HITCHCOCK

US, 2012, 97 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Toni Collette, Danny Huston, Scarlet Johansson, Jessica Biel, James Mc Avoy, Michael Wincott, Michael Stuhlbarg.
Directed by Sacha Gervasi.

As they might say, ‘Loved the film. Hated him’.

Alfred Hitchcock was a literally larger than life figure, a director who had established himself in England in the 1920s, consolidated his reputation in the 1930s and went to the United States in the late 30s and directed Rebecca, which won the Oscar for Best Film of 1940 (though Hitchcock never won on Oscar, receiving and honorary life-time achievement Oscar in 1979). He flourished in America in the 1940s and 1950s but was hesitating by 1959. This film opens with the premiere of North By Northwest and its success after the seeming failure of Vertigo (in recent years now on the list of critics’ ten best films). Hitchcock was sixty. Should he retire? Should he stay with his television show (which was not his highest film-making ambition?

While this film does show the making of Psycho and all that it meant to the master, it is a dramatic, sometimes fictional, sometimes fantasy imagining of what the process was like for Hitchcock himself and for his wife of decades, Alma Reville. Alma had been his boss in the 1920s. They married in 1926 and were together for more than fifty years.

One of the devices of this film is to have Hitchcock imagining and dreaming of encounters with Ed Gein, the man devoted to his mother but a murderer on whom Robert Bloch based his book, Psycho. Discussions with Ed Gein (Michael Wincott) punctuate the film and are a means of getting us into the mind of Hitchcock, his preoccupation with crime, with bizarre behaviour, his touches of morbidity (including his humour). This leads on to his reputation as being infatuated with his leading ladies, the ‘Hitchcock Blondes’ which included Grace Kelly, Vera Miles, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren. In Psycho he had Janet Leigh (Scarlet Johansson) who found him a gentleman and Vera Miles (Jessica Biel) whom he thought betrayed him by wanting marriage and a family.

This is the context for quite some detailed accounts of the making of the film, the studio’s hesitations, the urgings of his agent Lew Wasserman (Michael Stuhlbarg), the wariness of his loyal production assistant of many years, Peggy Robertson (Toni Collette), his investing his own money in the project. There are auditions (James Mc Avoy looking very like Anthony Perkins), building of sets, storyboarding, the filming of the shower sequence, of course, and troubles with censorship – as well as his masterful grandstanding to promote the film (dire warnings of audience response) and his dispute about using Bernard Herrman’s slashing score for the shower murder (and enjoying the audience’s successive screams during early screenings).

That means quite some material in 97 minutes – the making of a film and the study of a strange personality as director.

However, the film is also a portrait of Alfred and Alma, the story of a marriage, the commitment of a practical wife who is also talented in script-doctoring and editing, the pomposity of a man with inner demons (morbidity, the urges for the blondes and who eats and drinks too much). Anthony Hopkins does quite an impersonation of Hitchcock and his speech and manners. It is very clever and well worth seeing (especially for audiences who still remember Hitchcock).

But audiences will be rewarded with a very fine performance by Helen Mirren as Alma Reville. After years of devotion, putting up with her husband, urging him to be abstemious, the film suggests that she needed more support and affection and introduces a fictional relationship with writer Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston) with whom Hitchcock had worked on Strangers on a Train and Stage Fright (with a scene from his The Secret Heart screening on television in one scene). Helen Mirren can suggest a great deal simply by body language, facial expression and silences. She is at her best here – and has the opportunity of a speech telling her husband off, a scene that has had some audiences applauding.

Plenty to interest and to enjoy. And it is not a biography. It is an evocative portrait.


1. The film as entertainment? The personality of Hitchcock? His career? Master of suspense? The making of Psycho?

2. Audience knowledge of Hitchcock, and of Psycho?

3. The Hitchcock mansion? Scenes of the coast? Hollywood, the studios, offices?

4. The visual style of the film? echoing Psycho? The musical score? Bernard Herrmann?

5. A portrait of Hitchcock? Issues of accuracy? Impressions? The opening, the images of Ed Gein? Hitchcoc thek ta the dead lking with him? Dreams? Inspiration? obsessions? The character of Gein, his friends, his dead mother, on the bed, talking to her? Ed Gein’s advice? The effect on Hitchcock?

6. Psycho, of the book, the studios turning it down, the pitch to the producers? response? Alma’s response? Balaban and his not wanting to film it? The support of Lew Wasserman?

7. The premiere of North by Northwest, the success, the media response, the interviews?

8. Hitchcock, searching for his next film? His turning 60, the possibility for retiring? Some doubts and the media?

9. Hitchcock, his size, British background, recognizable mannerisms, his speech, manners, up eating and drinking, formality? His business sense? Memories of the UK? His films, the casts? His needs? Television not sufficient? Anthony Hopkins’ the impersonation? His decision?

10. Alma and their marriage, the quality of the shared life, the critics? Her skills, the film background, writing? The friendship with Whitford Cook? His character, his behavior, skill as a writer, womanizing? Friendship with Alma, wanting a relationship, buying the house, traveling with Alma, her discovery of the woman in the house and her reaction? Hitchcock despising Cook? Alma and the sharing of the house, the affection? Needing something more in her life? Hitchcock's suspicions? Interrogation?

11. Alma, as strong, work in the house, the garden, shopping, cooking, domestic scenes, the bedroom? The telling off of her husband? Seeing his photos of the blondes? Hitchcock and his obsessions and compulsions?

12. Balaban and the studios, his lack of taste, preoccupation with money, hype, ousted from the production? The issues of distribution of the film?

13. Wasserman as his agent, the deals, the issues, the house mortgage, Alma’s reaction, change of lifestyle, the pool and Alma’s swimming? The decisions for the project?

14. Peggy Robertson, proper, loyal, efficient, devotion to Hitchcock, on the set, ensuring everything was in order, calling Alma to the set?

15. The cast, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Anthony Perkins? Auditions, interviews, discussions of character, rehearsals? The filming? The censorship, the meetings, objections, Hitchcock’s reactions, the department? The promises, the deals? The significance of the discussion with Vera Miles, his resentments, his wanting to make her a star? Her wanting a home? Her discussions with Janet Leigh? Janet Leigh's caution and dealing with Hitchcock and Alma's appreciation?

16. The filming the scenes, the opening of the film in the apartments, Marion and Sam? The comments on John Gavin? Driving the car? The motel? Its being in the background? The filming of the shower sequence and its detail? Editing? Arbogast?

17. Hitchcock depressed at home, relying on Alma? The decision for including Herrmann’s music?

18. Paramount, the deals, the distribution?

19. Hitchcock and publicity, the risk of failure? The issue of the screams, the score? The posters, and guards on duty? Issues of admittance? Hitchcock waiting outside, nervous, counting the screams during the shower sequence?

20. The success of Psycho, Alma at the center of the press meetings? The final information about Hitchcock and his career? The post credits the scene of Hitchcock, his outline, his music?
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