Hitchcock: the directors' cut

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The best Hitchcock films as chosen by ten film directors including Stephen Frears and Joe Wright

Alfred Hitchcock never won a Best Director Oscar, but he is the quintessential directors’ director. As the BFI’s five-month Hitch extravaganza gets underway across the city, we asked ten leading directors to pick their favourites

Mike Leigh on ‘Rear Window’ (1954) John Carpenter on ‘Vertigo’ (1958) William Friedkin on ‘North by Northwest’ (1959) Kenneth Branagh on ‘Vertigo’ (1958) Joanna Hogg on ‘Suspicion’ (1941) Ben Wheatley on ‘Psycho’ (1960) Mark Cousins on ‘Marnie’ (1964) Stephen Frears on ‘Notorious’ (1946) Joe Wright on ‘Strangers on a Train’ (1951) David Cronenberg on ‘Rear Window’ (1954)

Ben Wheatley on ‘Psycho’ (1960)

‘I really like the fact that “Psycho” was made with a TV crew as a reaction against big Hollywood movies. Hitchcock wanted to get out on his own, so he just went and did it. It’s such a modern film – structurally incredible, psychologically really interesting, and he wrote the book on misdirection by killing off Janet Leigh. I’d never try to rip him off. That kind of mastery is a long way off.’

Ben Wheatley is the director of ‘Kill List’ and the upcoming ‘Sightseers’.



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