Page 30 - ArubaToday

A30
PEOPLE & ARTSMonday 7 December 2015
In ‘Hitchcock/Truffaut,’ a tete-a-tete between two titans
JAKE COYLE
AP Film WriterNEW YORK
(AP) — “Hitchcock/Truf-
faut,” one of the most es-
sential books about mov-
iemaking and a historic
tete-a-tete between two
of the greatest filmmakers
(one a Hollywood veteran,
the other a rising star of the recordings in which Truf-
French New Wave), began
with a letter.
“There are many directors
with a love of cinema, but
what you possess is a love

of celluloid itself and it is
that which I would like to
talk to you about,” Fran-
cois Truffaut wrote to Alfred
Hitchcock.
What followed was a week
of interviews in a window-
less Hollywood office that
culminated in 27 hours of
faut discussed Hitchcock’s
artistry, film by film. The new
documentary “Hitchcock/
Truffaut” by critic, film-
maker and New York Film
This 1962 image released by Cohen Media Group shows Francois Truffaut, left, and director
Alfred Hitchcock in a scene from Kent Jones’s documentary, “Hitchcock/Truffaut.” The new
documentary by critic, filmmaker and New York Film Festival head Kent Jones, is about that
extraordinary meeting and its long reverberations through cinema.
(Philippe Halsman/Cohen Media Group via AP)
Festival head Kent Jones, Sight & Sound’s poll), Truf- says Jones. “That’s cine-
faut’s book was the first ma.”
is about that extraordinary full appreciation of his ge- Jones’ passion for the
nius. A post-war cultural book, and the conversa-
meeting and its long rever- exchange between Hol- tion it began, is easily ap-
lywood and France (the parent. The film, too, con-
berations through cinema. birthplace of cinema) was tinues the conversation,
then stoking a new ap- with filmmakers like Rich-
“It was the birth of an idea praisal of studio films and ard Linklater and Wes An-
filmmakers. Led by the Ca- derson still teasing out the
of cinema and film culture hiers du Cinema (for which craftsmanship of Hitch-
Truffaut wrote before cock.
as a world unto itself,” says becoming a filmmaker), It’s easy to see the book
French critics saw directors (Truffaut called it a “livre-
Jones. __ good ones, at least __ film” or his “Hitchbook”)
as the authors of their films, as a bridge between two
It also had really cool pic- even when working within eras of movies: Hitchcock’s
the confines of the 1940s classical period, with its
tures. Shot-by-shot photo and ‘50s studio system. careful compositions and
For Jones, “Hitchcock/Truf- classical performances;
montages of scenes, like faut” was ultimately about and the coming shift of
the emergence of film as more brazenly personal
the infamous shower stab- its own cultural realm, not filmmaking and acting,
in comparison to literature and self-consciously artistic
bing of “Psycho,” were or anything else. In the movies.
conversation of two titans “Hitchcock/Truffaut” con-
what first captivated Jones of filmmaking __ each nects those eras, not so
from wildly different back- much marking the dis-
as an already movie-cra- grounds, speaking through tance between them than
a translator but united by their commonality of pur-
zy 12 year-old. He was far a common obsession __ suit. The book was a siz-
lie many of the things that able event in the lives of its
from alone. The book, pub- makes movies movies: two participants, too. Ini-
how shots edited together tially planning to do it in a
lished in 1966, four years af- make a scene; how space few months, Truffaut spent
is used; how objects take nearly four years on it, ef-
ter the interviews, is roundly on a hyper, dreamlike fectively pausing a red-hot
significance; what Cary career kicked off by “The
considered a kind of bible Grant and Ingrid Bergman 400 Blows,” ‘’Shoot the Pia-
can do together. nist” and “Jules and Jim.”
for cinephiles and filmmak- “It’s the sensuality and the Hitchcock, who would go
tactility and the danger on to make a handful more
ers, alike. In the film, David and the ecstasy and the films, remained friends with
modernity all at once,” Truffaut.q
Fincher (who is currently
remaking Hitchcock’s
“Strangers on a Train”) re-
calls pouring over the im-
ages as a kid. Martin Scors-
ese describes the book’s
celebration of Hitchcock
as “like a weight taken off
our shoulders.”
“It conclusively changed
people’s opinions about
Hitchcock,” says Peter
Bogdanovich in the film.
“Hitchcock began to be
taken much more serious-
ly.”
Though Hitchcock is now
among the most revered
directors ever (his “Verti-
go,” initially received cold-
ly by critics, currently ranks
as the top film of all time in