Alfred, you da bomb

So it goes without contest that Alfred Joseph Hitchcock has a reputation as one of the most emulated, respected and talented directors our sad little world has produced. What is so entrancing about what this jolly-jowled man creates?

He is pure manipulation.

Of course in class we all learned about the falsely accused protagonist, suspense vs. surprise and doppelgängers, but the fundamental, underlying fact is that these all render the audience vulnerable. We are completely at Hitchcock's mercy and we love every second of it (or normal people do). His narrating skills are not short of intriguing, as his movies are laced with psychological queries and absurd situations. There is a sort of pleasure that comes with trying to solve the mystery or trying to understand the characters' motivations; you could potentially be operating at Hitchcock's level, which is exciting.

Even psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek has taken an interest in Hitchcock's movies, proclaiming that Vertigo offers the concept that "the male libidinal economy it appears, 'the only good woman is a dead woman.' Zizek argues that it is the very excess of female desire that poses a fundamental threat to male identity. In Zizek's The Pervert's Guide to Cinema he discusses the power of The Birds, Psycho, Vertigo, Saboteur, Rear Window and North By Northwest and their hidden language. (Check it out, seriously it's bomb).

Sadly, the Hitchcockian novelty is now hard to come by. Luckily we can still take comfort in the cameo-loving-suspense-building-subjective-shot-wielding-British-but-embracer-of-American-individuality director Hitch. Cock.