The Birds

1963, Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 120 min.

With the screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, Satyajit Ray’s Sci-Fi Cine Club reached the apogee of its short-lived history: 1,600 members filled the Majestic Cinema in Kolkata.

Tippi Hedren plays a spoiled San Francisco socialite who pursues the handsome but stoic Rod Taylor up the Pacific Coast to a small northern California town. It is there that the birds slowly show signs of increasing animosity towards the residents, attacking in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness. Jessica Tandy and Suzanne Pleschette meet particularly grisly ends.

“Alfred Hitchcock has concocted an elaborate tease in The Birds, as if to prove that suspense and thrills can be induced as much by the expectation of horror as by horror itself. “

—James Powers

About Cabaret Cinema: Sci Fi Cine Club Kolkata

Director Satyajit Ray’s Sci-fi Cine Club in 1960’s Kolkata popularized the genre in Bengal and contributed to his legacy as one of the great directors of the 20th century. Representing a selection of the films as once curated by Ray, this Cabaret Cinema series brings back to the screen early sci-fi movies that sparked the imagination of writers, directors, and enthusiasts in the region and around the world—including A Lost Future artist Matti Braun.