film critics and experts. The directors Andrei Tarkovsky, Federico Fellini, and Akira Kurosawa have all cited The Birds as one of their favourite films. In 2016 the movie was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry.
We've also previously discussed Hitchcock's 1960 movie Psycho.
Please watch the movie in advance and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the meeting.
You can stream it here (adjust quality in the player settings) or rent it on various platforms online (for best quality.)
Check out other film discussions in the group every Friday and occasionally other days.