Alfred Hitchcock is one of Britain’s most influential and well known directors. Born in Essex, he enjoyed a successful career in England’s burgeoning silent film industry, before moving to America in 1939 to create some of his most iconic features. Now we recognise Hitchcock for the genius that he was, with numerous films attempting to get to the heart of his creativity; 2012 saw two biographical projects hit screens, the Toby Jones led The Girl and Anthony Hopkins‘ Hitchcock.
However this was not always the case. Many critics viewed the director as a purveyor of pulp and cheap thrills, unable to move beneath the surface of his tense, psychological thrillers. That all changed in 1962, when Hitchcock and revered French New Wave auteur and critic, François Truffaut, sat down to discuss the former’s filmography.
In some ways, I wish this project was merely a recording of that meeting; an artefact from film history, hours upon hours of mannered conversation between two of cinema’s uncompromising minds. Though, from this brief look at Hitchcock/Truffaut we can see something very interesting has been caught on film. Director Kent Jones uses the interview to open up a dialogue with some of today’s most talented film makers, including Wes Anderson, Olivier Assayas, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, and Richard Linklater.
And here’s the official synopsis: “In 1962 Hitchcock and Truffaut locked themselves away in Hollywood for a week to excavate the secrets behind the mise-en-scène in cinema. Based on the original recordings of this meeting—used to produce the mythical book Hitchcock/Truffaut—this film illustrates the greatest cinema lesson of all time and plummets us into the world of the creator of Psycho, The Birds, and Vertigo. Hitchcock’s incredibly modern art is elucidated and explained by today’s leading filmmakers: Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Arnaud Desplechin, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Wes Anderson, James Gray, Olivier Assayas, Richard Linklater, Peter Bogdanovich and Paul Schrader“.
Alfred Hitchcock has always been a very male focused director, I would have liked to have seen some female film makers added to that list; but still, it sounds like a very interesting project. Hitchcock/Truffaut will hit UK screens on October 10. Check out the trailer below:
#Peace.Love.Hitchcock
