All About 'The Birds' (2000)

A wonderfully informative 80-minute documentary combining current interviews with archival materials and scenes from the film. Hitchcock's daughter Pat, production designer Robert Boyle, ... See full summary »

Director:

Laurent Bouzereau

Writer:

Laurent Bouzereau

Stars:

Alfred Hitchcock, Patricia Hitchcock, Robert F. Boyle

Cast

Cast overview:
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Himself (archive footage)
Patricia Hitchcock	...	Herself (as Pat Hitchcock O'Connell)
Robert F. Boyle	...	Himself (as Robert Boyle)
Evan Hunter	...	Himself
Bill Taylor	...	Himself
Harold Michelson	...	Himself
Hilton A. Green	...	Himself (as Hilton Green)
Tippi Hedren	...	Herself
Rod Taylor	...	Himself
Syd Dutton	...	Himself
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Himself
Robin Wood	...	Himself
Veronica Cartwright	...	Herself
Howard Smit	...	Himself
Steven Smith	...	Himself (as Steven C. Smith)

Storyline

A wonderfully informative 80-minute documentary combining current interviews with archival materials and scenes from the film. Hitchcock's daughter Pat, production designer Robert Boyle, screenwriter Evan Hunter, matte artist Albert Whitlock's colleagues Syd Dutton and Bill Taylor, storyboard artist Harold Michelson, Hitchcock collaborator Hilton Green, actors Tippi Hedren, Veronica Cartwright and Rod Taylor, filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, author Robin Wood, makeup artist Howard Smit, and composer Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven Smith all contribute valuable input to Hitch's memorable classic. A terrific documentary that matches the brilliance of "The Making of 'Psycho'."

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Plot Keywords:

making of | interview | thriller filmmaking | horror filmmaking | drama filmmaking | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Studios Home Video

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This feature-length documentary is featured on the Collectors Edition DVD for The Birds (1963).

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Connections

References Rebecca (1940)

User Reviews

...they aren't kidding. It really is "all"

This is one of the special features on the DVD of The Birds, and the only one up for review. It consists of interviews(recent ones, and one or two from back then), clips from the movie(some of them ironically edited; note that this documentary contains spoilers), footage from the time(publicity-related, mostly), storyboards and excerpts of the script. And yes, this really has everything you could want to know about the flick... I certainly wasn't left with any unanswered questions. You'll find out about the FX(including the so-called sodium process, that they borrowed from Disney, and the extraordinary matte paintings... this was decades before CGI, and you had to be truly creative, and figure out solutions to the problems and limitations that you faced), the controlled lighting for closeups, what poor Hedren had to put up with(did you know she got glass on her face from the phone booth bit? And that she had birds attached to her, and had them thrown directly at her? You can sense her pain when she talks about it, three and a half decades later; good thing film is forever), the use of sound and music, the measures taken to protect the avian creatures and they go into what they might symbolize(such as the chaos and unpredictable of our world, and of ourselves). It isn't boring, either. The 80 minutes are full of information and are tightly cut. We get impersonations of Hitchcock, and anecdotes(none of his priceless sardonic wit, though... oh well, can't have it all). The opening of this is intense and scary... fitting considering its subject. There is disturbing content and violence in this. I recommend this to any fan of the motion picture itself. 8/10