The British Film Institute (BFI) has been previewing the restored works of legendary Leytonstone-born director Alfred Hitchcock.


Before the success of his latter works including Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963), Hitchcock created nine silent films, which were all shown at the Cultural Olympiad and 2012 Festival.


In restoring the nine films, the BFI took on its greatest and most complex archival renovation to date.


The project consisted of using materials from seven archives from three different continents, with a team examining and re-establishing more than nine million individual frames. This restoration process was longer than Hitchcock took to shoot the movies.
 

The films are currently touring the world, a tour far greater than the director from Essex could have probably imagined when he started his career in film back in 1922, with his unfinished work Number 13.


Recently The Pleasure Garden was shown to more than 7,000 people in Rio de Janeiro. Other global showings include Shanghai and the US.
Now generations of Hitchock fans will be able to enjoy his films digitally and  they will be safe for years to come in the new BFI Master Film Store.
 

The restored pictures will be on display at BFI’s Southbank until August 31. South Bank, Waterloo, SE1. Details: southbank
london.com