Truffaut on Hitchcock, Signed with Original Self-Portrait by Alfred Hitchcock
[Signed with Original Drawing by Alfred Hitchcock] Truffaut, François. Hitchcock. First Edition. 1967. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition—jacket shows minor edgewear and rubbing. Book contains an original self-portrait by Hitchcock in blue felt pen, with the inscription, “à cher Madam Braum, from Alfred Hitchcock.”
The films of Alfred Hitchcock remain as relevant today as they were then. Nearly all were well received upon first release, but what makes them continue to live is Hitchcock’s emphasis on the fallibility and complexity of the human mind. Styles might change, but human psychology remains (depressingly?) consistent. Considered one of the best in its genre, this book elevated Hitchcock to European-style auteur (but with much better box office). A copy signed by him with a drawing occasionally turns up, but not always full-page nor quite so boldly drawn as here. A great find.
“It is this determination to compel the audience’s uninterrupted attention, to create and then to keep up the emotion, to sustain the tension throughout, that makes Hitchcock’s pictures so completely personal and all but inimitable.”
– François Truffaut