One of Fellini's Ten Favorite films

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2017)

As Francois Truffaut said, cinema was invented so that we could be shown things like the bird attacks in The Birds. The savage, meaningless idea of it is profoundly existential in a way that even Antonioni himself deeply appreciated. Antonioni admired many things about Hitchcock and Hitchcock was himself inspired by Blow-Up. Fellini, himself, called The Birds one of the most BEAUTIFUL movies ever made (?!) and listed it among his top ten favorite films of all time. Having seen this many times I have come to appreciate the small Hitchcock touches - even in the 'notoriously slow' first hour of the film.
Hitchcock was a master of sound and all of his films had a separate and carefully orchestrated sound-script which he closely supervised. This included even incidental sounds, doors opening, etc. It is worth your while to re-watch The Birds with the sole idea of listening to every incidental sound on the track.
Even Ingmar Bergman was a Hitchcock fan and lifted a scene from The Paradine Case and reworked it into Cries and Whispers! The relationships of The Birds have a 'Bergmanesque' quality as well and the Bodega Bay setting could as well have been Ingmar's Faro island. The film The Passion of Anna, deftly counterpoints the personal relationship with an unknown outside 'monster' who is killing and mutilating animals. Very much like 'The Birds' in spirit.
The great directors have been far kinder to this film than many critics.