(1) And Hitchcock was a doddle compared to Capote, with his helium voice, the birdlike mincing, the urbane spikiness.
(2) Played here by Anthony Hopkins , in facial prosthesis and fake belly, and the neither tiny nor particularly birdlike Helen Mirren, Hitch and Alma appear as an indissoluble partnership in art and life, suddenly threatened by pressures from without (no budget) but more from within, particularly by Alfred's tendency, now tiresome to the red-haired Alma, to become obsessed with his leading blondes.
(3) One image of her during the dispute has become iconic: Desai, tiny and birdlike, dressed in a sari and with a handbag dangling from her left arm, stands with her back to the camera, confronting a wall of grim faced policemen.
(4) Psycho was itself the film that so emphatically answered that question in 1960 and the story of its creation – based on Stephen Rebello's enthralling 1990 account, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho , and scripted by John McLaughlin – is at heart the story of a marriage, between a fat, ugly genius and the "tiny, birdlike woman" who was invigilator, confidante and touchstone to his talent.
Birdlime
Definition:
(n.) An extremely adhesive viscid substance, usually made of the middle bark of the holly, by boiling, fermenting, and cleansing it. When a twig is smeared with this substance it will hold small birds which may light upon it. Hence: Anything which insnares.
(v. t.) To smear with birdlime; to catch with birdlime; to insnare.