"I expect that you have given up all hope of ever hearing of me, that is to say if you ever did want to. However, when I tell you I haven't written my own mother but twice since I have been away, you will see how I am entirely concentrated on The Pleasure Garden"

- Letter from Alfred Hitchcock sent from Munich to his friend
and fellow filmmaker Adrian Brunel, c.1925

At just 25, Alfred Hitchcock was given his first directing job on the romantic melodrama, The Pleasure Garden. Even at this very early stage of his career it's possible to find distinctive examples of what we would now call 'Hitchcockian' motifs, from a fascination with staircases, to the way men treat women and the unerring insight of dogs.

In this insightful short film, historian Charles Barr and Bryony Dixon, the BFI's silent film curator, explore the emergence of Hitchcock's unique style of visual storytelling during these formative years.