The
voice of the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, informs us at the beginning
of Mark Cousins’ fascinating documentary, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock,
that he will tell us one lie in the picture—but that the rest of it is true,
more or less. The lie, of course, is that Hitchcock himself is speaking to us from
beyond the grave and is following a script that he wrote. Instead, the voice,
which indeed uncannily sounds like Hitch’s, belongs to actor/comedian Alistair McGowan,
reading from a script written by Cousins. The opening credits cheekily informs
us that the film was written and narrated by Hitchcock. The closing credits
corrects this falsehood.
Cousins
is well known in the cinematic world as an award winning writer and filmmaker,
often responsible for documentaries about film itself. His excellent series, The
Story of Film, is a landmark study of cinema history and its evolution in
terms of innovation. Here, Cousins acknowledges that Hitchcock’s works have
been analyzed to death, but with his inimitable and unique eye, the filmmaker
forces us to look at the master’s movies in a new way. New angles. Different
takes.
“In
his own words” (not really), Hitchcock narrates the journey as he points out
six different themes that he claims to be important in his work.
Escape
is
fairly obvious, as characters are often running away from something—danger and
romance, for instance. The crop dusting sequence in North by Northwest immediately
comes to mind here, but the theme could be applied to a character attempting to
escape an unhappy existence—Marnie, for example, in the film of that title,
wants to flee her past.
Desire
is
all over the place in Hitchcock’s movies. Attraction to someone, the need for
sexual contact—actually the opposite of “escape” in that characters are running
to what they desire.
Loneliness,
as
in how characters’ motivations are determined by despair. Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
or James Stewart in Vertigo.
Time
is
played with throughout his oeuvre. A race against time. Time stopping
(Ray Milland in Dial M for Murder has a watch that fails, forcing him to
make his alibi call from a pay phone).
Fulfilment
moves
away from Hitchcock’s films and into his personal life with wife Alma and
daughter Patricia. How he moved from England to Hollywood in pursuit of career
fulfilment, for example.
Height
examines
how the director often used spatial birds’-eye views on his characters and the
world. He loved his crane shots (Notorious), his characters falling from
above (Norman Lloyd in Saboteur), and literal omniscient views in The
Birds.
All
of this material is presented along with beautifully remastered film clips to
illustrate the talking points. As such, the documentary is full of insight,
moments that will make you think, “Gee, I never thought of that,” and intriguing
examinations of these movies that film buffs know well and love.
The
problem is that the movie is painfully slow and one-note in dynamics. The real
Alfred Hitchcock spoke very slowly. Mimicking him quite faithfully, McGowan’s
speech and pace is just as meticulous. As a result, the approximately two-hour
film itself moves ponderously. At the halfway mark, I thought I’d been watching
for much longer.
So…
it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The documentary is audacious in its conception of
having “Hitch” speak to us from beyond the grave, but that sort of works. It’s
just that this construct informs the entire production with its detrimental
pacing.
Cohen
Media Group’s new Blu-ray release is certainly gorgeous to look at. It comes
with a few Supplements: An alternate trailer voiced by Mark Cousins; McGowan’s
voice/narration test; a 30-minute Q&A over Zoom with Cousins and
critic/journalist Chuck Rose; a graphics animation test (for several animations
used in the movie); the original theatrical trailer; and a piece with Cousins
introducing the films Notorious, Saboteur, and Rope.
If
you’re a devoted fan of Alfred Hitchcock, you’ll assuredly enjoy the film. Others
might become bored with it rather quickly. Perhaps it would have worked better
in four 30-minute segments of a limited series. Nevertheless, the content—over
presentation—is excellent.
