Thoughts on Hitchcock

Strangers on a Train was the Hitchcock movies this weekend at the AFI Silver Theater, so naturally I went to see it. I've seen the movie once, so I sort of remembered what happened (although apparently I only really remembered the first 30-40 mins). So as I was watching, I started looking at other elements beside the great cinematography. One thing I noticed was that throughout the movie Guy was almost always dressed with a white jacket and Bruno was in a black jacket, like a subtle reminder that Guy is good. And I didn't realize that a lot of the movie is genuinely funny. I never ranked this movie high on my favorite Hitchcock movies, but it improves on repeat viewing. And this made me think of when I got introduced to Hitchcock movies. I'm pretty sure the first one I saw was Psycho, which again is not my favorite Hitchcock movie, but there are definitely elements that are classic Hitchcock (like the excellent use of music and the creative shots like a character being pushed down the stairs). I'm pretty sure the next Hitchcock movie I saw was Rebecca followed by Spellbound and then I was hooked. A few years back (in grad school), I watched every Hitchcock movie available on DVD (except The Birds). I've really enjoyed going to the AFI Silver for the retrospective, and I thought that only people who enjoy Hitchcock were attending the screening. But I was proven wrong when I overheard someone saw "What's this movie? Strangers on a Train? I've never heard of it."