Tag Archives: The Birds

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Nine

5,423 words

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Mitch gathers Melanie’s still unconscious body into his arms and carries her down the stairs. Lydia walks ahead of him, carrying an oil lamp. “Oh, poor thing! Poor thing!” she says. Her resentment toward Melanie now completely gone, she feels only pity. Lydia goes to fetch bandages, as Mitch lays Melanie on the living room sofa. He asks Cathy to get some brandy, Read more …

Published: July 17, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged 2020 American riots, Alfred Hitchcock, articles, being, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, das Ereignis, Derek Hawthorne, die Lichtung, family, Martin Heidegger, modernity, movie reviews, North American New Right, originals, philosophy, scientism | 16 Responses

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Eight

Derek Hawthorne

5,468 words

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

At first, we hear the sound of birds singing. The sound is pretty and harmless. Is it the lovebirds in the kitchen? Then we hear fluttering and flapping. This grows louder and louder and the pretty singing of a moment before is replaced by angry cawing and screeching. It is one of the most interesting scenes in the entire film. Read more …

Published: July 13, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, articles, being, das Ereignis, Dasein, Derek Hawthorne, die Lichtung, feminism, Martin Heidegger, modernity, movie reviews, North American New Right, originals, philosophy, the uncanny | 2 Responses

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Seven

Derek Hawthorne

5,283 words

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

With the gulls now retreating, Mitch and Melanie leave the Tides restaurant and make their way up the hill to Annie’s house to retrieve Cathy. All is deathly quiet. As they approach the schoolhouse, they see that the crows are back and perched all over. “Look, the crows again!” Melanie says breathlessly. Read more …

Published: July 3, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, articles, class conflict, complacency, das Ereignis, Dasein, Derek Hawthorne, die Lichtung, knowledge, Martin Heidegger, modernity, movie reviews, North American New Right, originals, philosophy, spirituality, the bourgeoisie, the uncanny, tribalism, women | 4 Responses

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Six

Derek Hawthorne

4,963 words

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

(Editor’s Note: Mr. Hawthorne apologizes for repeatedly announcing the conclusion of this series. He is making it up as he goes along.)

For the last two installments, I have been principally occupied with an exposition of the ideas of the later Heidegger, and with a Heideggerean interpretation of The Birds. There is much more to be said, Read more …

Published: June 12, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, articles, das Ereignis, Derek Hawthorne, horror, hubris, knowledge, Martin Heidegger, movie reviews, North American New Right, originals, philosophy, religion, the uncanny | 3 Responses

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Five

Derek Hawthorne

6,056 words

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

In the last installment, I began to explore the possibility that The Birds can be understood as an “existentialist” parable. I argued that the film depicts what Heidegger calls das Ereignis (the event): a sudden and fundamental transformation of the meaning of everything. Read more …

Published: June 3, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, apocalypse, articles, being, complacency, das Ereignis, Dasein, Derek Hawthorne, die Lichtung, environmentalism, hubris, knowledge, Martin Heidegger, modernism, mortality, nature, North American New Right, originals, philosophy, scientism, the uncanny | 8 Responses

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Four

Derek Hawthorne

4,672 words

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

We ended our last installment in the midst of the pivotal scene in the Tides Restaurant. There, we met Mrs. Bundy, a droll parody of modern, Western, pig-headed scientism. With arch condescension, she refuses to believe Melanie’s stories about the bird attacks. “Impossible!” Mrs. Bundy declares. “Their brain pans aren’t large enough. . . Really, let’s be logical about this,” Read more …

Published: June 1, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, art, articles, being, das Ereignis, Derek Hawthorne, destiny, humanism, Martin Heidegger, modernity, movie reviews, nature, North American New Right, originals, paradigm shifts, philosophy, psychology, scientism, Transcendence | 4 Responses

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Three

Derek Hawthorne

5,153 words

Part 1, Part 2

The police are called, and Mitch is asked to meet the sheriff at the Fawcett farm. Some detectives from Santa Rosa are going to join them there. Presumably, Mitch is expected to repeat his mother’s account of finding the corpse of Dan Fawcett, its eyes pecked out by homicidal birds. Read more …

Published: May 20, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, articles, Derek Hawthorne, empiricism, horror movies, Jef Costello, Martin Heidegger, maturity, movie reviews, nature, North American New Right, originals, philosophy, relationships, scientism, the uncanny | 1 Response

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part Two

Derek Hawthorne

5,115 words

The next day, Melanie attends Cathy’s birthday party, as promised. It is held outdoors at the Brenner home, behind the house. A dozen or more children are present, along with some parents. Annie is also on hand, to help out. Colorful balloons have been strung up, and there is a long table covered in cake and other treats. Mitch and Melanie (still wearing her green suit) have been drinking and decide to leave the party briefly while the children play. Read more …

Published: May 14, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, articles, Derek Hawthorne, horror, movie reviews, North American New Right, originals, Sigmund Freud, the uncanny | 7 Responses

Print this post

The Birds
Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Coronavirus (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock & Heidegger), Part One

Derek Hawthorne

5,805 words

I watched Hitchcock’s The Birds the other night, for the first time in years. Alone in my apartment, isolated for weeks now due to Coronavirus, I had a sudden hankering to watch the film. Some little. . . um. . . bird was telling me this was what I needed to see, right now. See it I did, and I have carried away what it has to teach us about the current crisis and, strangely enough, how Heidegger is the key to understanding this enigmatic film, which has haunted me for years. Read more …

Published: May 8, 2020 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, America in the 1960s, articles, Derek Hawthorne, electronic music, movie reviews, North American New Right, originals | 8 Responses

Print this post

I Wake Up Screaming:
My Top Ten Halloween Horror Flick Picks

Jef Costello

2,284 words

It’s not clear why human beings enjoy being frightened. Indeed, in most circumstances we don’t. I find nothing particularly “thrilling,” for example, about the frightening threat posed by mass non-white migration into the lands of my ancestors. Nor do I enjoy how I feel when I’m the only white person on the J train at midnight. But I thoroughly enjoy the imaginary threats posed by ghosts, witches, and vampires. There’s a lot to be said here about the human fascination with the uncanny, and what it reveals about us. Read more …

Published: October 30, 2017 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, articles, Dark Shadows, F. W. Murnau, Francis Ford Coppola, Halloween, horror movies, Jef Costello, movie reviews, Nosferatu, originals, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, The Shining | 37 Responses

Print this post

Ten Favorite Films

Trevor Lynch

1,520 words

Author’s Note:

The following text is a scrap rescued from obscurity and buffed up a bit. In 2002, a reader of VNN suggested that the site’s movie reviewers post their “Ten Best” lists. I found it impossible to settle on just ten best films. So I decided to produce a “Favorites” list instead. I came up with more than thirty movies. These are films I like to re-watch and show to my friends. I think the list includes some of the best films ever made, Read more …