ABSTRACT
Few directors have contributed as much to the mythology of the power of editing as has
Alfred Hitchcock. Eisenstein and Pudovkin used their films to work out and illustrate their
ideas about editing, but Hitchcock used his films to synthesize the theoretical ideas of others and to deepen the repertoire by showcasing the possibilities of editing. His work embraces
the full gamut of editing conceits, from pace to subjective states to ideas about dramatic and
real time. This chapter highlights a number of set-pieces that he devoted to these conceits. Before beginning, however, we must acknowledge that Hitchcock may have experimented
extensively with editing devices, but he was equally experimental in virtually every filmic
device available to him.
