HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT
US, 2015, 79 minutes, Colour.
Hitchcock, François Truffaut, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Wes Anderson, Paul Schrader, Olivier Assayas, James Gray, Kyoshi Kurosawa, Arnaud Desplechin, Richard Linklater,
Directed by Kent Jones.
Although he has been dead for over 35 years, Alfred Hitchcock and his name have become a byword for screen thrillers. So many of his films remain as classics.
The young French directors of the 1950s were in great admiration of Alfred Hitchcock seeing him as an artist more than as a popular director. In 1962, François Truffaut who had made quite an impact with his initial film, The 400 Blows, contacted Hitchcock and asked if he could spend a week interviewing him, going through all his films, exploring themes, exploring techniques, exploring impact. Hitchcock agreed and Truffaut went to California, the discussions taped but a translator also present to facilitate communication. The resulting book from these conversations finished up in every cinema library and the personal libraries of cinema buffs.
Director Kent Jones has gone through the material – but his limitation was that his documentary runs for only 80 minutes. Many of those watching the film, always with the utmost interest, will wonder why particular favourite films scarcely rate a mention, including Spellbound and North by Northwest.
This is a good opportunity to appreciate Hitchcock himself, his portly manner, his semi-sepulchral voice, his touches of wry humour, and his cooperation with Truffaut. Truffaut, is young and eager.
At the beginning of the film a great deal of attention is given to the 1936 film, Sabotage, a serious thriller with strong close-ups and a stabbing sequence. Later, most attention will be given to Vertigo, many sequences included, and quite a lot of discussion about the film and its sexual implications, as well as to Psycho, an analysis of the first half, the mundane office work of the central character and her stealing the money, going to the Bates Motel and the famous shower scene.
A number of contemporary directors are interviewed, mostly American, some French, and their views on particular films, their insightful comments on the techniques, camera use, editing, are very helpful. Martin Scorsese is particularly interesting on Vertigo but, particularly, on Psycho and the lesser-known thriller of 1956 with religious implications, specifically Catholic, with Henry Fonda, The Wrong Man.
Besides Scorsese, some of the directors interviewed are David Fincher, Peter Bogdanovich, Richard Linklater, Paul Schrader, James Gray, Olivier Assayas.
This is a film which will interest every cinema buff – and, with the clips of so many films, with the intelligent and insightful discussions, with the enthusiasm of Truffaut and the generally benign comments of Hitchcock (they both keeping up a correspondence for the next 15 years), it is a documentary well worth seeing and reflecting on.
