Luck is everything... My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film.
Alfred HitchcockRead
Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Dialogue serves as a backdrop to the visual storytelling, highlighting the power of non-verbal communication.
In this quote, Hitchcock emphasizes the importance of visual storytelling in film, suggesting that what characters say is less significant than what their expressions and actions convey. He believes that dialogue should blend with the overall soundscape, prioritizing the visual aspects that reveal deeper emotions and narratives.
Themes
DialogueVisual StorytellingCommunicationFilmExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a film studies class when discussing the importance of non-verbal cues in cinematic storytelling.
More from Alfred Hitchcock
All quotes →I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.
Alfred HitchcockRead
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
Alfred HitchcockRead
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
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There is something more important than logic: imagination
Alfred HitchcockRead
One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.
Alfred HitchcockRead
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