Hitchcock/Truffaut

If you go to the movies you have heard of the late Sir Alfred Hitchcock, also known as the 'Master of Suspense'. Director Francois Truffaut, a fan, in 1962 asked Hitch if the two could spend a week in an interview format. Truffaut was well qualified to play his part, having been a scribe on the famous French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema prior to turning his own hand to film directing. With BREATHLESS and JULES & JIM under his belt, Truffaut was in the vanguard of the French New Wave.

But this film is about Hitchcock. Known as an arbitrary director, Hitch was considered to have every scene and every bit of dialogue already firm in his mind prior to shooting. His results were phenomenal, producing almost nothing but above average films, with many falling into the 'classic' category.

New York director Kent Jones took over Truffaut's tapes with the intention of producing this homage to the 'Master'. Familiar with Hitchcock's work, he peppered the screen with snippets of many of his films and comments, specific and in general. Jones also contacted a number of highly regarded directors and recorded their thoughts. Included were two men who have spent a good part of their lives reviewing and promoting the beauty of movies, Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich. A comment that pleased me in particular was Hitchcock's reference to directors in the 'Silent' era. Hitch, having entered the industry before talkies arrived, had high respect for the formative years of film.

Regettably there were dozen and dozens of scenes showing minimal seconds of screen time, and I found these difficult to absorb. This, I expect, is because of a personal visual problem. Sadly, the film lost some of its glamour for me as a result. There were lots of clips though of actors Hitch had used frequently, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman had each appeared in four of his films and their careers had been enhanced by the experiences. Two films that come to mind are REAR WINDOW and NORTH By NORTHWEST. I was also pleased to see a scene from 39 STEPS, made in Britain in 1935. Featured in that film was actress Madeleine Carroll, considered to be Hitch's prototype blonde. It's one of my (many) favourites.

The two Hitchcock films in the documentary that got the most attention were VERTIGO and PSYCHO. In a media poll conducted once a decade by Sight & Sound magazine, VERTIGO placed #1 in the 'all-time greatest' category (2012).