HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAULT

(director/writer: Kent Jones; screenwriter: Serge Toubiana; cinematographers: Eric Gautier, Genta Tamaki; editor: Rachel Reichman; music: Jeremiah Bornfield; cast: David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdanovich, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, James Gray, Richard Linklater, Arnaud Desplechin, Olivier Assayas, Bob Balaban (Narrator); Runtime: 80; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Oliver Mille, Charles S. Cohen; HBO/Cohen Media Group; 2015=France/USA)

“This is a film for movie buffs that even the casual movie fan can appreciate.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Film historian Kent Jones (“A Letter to Elia”/”Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows“) bases his film on the book published in 1966, Hitchcock/Truffault, whereby the half his age French director Truffault met with the 62-year-old Hitchcock in 1962 for a week in a Beverly Hills hotel and questioned the master on all his films. It includes the audiotapes in which Hitchcock and Truffaut sit at a table with the translator, Helen Scott), and it proceeds with choice commentary on selected moments from many of Hitchcock’s films with the filmmaker being totally candid. The analytical exercise, with no dissenting voices, serves as a canonization of Hitch as the artist and not the lightweight as some previously may nave thought. Current leading directors Martin Scorsese, David Fincher and Wes Anderson lead the discussion on the interview and smartly concur with Truffault’s belief of over fifty years ago that Hitch is a legendary and genius filmmaker. There’s no argument from me, as I’ve seen the Master’s entire opus and found all his films, including his silents, shot with surprises, great structure and with visually stimulating brilliance. The movie clips shown range from The Lodger, shot in England, to his studio films in Hollywood such as Rear Window, The Birds and Strangers on a Train. It has some interesting commentary by Hitch on the set-up to the shower scene in Psycho and comments by Fincher on how perversely obsessed Hitch was with the plot to Vertigo, which arguably may be his best film. This is a film for movie buffs that even the casual movie fan can appreciate.

REVIEWED ON 2/17/2017 GRADE: A-   https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/