London Town

So yesterday and today I was down in London for a study weekend with my Alfred Hitchcock class (8 students, our professor, and another person from the program), and it was quite the adventure. We got down Saturday morning and we were supposed to take a tour of London with a woman who actually interviewed Alfred Hitchcock in the 1970s. This woman was absolutely nuts. She essentially dragged us around London for close to four hours showing us sites that Hitchcock used in a few of his films, but she seemed to be making up facts not only about the locations but about how Hitchcock used them. At one point she told us that when the studio asked him to cut a scene from one building, Hitchcock broke down and wept. We did get to hear the tape of the interview that she did with him, which was fascinating, but the meal we had with her (at a pub featured in "Frenzy") was quite bizarre. She told us it was impossible for any of Hitchcock's leading actors, such as Cary Grant of Jimmy Stewart, to play bad guys or villains simply because they are Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart, despite the fact that Jimmy Stewart seems certifiable in "Vertigo." If nothing else, this woman was entertaining and made for great conversation for the rest of the trip.

Hitchcock's Childhood Home


After that, we went to the London Eye, where our assignment was to take pictures and come up with an idea for a scene in a Hitchcock film in which a man gets on the Eye, and by the time it comes back around, he's dead. This morning, we made storyboards for the scene based on the pictures we had taken. My group wove a story of a woman with a mean husband who pushes him out of the doors to his untimely demise. We had time after the eye to walk around a bit, and I ended up with a few people at an arcade. We won styrofoam airplanes. It was productive. The rest of the evening was spent at the hostel and at a wonderful pub across the street where we got to sit on the Thames and reminisce about Crazy Hitchcock Lady.
The Houses of Parliament from the Eye

The London Eye

Today we got to go to the Tate Modern for about 3 hours. The museum is fantastic, with work by Roy Lichtenstien, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollack, Pablo Picasso and many, many more. We got to hear a short talk about Maya Deren, the first great American avant garde film director, and then see her seminal piece, "Meshes of the Afternoon." I'd seen the film before in school, but it was cool to learn more about it there. After the museum, a few of us walked across Millennium Bridge to see St. Paul's Cathedral and grab a quick pint before getting back on the bus for Bath.

Street Art on the Front of the Tate

Tower Bridge, as seen from Millennium Bridge

St. Paul's Cathedral

The rest of the weekend is quiet. Tonight I'm going out with some friends and tomorrow night is the Euro2008 Final (GO SPAIN!) so that should be a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll check back in following that game. As always, thanks for reading!