“The Film of Hitchcock” - Movie. Interview by Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock
In 1967, the director and actor of French cinema Francois Truffaut interviewed the legendary British director Alfred Hitchcock. It was not a traditional interview: 50 hours, about 500 questions, and a comprehensive examination of the filmography of the director since his inception in silent movies to the "Torn Curtain" produced in 1966. The interview was published in the book "The Films of Hitchcock" and has proven itself as a reference point for scholars and film lovers.
The interview comments on the filmography of Hitchcock. The master of suspense here explains his vision pertaining to film. What does the audience look for in a movie? How can they get it? It becomes clear with the answers that there is no banal detail in his films for Hitchcock. He utilizes every room, every transcendent image to sometimes unconsciously achieve a great drama in the viewer´s perception by the help of story elements.
Hitchcock also re-invented the voltage, the mystery and the surprise at that time. And since each of these three elements is different, they appear on the big screen varying. The pure cinema, referring to the cinema without dialogue, provides the necessary information only via images to the viewer to understand the characters and the situations.
Hitchcock also mentions some effects that are used in his films. For example, the effect that light is installed in a glass of milk. The viewer this way perceives that something is wrong with the glass, because the milk is illuminated briefly. Or he took the short sound of a siren, to represent the siren of an ambulance, which is two kilometers away. And of course he explains what is going on with the famous "MacGuffin" and what it is all about.
Ultimately, there are the visions that affected some of his films in the 60s. Even though when a movie like "Vertigo" is not present in a particular prominent way in the interview, this film over the years is yet considered as one of the best films in cinema history by experts
Hitchcock talks about his films, his actors, writers, the symbolism (which often slips our minds) and their fears and paranoia, in film like in real life. All with a unique sense of humor.
