Read instead…in print #36. North by Northwest: The Man Who Had Too Much

If we ever needed a reassurance about why we love cinema in general and Alfred Hitchcock in particular, then Hitchcock’s North by Northwest: The Man Who Had Too Much, by James Stratton, spells that out. North by Northwest “sparkles with a technical confidence and a joy in making movies,” it introduces us to “characters who are neither completely good nor completely evil” and, of course, to “the male predecessor of Melanie Daniels”, Roger Thornhill, the first film character I referred to by name and not by the actor who played it. And it “may be thoroughly unrealistic and illogical” – it’s cinema, after all, and we love being fascinated by it – “but the world view has realistic resonance to it; North by Northwest is a wild jazz symphony, extravagant in both its tone and range.”

Read instead… in print is about a good book about cinema or filmmakers. No discursive, pretentious analyses, no verbose scrutiny. Because the idea is to invite you to read the book, not read about it here. But instead of using social media, I use my journal. Back to basics. Take it as a wish to break free of over-reliance on social media (even if it’s just for posting a photo of a good book) for presenting my work, cultural finds and interests. These are things to be enjoyed as stand-alone pieces in a more substantial and meaningful way than showing them in the black hole of Instagram thronged with an audience with a short attention span. This is also a look through my voluminous collection of books about film that I use as research in my adamant decision to rely less and less on the online and more on more on print materials.