Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)

festreviews Happy Birthday
Alfred Hitchcock, seen here in 1972, made films that were of their time, but stood out even then.

To me, Psycho (1960) was a big comedy. Had to be.

Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them.

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

Blondes make the best victims. They’re like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.

I don’t understand why we have to experiment with film. I think everything should be done on paper. A musician has to do it, a composer. He puts a lot of dots down and beautiful music comes out. And I think that students should be taught to visualize. That’s the one thing missing in all this. The one thing that the student has got to do is to learn that there is a rectangle up there – a white rectangle in a theater – and it has to be filled.

Turning 43 Today: Sebastian Stan

festreviews Happy Birthday

When I go to work I don’t discriminate it as a comic-book movie. It’s full-on commitment. That’s all you can do. (…) Comic-book movies are mythology in a way, and there are a lot more parallels in them with what’s going on in the real world than people want to discuss…[2016]

[on the struggle to get The Apprentice (2024) released] Everything with this film has been one day at a time. There are a lot of people who love reading the Wikipedia page and throwing out their opinions. But they don’t actually know what they’re talking about. That’s a popular sport now online, apparently.

[2025] Costumes and a character’s wardrobe, or how they dress, really tells a story, and it tells a lot about that particular character, about the person. So I take the wardrobe very seriously.

Turning 45 Today: Maggie Lawson

festreviews Happy Birthday

I’ve always wanted to work with dogs, so in high school, I worked at the Humane Society for a little while. I honestly think, even today, that would be the other career I would go into. Somehow I would be involved with animals.

I grew up in Kentucky, so we do not have a pro team. My family was split between the Cubs and the Reds. I would say I go Cubs usually. That’s sort of where I grew up. My older brother was a huge Reds fan.

Rice cakes and peanut butter is my favorite snack in the whole wide world.

Turning 45 Today: Dominique Swain

festreviews Happy Birthday

“Everybody thinks people who promote PETA don’t eat meat, but I think animals were made to be eaten. I take my part in the food chain very seriously. I eat meat, the rarer the better. I just don’t think animals should be slaughtered for their fur.” (Stuff Magazine, Feb. 2007)

People have asked me if I consider any animal on Earth equal to, or greater than, human beings in terms of intelligence. On some counts, I believe animals are actually smarter than humans. Let’s put it this way – how many animals have you seen drink booze, smoke, gamble, or take drugs?

[2012 interview, on Lolita (1997)] I revere the novel, I’ve read it six times. Whenever there were scenes in the film, I would refer immediately back to the book for more information. One thing I wrote to Adrian Lyne on my audition tape that I initially sent, is that Lolita didn’t have a point of view, she was third person. I told him I know who she is, and I can give her a point of view. That’s all I wrote, and that’s what I felt. When you’re a kid, you have balls of steel.

Turning 33 Today: Cara Delevingne

festreviews Happy Birthday

When I was really small, my mother had difficulty keeping me dressed, as I liked to be naked! I definitely had very strong ideas on what I wanted to wear. My favourite look was always Action Man and Spiderman. Now though, I really like beautiful clothes.

Women are what completely inspire me, and they have also been my downfall. I have only been hurt by women, my mother first of all. The thing is, if I ever found a guy I could fall in love with, I’d want to marry him and have his children. And that scares me to death because I think I’m a whole bunch of crazy, and I always worry that a guy will walk away once he really, truly knows me.

[on depression, which she says runs in and out of her life, as does a tendency toward the self-destructive] It’s like, if anything is good for too long, I prefer to ruin it.

It took me a long time to accept the idea, until I first fell in love with a girl at 20 and recognized that I had to accept it. But I have erotic dreams only about men. I had one two nights ago where I went up to a guy in the back of a VW minivan, with a bunch of his friends around him, and pretty much jumped him.

Turning 69 Today: Bruce Greenwood

festreviews Happy Birthday
  • [on undertaking the role of Dr. Emmett Code in The River (2012)]: I’ve played a lot of people who have hidden agendas or have reached bottom, who are not particularly savoury. This is a guy who believes deeply in his love for his wife, his son, and is just happy to wake up in the morning.

[on his digitally-coded performance in Super 8 (2011)]: It’s not your typical acting exercise at all, because you’re really the only person in this room with all the cameras in it. It was a very weird thing to offer up all this big emotion while the rest of the people in the room are picking away at the craft services table.

[on performing in the horror movie Cell 213 (2011)]: I was only on the set for about 10 days but I was trying for some edgier stuff, some different decisions. I asked the director what this guy was about, what he does, and he said ‘He smells people’. So there were scenes where I really did a lot of sniffing. I spent a lot of time breathing people in and flaring my nostrils.


Turning 50 Today: Casey Affleck

festreviews Happy Birthday

[on his working relationship with brother Ben Affleck] It was easy mostly because we kind of just spoke the same language and were very comfortable saying to each other, “I think that’s a terrible idea . . . ” or “That’s a great idea but what if . . . ?” We could sort of build on each other’s excitement. We had a kind of shorthand.

I believe veganism can be beneficial for the individual and the world, and of course the animal, but belief is like laying in the dark with someone and telling them you love them and hearing nothing back. So I’ve never had the confidence to get on a soapbox and tell someone else what to do

I love taking a risk. If I’m a little bit afraid of a part, that’s the first indication that it’s going to be good for me. If I can’t find that element of risk in the material, I always hope that the director is going to be open to taking chances. With this movie [‘Out of The Furnace’] I was lucky enough to have both elements. The material was different, difficult and a little bit scary. As a director Scott [Cooper] fostered an environment where risk was the common currency. We knew we were going to take risks, even if it meant making mistakes. And that’s the best kind of experience.

All cultures are different. Some commit genocide. Some are uniquely peaceful. Some frequent bathhouses in groups. Some don’t show each other the soles of their shoes or like pictures taken of them. Some have enormous hunting festivals or annual stretches when nobody speaks. Some don’t use electricity.

I love getting ready to do a scene, and thinking about it, and talking about it. But the rest of the time, I’m so nervous and obsessed. I’m just tearing my hair out in the trailer. The whole time I’m really tense.

Turning 32 Today: Alyson Stoner

festreviews Happy Birthday

I’m very serious about what I write and who I allow to produce the music, because I want to make sure it’s a true album, and not just something pushed out there to create hype and more fame for myself.

I like to aim for significance over success because rarely can you be significant and also successful, but many people can be successful and not significant.

I want to learn how to play an instrument. I want to break a world record. I’m just a very determined, motivated type of person.

I love what I do, and I just remember that every breath and every moment is a gift and it can be taken away at any time, so I want to appreciate it and be grateful for it while it’s here.

I like to take risks as long as they’re healthy, you know. They’re good, smart risks.

Turning 57 Today: Anna Gunn

festreviews Happy Birthday

As an actress, I realize that viewers are entitled to have whatever feelings they want about the characters they watch. But as a human being, I’m concerned that so many people react to Skyler with such venom. Could it be that they can’t stand a woman who won’t suffer silently or ‘stand by her man’? That they despise her because she won’t back down or give up? Or because she is, in fact, Walter’s equal?…

At some point on the message boards, the character of Skyler seemed to drop out of the conversation, and people transferred their negative feelings directly to me. The already harsh online comments became outright personal attacks. One such post read: ‘Could somebody tell me where I can find ‘Anna Gunn’ so I can kill her?’ Besides being frightened (and taking steps to ensure my safety), I was also astonished: how had disliking a character spiraled into homicidal rage at the actress playing her?

  • But I finally realized that most people’s hatred of Skyler had little to do with me and a lot to do with their own perception of women and wives. Because Skyler didn’t conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypical female, she had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender. I can’t say that I have enjoyed being the center of the storm of Skyler hate. But in the end, I’m glad that this discussion has happened, that it has taken place in public and that it has illuminated some of the dark and murky corners that we often ignore or pretend aren’t still there in our everyday lives.