A Silence from Hitchcock

Extensive meditations on silence in the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

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In A Silence from Hitchcock, Murray Pomerance explores the resonating power of silence in the director's work—its variation, its haunting temptation, and its technical power. Working from a meditative devotion to and an illuminating familiarity with the director's work, Pomerance shines light upon six films, some of them (Notorious, The Lady Vanishes, and The Trouble with Harry) frequently, even obsessively treated, and others (Frenzy, The Wrong Man, and Topaz) less often discussed. In its strange relation to speech, memory, urbanity, guilt, mortality, and espionage, silence becomes, in these films, a dramatic protagonist in its own right. Written by a master interpreter of Hitchcock, this book offers new ways of seeing, experiencing, and thinking about the films of one of cinema's greatest artists, as well as new ways of reflecting on our experience of cinema itself.