MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK (2022)
Featuring archival footage of Alfred Hitchcock, Carole Lombard, Julie Andrews, Sean Connery, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Newman, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh, James Mason, Grace Kelly, Shirley MacLaine, James Stewart, Bruce Dern, Doris Day, Anthony Perkins, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Laurence Olivier, John Wayne, Ingrid Bergman and Kim Novak.
Written by Mark Cousins.
Directed by Mark Cousins.
Distributed by Cohen Media Group. 120 minutes. Not Rated.
In the 44 years since Alfred Hitchcock’s death, his personal reputation has taken a bit of a beating. He has been called unusual and weird (which, honestly, was kind of his brand from the start). He has been accused of being inappropriately cruel and occasionally pervy with some of his leading ladies. Tippi Hedren in particular has accused him of sexual harassment. There are also stories of inappropriate talk on set and mistreatment of his crew. It was a different era and there were different mores, still, some of the stories sound extremely bad in the modern era.
However, no one has ever questioned the fact that Hitchcock was a fantastic filmmaker. Even his nickname – The Master of Suspense – does not quite give him enough credit for the revolutionary changes he made in cinema in a career that lasted over 50 years, in which he filmed well over 50 movies. And that isn’t even counting a couple of dozen early shorts and features which he wrote or co-wrote, but didn’t direct, or films where he worked in the art department, or even one he produced. Plus, he was the host of two television series (and directed multiple episodes) that lasted for over a decade.
My Name is Alfred Hitchcock is a documentary as an exploration of film theory and methods. And it shows, once again, that Hitchcock was not just the Master of Suspense, he was a master filmmaker and storyteller.
In the opening credits, the film says it is written and narrated by Alfred Hitchcock. It sounds just like Hitchcock’s very distinctive voice, and much of what is said seems to be valid to Hitchcock’s work. However, quickly you notice things that are… well, impossible (or at least highly unlikely) for the director to have said… including some stuff about things that happened after his death. The film fesses up in the end credits and acknowledges that the narration was not actually written by Hitchcock (director and film historian Mark Cousins wrote it), and the director’s voice is being done by British impressionist and comedian Alistair McGowan.
However, like the film says, it does not make the things you learn about Hitchcock any less real.
In My Name is Alfred Hitchcock his work is not broken down chronologically, but instead looked at thematically. In fact, the documentary is cut up into six distinct sections: Escape, Desire, Loneliness, Time, Fulfillment and Height.
During these sections multiple clips of Hitchcock’s classic films – like Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, Rope, The Lodger, as well as lesser-known works like The Pleasure Garden, The Farmer’s Wife, Juno & the Peacock, Torn Curtain and Family Plot – are used to demonstrate the filmmaker’s obsessions with these subjects, as well as the theatrical tricks which he used to convey them.
It is a deep dive into the filmmaker’s work, and it shows what a truly great filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was. His quality as a man is still up for debate, but My Name is Alfred Hitchcock is proof-positive of his excellence as an artist.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 25, 2024.
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