Blackmail
Alfred Hitchcock / GB, 1929
The RestorationWorking with its new Arriscan digital scanner, alongside The Pleasure Garden, the BFI has been able to get the best from the original negative in a 4K scan. A combination of wet and dry scanning has maximised image resolution while minimising the appearance of surface damage. A number of ‘dissolves’ have been completely remade using digital techniques.
Hitchcock”s silent Blackmail is one of the best British films, if not the best, of the late 1920s. Made in 1929, during the transition to the sound era, it was commissioned as both a silent and as a part-talkie with music and some dialogue scenes. With remarkable skill (and an eye to building a solid career in the new medium), Hitchcock managed to produce both a beautifully crafted silent and a groundbreaking sound version. Indeed, he tackled the considerable technical obstacles with such imagination that the latter has tended to obscure the reputation of the silent version, which is in fact superior in a number of ways.
Details
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Production year
1929
Country
GB
Original title
Blackmail
Format
35mm
Part of
The Hitchcock Touch
This summer, Eye is honouring the most iconic and influential director of all time, Alfred Hitchcock, with a major retrospective including nine restored silent films. These Hitchcock 9 can be seen in the Netherlands for the first time. For the restoration of these seldom shown first films, material from the Eye collection has been used.
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