The Pleasure Garden

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🎙️ EPISODE 647: 02.17.23                 I've started this DIRECTOR FOCUS on a whim, somewhat inspired by the work of Guy Maddin whose so famously taken inspiration from the silent film period era. This first decade or so is going to be a challenge, folks, as Hitchcock's moves from silent films to the world of the talkies. Where Maddin's films tweak the conventions of the 100-year-old, dead style in an fascinating if not ironic way, the real deal is another sack of potatoes all together. I have discerning eye here. I don't think I can tell a good silent movie from a bad one. Maybe that's something that will come in time, but maybe it won't. Maybe they're no different than 'regular movie's in this way, and the qualities or lack thereof will simply make themselves known.

So The Pleasure Garden from 1922, widely considered the first proper Hitchcock feature, marks my maiden voyage into this world. [Ed. Note: Most of these are available in various forms on YouTube. And it can be tricky figuring out the 'right' one to watch (there are different length cuts, some are soundtracked to modern music, etc.). I'm going to do my best to digest the closest and best restoration, but it's hardly an exact science.] And it was better than I expected. What felt like a very stock drama/love story where to poorly matched idealists ditch their current flames and come together, was a degree stranger, which was a pleasant surprise (I wasn't expecting the ghost of foreign girlfriend to come into play). I'm not sure how I'll feel by the fifth or six silent entry, but for now? Not bad!

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 646 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 647B ⫸

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The Pleasure Garden is a 1925 British-German silent drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in his feature film directorial debut. Based on the 1923 novel by Oliver Sandys, the film is about two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London and their troubled relationships. It was released on April 12, 1925.