Published by Pequod, Young innocent is the new novel by Mauro Marchesini, a journalist and film critic who has previously devoted two volumes to the famous Anglo-American director Alfred Hitchcock, the author of such timeless titles as The window on the courtyard, The woman who lived twice, Psyco and Birds.
Young innocent is already available in physical format from Amazon and major online stores.
Interweaving essay and novel, the text explores the troubled but artistically unique Berlin of 1924 and digs into, as prefector Paolo Mereghetti points out:
“… not only in the little [or very little] investigated beginnings of Hitchcock's career but above all is measured by the origins of his inspiration, by the influence that the "magnificent illusionists" Friedrich Murnau, Fritz Lang, Robert Wiene and E. A. Dupont. In Germany, the 1920s had been a cradle of talent and masterpieces, and the young Englishman arrived there at the height of their explosion, at the turn of '24-25, and in the most active forge, the Neubabelsberg studios.".
Young innocent:
Berlin October 1924. Neubabelsberg Studios. It is late in the evening. The next morning an important scene of the co-production The Blackguard is to be shot but there is a problem. Some extras are missing. Dwarves, in this case. It's up to young assistant director Alfred Hitchcock to solve the headache.
The book could be called two-faced. In fact, two-sided. With an almost nonfiction obverse and an almost fictional reverse. A journey through troubled (but artistically unique) mid-1920s Berlin that includes four stages.
A wide-ranging prelude about the assistant handyman A.H., his first two films made as a director in a foreign land, and his relationship with the irresistible expressionist cinema.
A story inspired by an incident that actually happened in Neubabelsberg while the filming of the Anglo-Germanic film The Blackguard was taking place.
Eight lightning-fast biographies, where close collaborator (as well as Hitch's partner) Alma Reville, genius Friedrich Murnau, mentor friend Michael Balcon, and the great set designer Robert Herlth, among others, appear.
A quick anthology of texts concerning the era described to learn more about the apprenticeship of the future British master, pay homage to a key figure in the history of German filmmaking (producer Erich Pommer), and discover the behind-the-scenes of a masterpiece (The Last Laugh)."
