Bored Now at the Movies

Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)

       Kent Jone's concise document of the famous meeting between French New Wave marrick      Truffaut and the older statesman of supense Alfred Hitchcock is almost as tightly woven and 

 full of cinematic verve and richness as a Hitchcock masterpiece.

The film nicely balances several strands and themes, which is bookended by crucial transcripts of the interview between the two directors, and some in-depth analysis of Hitchcock films as described by a impressive range of modern filmmakers.  The two highlights from the talking heads for me came from Martin Scorsese in his explanation of the banality of the connect the dots moments in Psycho, and a very telling query by David Fricher in wondering just how the modern power houses of acting such as Pacino and De Niro would re-act to Hitchcock's highly demanding regime?  To me this raised a very modern concept of actings having too much power on the set, and the suggestion that the idea of the auteur director could be a fading one.  This is a rare moment in which Jones examines Hitchcock's suspect treatment of actors, espcially those of actresses.  A element which is randomally nodded at by Richard Linklater at one stage, but then I guess that would have been a different film.  The least successful talking head I felt was James Gray.  His moments of hyperbolic interjections felt forced, and served to over state the director's role, almost as if he is trying over shadow both Hitchcock and Truffaut himself.

The film makes a compelling case for Hitchcock being undervalued at the time, and further suggest the irony that his most commercially successful spell was all too brief a period.  It presents Truffaut as a champion of the underappreciated artist, and his influence on showcasing Hitchcock's true talents.  A thrilling and engaging cinematic document throughout.

Keith Beard.