Modern Cinema Icons Reflect on the Ultimate Master of Suspense In 'Hitchcock/Truffaut,' Director Kent Jones explores how Alfred Hitchcock continues to inspire filmmakers and thrill movie goers
Written by Tomás Salazar
Cinema buffs and regular moviegoers alike will appreciate Hitchcock/Truffaut, a film that takes the viewer back in time to the ‘60s, when the French film director François Truffaut interviewed Alfred Hitchcock about his work over the span of a week – interviews which led to the famous book Hitchcock/Truffaut. Using film clips from Hitchcock classics like The Birds, Psycho, Rope, and Vertigo, and audio from the interviews, Director Kent Jones, who also runs the New York Film Festival, breathes new life into those conversations between Truffaut and Hitchcock.
The show began before the opening credits, which paid homage to the master of the suspense with a nod to his stylized title credits, because also because famed director Martin Scorsese joined Jones onstage to do what Truffaut once did: speak with a great director about great films.
“I went to the movie theater to watch a lot of his films,” Scorsese recalled. “First I saw Strangers on a Train, then I went to see Rear Window. You always went to see his films, as a franchise, like now with superhero movies.”
For his film, Jones interviewed some of the most talented directors working today, including Wes Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, David Fincher, Richard Linklater, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and of course Martin Scorsese, among others. During Hitchcock’s first conversations with Truffaut, we see how important the audience was to him, and as a young admirer, Scorsese recognized that in the theaters. He said, “Psycho was a rollercoaster, I saw it in a packed movie theater at midnight. The audience reaction was remarkable. They left the theater screaming and when people asked them ‘what happened?’, they said ‘I can’t tell you.’”
The audience at the DOC NYC screening was equally moved by the film, and by the fond recollections of a master of cinema and the lasting impact of his work. More than 50 years after the premiere of Psycho, we are still thrilled by the classic scenes we know by heart – by Lila Crane agonizing over whether to take or leave that white envelope, driving in a panic down a dark road, which Scorsese says is one of his favorites scenes, to that unforgettable moment when the shower curtain is ripped open and the blood runs down the drain. That’s the power of truly memorable film making, and the genius of a film maker who continues to fascinate movie goers and directors, undoubtedly for many more years to come.
Tomás Salazar is a recent graduate of the New York Film Academy. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tomás is a screenwriter and documentary-lover. You can learn more about him and his work here.
