Chris Knipp
10-24-2024, 04:48 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20htc.jpg
MARK COUSINS: MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK (2022)
A cinephile's playful journey through clips of Hitchcock's films
Mark Cousins is a prolific Northern Irish documentary filmmaker most known for the 15-hour 2011 The Story of Film: An Odyssey. His 2018 The Eyes of Orson Welles is a stylistic portrait of the filmmaker that relates to the present film, which might be called "The Eyes of Alfred Hitchcock." It doesn't so much tell you about Hitchcock's style and technique or specific movies as show and relate images in them.
The voice is a convincing imitation of the director's tone and sound. He is not for the most part telling about himself, though occasionally he is, especially toward the end, but rather about some (well, many) of the particular visual and other devices that he used in his films. He goes on talking and showing them for two whole hours. The time, filled by narration and many little clips from Hitchcock's films, is organized into six themes, Escape, Desire, Loneliness, Time, Fulfillment and Height. In doing this he jumps back and forth over the half century of the director's fifty features.In Fulfillment he touches on Hitchcock's own happy married life and enjoyment of dinner parties. The organization shows how quirky the journey is, because Fulfillment, Time, and Height aren't categories that quite align logically.
What is the point? Let me get back to you on that. But one clear effect is to draw us into detailed observation of what goes on in these films. They may serve as teasers, if we haven't seen them, or reminders, if we have. Cutting and camera movement give us a sense of time. A hand conceals a knife, the knife is going to come out and stab someone threatening. Such a conventionally Hitchcockian category as "Suspense" is not mentioned. But the cigarette lighter from Strangers on a Tran is shown, and he says he (the fictitious Hitchcock narrator) carried it in his own pocket for years, and then one day dropped it down a grate, he doesn't know why. Is this true? Probably not, just an excuse to talk about that famous Hitchcock McGuffin, the cigarette lighter in Strangers on a Train.
We see a girl walking into a smokey barn in the 1937 Hitchcock film Young and Innocent. She is looking for a fugitive, the fictitious Hitchcock says. But this is "no ordinary barn. It's so Gothic, like a spider's web." The young woman climbs up a wall of the spidery, hazy barn. "It's so fulfilling to do a crane shot in this way, to create such a mood." Then "I had a similar moment in Foreign Correspondent,," he says. And indeed the clip from Foreign Correspondent does have the same look of a ruined, hazy barn. "It's like seeing the workings of my mind."
What does he mean? Or rather, what does Mark Cousins mean? Because it's Cousins who created this film out of what may be an encyclopedic knowledge of Hitchcock's movies and the images in them. And it's he who wrote these words, which are voiced by Alistair McGowan in a skillful imitation of the voice of Mr. Hitchcock. But though the sound of Hitchcock's voice has been captured, his mind has not, because it's doubtful that Hitch would say the shot of a barn was like the "workings" of his mind, or that a certain kind of crane shot was "fulfilling." Cousins is grasping for something, but he hasn't quite caught it. He 's making things up.
It's a bit hard to say what we are learning through this journey through film clips. All we know is that Cousins skillfully leaps from one tiny moment and obscure look or link among Hitchcock's films to another, and that the narration keeps us, the viewers, following along.
A moment later the fictional Hitchcock says "Since we're talking of fulfillment, can I show you this little scene?" - He wants to show us something else. It's a shot of the carrousel with "the hero and the villain" fighting (and children screaming) late in Strangers on a Train. "What gives me pleasure is how they are fighting," he says. "The ride becomes a killing machine, don't you think? They met on a speeding train and they end on a spinning top."
This isn't Hitchcock talking. The impersonation of Hitchcock is superficial. It's all about Hitchcock. It's a celebration of Hitchcock's films, narrated with the device of an impersonation of Hitchcock's voice. It's a work of artistry, of fantasy. Does it teach us anything about Hitchcock's films? About his mind? Perhaps. That's harder to say. But if you are a fan of Hitchcock, you may enjoy this rummaging through clips of his films, leaping about in time, and the enthusiastic way Mark Cousins connects them. If you are just starting to learn about Hitchcock, it might be better to start elsewhere, but still this might intrigue you.
It's always time to watch a Hithcock movie again.
As for Cousins, Peter Bradshaw, writing of this film, comments that "only a cinephile as passionate as Mark Cousins" could have got away with the "hilarious presumption and cheek" of My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock. It's a quirky piece of work, but it succeeds because of the filmmaker's incestuous familiarity with Hitchcock's films and ability to reference and connect so many little slips from them logically - with a visual logic, anyway.
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, 120 mins., debuted at Telluride Sept. 2022., also showing at São Paolo, Glasgow, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and released in the UK, Japan, and Portugal. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/my-name-is-alfred-hitchcock/) rating: 74%.
MARK COUSINS: MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK (2022)
A cinephile's playful journey through clips of Hitchcock's films
Mark Cousins is a prolific Northern Irish documentary filmmaker most known for the 15-hour 2011 The Story of Film: An Odyssey. His 2018 The Eyes of Orson Welles is a stylistic portrait of the filmmaker that relates to the present film, which might be called "The Eyes of Alfred Hitchcock." It doesn't so much tell you about Hitchcock's style and technique or specific movies as show and relate images in them.
The voice is a convincing imitation of the director's tone and sound. He is not for the most part telling about himself, though occasionally he is, especially toward the end, but rather about some (well, many) of the particular visual and other devices that he used in his films. He goes on talking and showing them for two whole hours. The time, filled by narration and many little clips from Hitchcock's films, is organized into six themes, Escape, Desire, Loneliness, Time, Fulfillment and Height. In doing this he jumps back and forth over the half century of the director's fifty features.In Fulfillment he touches on Hitchcock's own happy married life and enjoyment of dinner parties. The organization shows how quirky the journey is, because Fulfillment, Time, and Height aren't categories that quite align logically.
What is the point? Let me get back to you on that. But one clear effect is to draw us into detailed observation of what goes on in these films. They may serve as teasers, if we haven't seen them, or reminders, if we have. Cutting and camera movement give us a sense of time. A hand conceals a knife, the knife is going to come out and stab someone threatening. Such a conventionally Hitchcockian category as "Suspense" is not mentioned. But the cigarette lighter from Strangers on a Tran is shown, and he says he (the fictitious Hitchcock narrator) carried it in his own pocket for years, and then one day dropped it down a grate, he doesn't know why. Is this true? Probably not, just an excuse to talk about that famous Hitchcock McGuffin, the cigarette lighter in Strangers on a Train.
We see a girl walking into a smokey barn in the 1937 Hitchcock film Young and Innocent. She is looking for a fugitive, the fictitious Hitchcock says. But this is "no ordinary barn. It's so Gothic, like a spider's web." The young woman climbs up a wall of the spidery, hazy barn. "It's so fulfilling to do a crane shot in this way, to create such a mood." Then "I had a similar moment in Foreign Correspondent,," he says. And indeed the clip from Foreign Correspondent does have the same look of a ruined, hazy barn. "It's like seeing the workings of my mind."
What does he mean? Or rather, what does Mark Cousins mean? Because it's Cousins who created this film out of what may be an encyclopedic knowledge of Hitchcock's movies and the images in them. And it's he who wrote these words, which are voiced by Alistair McGowan in a skillful imitation of the voice of Mr. Hitchcock. But though the sound of Hitchcock's voice has been captured, his mind has not, because it's doubtful that Hitch would say the shot of a barn was like the "workings" of his mind, or that a certain kind of crane shot was "fulfilling." Cousins is grasping for something, but he hasn't quite caught it. He 's making things up.
It's a bit hard to say what we are learning through this journey through film clips. All we know is that Cousins skillfully leaps from one tiny moment and obscure look or link among Hitchcock's films to another, and that the narration keeps us, the viewers, following along.
A moment later the fictional Hitchcock says "Since we're talking of fulfillment, can I show you this little scene?" - He wants to show us something else. It's a shot of the carrousel with "the hero and the villain" fighting (and children screaming) late in Strangers on a Train. "What gives me pleasure is how they are fighting," he says. "The ride becomes a killing machine, don't you think? They met on a speeding train and they end on a spinning top."
This isn't Hitchcock talking. The impersonation of Hitchcock is superficial. It's all about Hitchcock. It's a celebration of Hitchcock's films, narrated with the device of an impersonation of Hitchcock's voice. It's a work of artistry, of fantasy. Does it teach us anything about Hitchcock's films? About his mind? Perhaps. That's harder to say. But if you are a fan of Hitchcock, you may enjoy this rummaging through clips of his films, leaping about in time, and the enthusiastic way Mark Cousins connects them. If you are just starting to learn about Hitchcock, it might be better to start elsewhere, but still this might intrigue you.
It's always time to watch a Hithcock movie again.
As for Cousins, Peter Bradshaw, writing of this film, comments that "only a cinephile as passionate as Mark Cousins" could have got away with the "hilarious presumption and cheek" of My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock. It's a quirky piece of work, but it succeeds because of the filmmaker's incestuous familiarity with Hitchcock's films and ability to reference and connect so many little slips from them logically - with a visual logic, anyway.
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, 120 mins., debuted at Telluride Sept. 2022., also showing at São Paolo, Glasgow, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and released in the UK, Japan, and Portugal. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/my-name-is-alfred-hitchcock/) rating: 74%.