Learning From The Master

In keeping with our tradition of watching a lot of movies (why have a DVD player if you're not going to use it, right?), my roommate and I are planning an Alfred Hitchcock marathon for sometime in the relatively near future (that's our way of saying that, in actual fact, we have no idea when, exactly, we are going to hold the aforementioned marathon). We do have a few ideas, however, about which movies we shall watch. First, we shall pay the appropriate respects to Tippi Hedren by watching both "The Birds" and the seriously underrated "Marnie." I saw both when I was home over the holidays, but they are both good enough to watch again soon. These classics need to be followed by "Psycho," since I saw the ill-conceived 1998 remake over the holidays and now I need to see Norman Bates the only way he should be portrayed (i.e. by Anthony Perkins, and not by Vince Vaughn). Don't get me wrong, Vince Vaughn is a talented actor, as is Viggo Mortensen, but attempting to remake "Psycho" was the cinematic equivalent of reinventing the wheel-it can be done, but why bother when the original JUST WORKS?

There are so many other films on our must-see list for this marathon that it will probably turn into more of a week-long festival than merely a few hours in front of the television, but it is time well spent observing a master in the art of film.