‘What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?’ There is certainly nothing dull about this fortnight’s program of screenings from the master of suspense. From Alfred Hitchcock’s early British classics and wartime spy–thrillers through to his initial Hollywood successes with Rebecca and To Catch a Thief, these screenings reflect the director’s passion for visual storytelling, entwining suspense, wit and Hitchcockian style.

Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective

Until 27 November 2011
Ticketed program

An extensive retrospective from the Master of Suspense. Friday-night screenings of Hitchcock’s most celebrated titles, including Rope 1948, Rear Window 1954, Vertigo 1958 and North by Northwest 1959, will see the cinema´s foyer transformed into a lounge bar from 5.30pm. Purchase film tickets through QTIX or at the GoMA Box Office 1 hour prior to film screenings. Read more

Join us each Friday night from 5.30pm in the cinema foyer lounge for cocktails, a light supper and music entertainment by Honky Kong DJ’s. From the lush sounds of Alice Coltrane’s harp, Martin Denny’s adventures into the exotic or Oscar Peterson’s mellow gospel–infused piano, Honky Kong’s evocative DJ mix responds to Hitchcock’s most–celebrated films. Read more

Every Sunday Hitchcock’s silent films will be accompanied by musicians-in-residence The Quadratic Contingency. This post-jazz ensemble of piano, drums, clarinet and double bass will draw on classical and traditional jazz music to create evocative live scores for Hitchcock’s earliest films. Read more

Sabotage 1936 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Fri 21 Oct 6.00pm + Sat 29 Oct 4.00pm (76 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Sabotage is a prescient thriller that puts London on bomb alert well before the real siege of WWII occurred. The settings include a greengrocer’s whose friendly lettuce-salesman reports to Scotland Yard; a movie theatre where the behind-the-screen life of Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka and their “happy family” is more brutal than what is on-screen; and images of childhood that are nothing short of ominous.’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

Foreign Correspondent 1940 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Fri 21 Oct 8.00pm (120 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘This supremely entertaining and suspenseful World War II spy thriller features Joel McCrea as a European foreign correspondent and Laraine Day as his love interest. After a diplomat in London is kidnapped, McCrea searches for Nazi spies in London and Holland with help from reporters George Sanders and Robert Benchley. Nothing is what it seems as plot twists abound.’ Harvard Film Archive. Read more

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Program 3 (Ages 12+)

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sat 22 Oct 12.00pm (77 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

In this program of Alfred Hitchcock Presents are three segments of suspense. In Mr Blanchard’s Secret, A mystery writer’s imagination works overtime when her new next-door neighbours move in. In One More Mile To Go, a man flirts with capture when he is pulled over for a broken taillight, and in The Perfect Crime, a conceited detective learns the hard way that there is no such thing as the perfect crime. Read more

The Lady Vanishes 1938 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sat 22 Oct 2.00pm (97 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Constantly flashing from melodrama to comedy, The Lady Vanishes thrills the viewer and teases his intelligence to outguess the master of intrigue, Alfred Hitchcock. Awaking from a nap, a young woman discovers that the lady sitting in her train compartment has vanished. Her suspicions unconfirmed by everyone else, the macabre suggestion of a huge conspiracy slips into her mind, and the rest is madness and mayhem in inimitable Hitchcock style.’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

Secret Agent 1936 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sat 22 Oct 4.00pm (86 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘This entertaining curiosity stars a handsome young John Gielgud as a WWI soldier and novelist, the reports of whose death are greatly exaggerated in order to install him as a secret agent abroad. In a Swiss hotel he pretends to be married to fellow agent Madeleine Carroll, while Peter Lorre is a trigger-happy hitman. Lorre would be largely superfluous were the film not precisely concerned with the temptations and titillation of murder.’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

Rebecca 1940 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sat 22 Oct 6.00pm + Sun 30 Oct 3.00pm (130 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Hitchcock’s first Hollywood film is a gripping blend of detective story, gothic romance, and psychological drama. Joan Fontaine gives a distinguished performance as a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to discover she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca. Laurence Olivier garnered a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of the handsome but cold husband, tortured by the memories of his dead wife.’ Harvard Film Archive. Read more

The Ring 1927 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sun 23 Oct 11.00am (85 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘The Ring fascinates because it is not a suspense film and yet experiments with the tropes through which Hitchcock created suspense. The setting is the world of boxing in which hungry amateurs vie with professional prize fighters for money, status, and love. A young fairground pugilist marries his ticket-taker girlfriend, only to find himself openly cuckolded by his rival, the Champion.’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

Screening presented with live musical accompaniment by musicians in residence The Quadratic Contingency.

Mr & Mrs Smith 1941 All Ages

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sun 23 Oct 1.00pm (95 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Starring the quirky queen of screwball comedies (Carole Lombard) and the cultivated king of happy-go-lucky leading men (Robert Montgomery), this funny film directed by the specialist of suspense features a marriage run amok. A couple discovers that their long-time state of matrimony was not actually legal and must decide whether or not to (re)marry.’ MoMA. Read more

To Catch a Thief 1955 G

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Wed 19 Oct 8.00pm + Sun 23 Oct 3.00pm (106 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Retired cat burglar Cary Grant and ravishing American party girl Grace Kelly fall in love against a backdrop of fireworks, the French Riviera and a string of unsolved jewel robberies — all the while wearing some of Edith Head’s most stunning costumes. Alfred Hitchcock’s tongue-in-cheek soufflé, complete with surprisingly daring sexual innuendos for the time, is perfect escapist fare.’ American Cinémathèque. Read more

Suspicion 1941 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Wed 26 Oct 6.00pm (99 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant star in this devilish thriller about a shy English lass married to a dashing, charming man, one who may or may not be a murderer. Suspicion is energised by the irrepressible presence of Grant (in his first role with Hitchcock), who combines the witty appeal of his earlier comedies with the suave, manor-born entitlement of his more serious roles.’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

Saboteur 1942 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Wed 26 Oct 8.00pm (109 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Made just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Saboteur is a wartime thriller that follows a guileless factory worker who is falsely accused of torching an aircraft plant. Played with breathless sincerity by Robert Cummings, Barry Kane knows that proving his innocence rests on finding the real saboteur.’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

Rope 1948 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Fri 28 Oct 6.00pm (80 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Rope was the first film Hitchcock produced himself and over which he had complete creative control. The result is a disturbing story (two young men strangle a friend and stuff his body into a chest, on which they serve dinner to his family and fiancée) as well as Hitchcock’s famous experiment in film form. Rope appears to be shot in one continuous take with no cuts — like an unbroken rope. Except for avant-garde filmmakers like Andy Warhol, no one has attempted to make a film like Rope again. Pacific Film Archive.’ Read more

‘The subject of guilt, which is implicit in so many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, becomes the explicit theme in Spellbound, a whodunit whose means of investigation is psychoanalysis. “I did it,” says the guilt-obsessed patient (Gregory Peck). "No you didn’t,” says the analyst (Ingrid Bergman), thereby leading to the discovery of the real murderer.’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sat 29 Oct 12.00pm (92 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

Featuring Hitchcock’s second Emmy Award–winning episode television — Lambs to the Slaughter, which explores the reason a husband should never confront the cook in the kitchen — this program also includes two additional episodes of the macabre. In Dip in the Pool, a gambler miscalculates a bad bet, and in Poison, a not so friendly snake forces a plantation owner to rely on the questionable honour of his business partner. Read more

Bon Voyage 1944 + Aventure Malgache 1944 All Ages

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sat 29 Oct 2.30pm (56 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Hitchcock temporarily returned to Britain to make his contribution to the Allied war effort with two French-language films for the British Ministry of Information which were intended to encourage resistance in France and, especially, the French colonies. Bon Voyage and Adventure Malgache were spy/resistance intrigues based on true cases and both, in the words of a British critic, ‘‘rattling good yarns.’’’ Pacific Film Archive Read more

Lifeboat 1944 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sat 29 Oct 6.00pm (97 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Lifeboat has Hitchcock skilfully blending elements of his trademark psychological thrillers with propaganda for the Allied cause during WWII. The film takes place on a lifeboat, where Allied survivors of a shipwreck caused by a German U-boat struggle to survive. When the group saves a Nazi from the water, tensions begin to mount in the confined space of the small boat.’ Harvard Film Archive Read more

Downhill 1927 Ages 12+

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sun 30 Oct 11.00am (80 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘This early Hitchcock mixes cynical humour with sexual horror as it follows Ivor Novello’s descent from upstanding British schoolboy to Montmartre gigolo, the downhill road laid for him by a series of scheming women. Auteurists will find plenty of evidence of the director‘s characteristic formal audacity: false flashbacks, upside-down POV shots, massive foreground objects dwarfing the characters behind them. The film reaches a psychological and stylistic climax with delirious, nightmarishly vivid visions of an evil feminine conspiracy.’ Pacific Film Archive Read more

Screening presented with live musical accompaniment by musicians in residence The Quadratic Contingency.

Shadow of a Doubt 1943 PG

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PROGRAM: Alfred Hitchcock: A Retrospective
WHEN: Sun 30 Oct 1.00pm (108 mins)
WHERE: Cinema A, GoMA

‘Hitchcock had reason to consider Shadow of a Doubt his personal favourite among his films. In structure the film is perfection; in theme it is radically disturbing. Joseph Cotten is the urbane Uncle Charlie, hiding out in the small-town home of his sister Emma. Is he the Merry Widow Killer hunted by the police, or is he innocent as he claims?’ Pacific Film Archive. Read more

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Until 26 November 2011
Free admission (Film program only)

Renowned French photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson made six documentary films throughout his working life, five of which are presented in this program. Interested in the power of film early in his career, Cartier-Bresson studied documentary filmmaking in New York, later apprenticing to the acclaimed French director Jean Renoir.

This program screens in conjunction with ‘Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World’ exhibition from 27 August — 27 November 2011 at the Queensland Art Gallery. Read more

California Impressions 1970 + Southern Exposures 1971 Ages 18+

DIRECTORS: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Herbert Kline
PROGRAM: Henri Cartier-Bresson
WHEN: Sat 29 Oct 2.30pm (50 mins)
WHERE: Cinema B, GoMA

‘Shot in colour with live sound, Cartier-Bresson’s last two films were documentaries for television. The films are collections of candid observations, free of narration or interpretive commentary. Cartier-Bresson chose the subjects: California, home proponents of the Vietnam War; and Mississippi, home to the faded glory of the Confederacy.’ MoMA Read more

Victory of Life 1938 + Spain Will Live 1938 + The Return 1945 Ages 18+

DIRECTOR: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Herbert Kline
PROGRAM: Henri Cartier-Bresson
WHEN: Sat 22 Oct 2.30pm (124 mins)
WHERE: Cinema B, GoMA

After learning the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking in New York, Cartier-Bresson made his first film Return to Life, an impassioned document about the need for medical relief on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. He would go on to direct the politically–charged documentary Spain Will Live to support the Republican movement by exposing the spread of fascism in Europe. Read more