Hitchcock prefigured
British curator Robin Baker sees the master of suspense's signature traits in his earliest silent films
The first Hitchcock film I ever saw I was about eight or nine. It was The Birds," Robin Baker recalls with animated enthusiasm.
More than just an aficionado of genre movies, Baker is head curator of the National Archive at the British Film Institute (BFI). But when it comes to the master of suspense, he reverts to being a keen film geek.
What's interesting... is that Hitchcock emerges like a fully formed director ...
"When I saw The Birds it was on a black and white television but I still got a sense of what 'Hitchcockian' means. Even as a child, I knew it was about a sense of impending dread, of suspense, and I remember I liked it. I wanted more," Baker says during a visit to Hong Kong to introduce the first of a series of screenings of six rare Hitchcock silent films restored under his supervision.
Growing up, Baker's interest in cinema expanded as he devoured films of every genre and nationality. But Alfred Hitchcock - England's first superstar director - remains a keystone in his curatorial career.
In addition to film exhibition, distribution and marketing, Baker had been a director or programmer for the London Children's Film Festival, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and the Southampton Film Festival. However, his true calling came in 2005 when he joined the BFI.
As head curator, Baker has overseen a number of major projects. The restoration of Hitchcock's surviving nine silent films from the 1920s was the BFI's major contribution to the cultural events accompanying the 2012 Olympics. The screenings were such a hit Baker is now flying around the world to show and talk about them.