Event

The Birds

After a playful lawyer charms a young socialite at a pet store, she travels to a small coastal town to bring him some lovebirds for his sisters birthday. But things soon turn dark when the birds in the area mysteriously begin a brutal attack on the towns inhabitants.

"What keeps it so unnervingly unpredictable is that the explanation we crave for why birds have started to attack humanity is never forthcoming. What we get instead, as one possible parallel to Psycho, is murderous violence as an arbitrary dramatic premise. A blond heroines sudden flight from a city becomes a trip to the wilds a movement towards the irrational, inexplicable fury of divine retribution." Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

"The Birds represents better than any other Hitchcock film the extreme polarities of his universe: vicious unpredictability and moral and emotional disorder on the one hand, and rigorous stylistic control and formal organization, on the other. These contrasts are often at play in the directors work, but here they take on an almost compulsive quality, allowing Hitchcock full control over the orchestration of chaos and leaving his characters with no consolation but each others companionship." Not Coming to a Theater Near You

"Jaws before the world was ready, Hitchs much misappreciated follow-up to Psycho is arguably the greatest of all disaster filmsa triumph of special effects, as well as the fountainhead of what has become known as gross-out horror." - Village Voice

"In his own crafty way, Hitchcock shows us that comedy, not tragedy, can be the best way to reveal the layers of a character while, crucially, misdirecting the audiences attention. Using a meticulously scored soundtrack of bird effects in lieu of traditional music cues, paired with George Tomasinis brilliant picture editing, heightens the feeling of disquiet. It all culminates in the stunning final shot: the superego has saturated the entire landscape." Cine-File