Hitchcock Vs Hermann Analysis

“Hitchcock vs Herrmann: the story behind the break-up of cinema’s finest director/composer partnership”, written by well-known author and cinema professor Neil Sinyard, unveils the story of success and following failure of the creative collaboration between director Alfred Hitchcock and music composer Bernard Herrmann (2013). Celebrated, financially and critically acclaimed partnership that brought overall 9 films in all 11 years of collaboration, including Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960), ended in a single day in March 1966 with a humiliating scandal between the two masters. The change in the elements of the relationship, both working and personal, that occurred during the production of the last joint motion picture, Torn Curtain (1966),

However, in Hitchcock/Herrmann case the miscommunication reached a new level. Core agreement and framework is an essential part of a creative collaboration, as it should be based on mutuality (Klocek; John-Steiner 92). Previously established trust between the director and composer and previous successes created the illusion of unnecessariness of this formal structure. This illusion was also spread to communication systems. Although Hitchcock is known as one of the few directors who took Herrmann to view the early rushes of each film, therefore including him in the production line, no specific conditions have ever been discussed for each film (McCarthy). This made it impossible for Herrmann to seek feedback on the work (Klocek), building his work exclusively on the notion of shared vision, intuition and trust. The composer was used to working in this established way, making music that added its own vision to the film. He was also used to sharing creative risks with the director, but with Hitchcock’s personal changes and added stress, identified in the previous section, the roles have changed. For Torn Curtain (1966) Hitchcock wanted a score that would rather complement and accompany his film and have a sellable tune, rather than add meaning and intensity. However, interdependence between image and sound was one of the reasons for successful interdependent creative partnership between the two people (Allen, Ishii-Gonzalès 150). This previous interdependence and recognition of each other’s “views” had been replaced by Hitchcock to formal “requirements” (Sinyard). Without the commitment to talk, or at least collaborate like it had been done previously, Herrmann and Hitchcock lost not only their shared vision, interdependence and trustful relationship, but also the established role framework, moving from