“You
may call me Hitch. Hold the Cock.”
I remember the first time I ever sat
through a Hitchcock film like it was yesterday. Rebecca was the film. I can remember buying that along with Notorious and Spellbound. I can remember seeing the scene where Maxim tells his
new wife the night his first wife died and the camera pans the movements of the
woman. That was the moment I saw why Hitchcock is considered a genius. Ever
since then Alfred Hitchcock has been my favorite director from the way he films
his scenes, casts his characters, and chooses his stories.
You
never talk about Alfred Hitchcock without Psycho
coming into the conversation. Psycho
is by far the film the director is most known for. Book after book has been
written about the film especially of the famous shower scene. Psycho is not my favorite Hitchcock
film by far but I do appreciate what it did for film and do understand its
impact at the time and now.
It
is only fitting that a movie should be made about the making of the famous 1960
film. Simply titled Hitchcock, this
movie starts after North by Northwest
has become a hug success and now the director does not know what kind of story
he wants to make. He wants to make something different but the studios keep
offering him spy movies like his current success. In his office Hitchcock comes
across the story of Ed Gein a serial killer from Wisconsin who killed countless
women and kept his dead mother in the house. Hitchcock read the book Psycho
that is based off of Ed’s murders and immediately wants to turn the story into
a movie.
Of
course Paramount hates the idea since it is a horror movie that will be
considered too violent. Hitchcock makes his way around the studio system saying
that he will finance the movie himself.
The
movie goes into his private life during the making of the film and his
interactions with Janet Leigh and Vera Miles.
Anthony
Hopkins was too perfect to describe as the director. Helen Mirren plays
Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville. Now Alma Reville had as much a hand in her
husband’s films as he did. She wrote several of the scripts for many of his
famous films including Psycho but she never put her name in the credits. In the
movie Alma is supposed to have been writing a script with another man which
made Hitchcock jealous. I am not sure how much that is really true. I can
imagine Hitchcock being a hard man to deal with and live with but it felt as if
a lot of their interactions were dramatized. I can also imagine that it must
have been hard living with him when he was so infatuated with his blonde
leading ladies especially Grace Kelly. Scarlet Johansson I was little worried
how she would pull of playing Janet Leigh but she was great. I was so mad to
see Jessica Beal as Vera Miles. First off let me say that I am in no way a fan
of Jessica Beal I think she is annoying and a bad actress. I have seen Vera
Miles in several films and think she is a good actress. I really like Miles in Psycho. So that being said I think you
know full well my feelings on Jessica Beal playing Vera Miles. Also had another
issue with this portrayal of Miles- before making Psycho Miles had made a film
where she had to shave her head so she wore a blonde wig for the role of Lila
Crane. In the movie they had Miles with long brown hair and had her wear the
wig when filming. Now this film
was almost stolen by James D’Arcy playing Anthony Perkins. He was so spot on it
was scary! I have to mention that Toni Collette is in this movie as the director’s
secretary. I had no idea she was in it and I barely recognized she was great.
Hitchcock was a very good movie. I am
actually looking forward to it being out on DVD. I am extremely interested to
know what Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville’s daughter Pat Hitchcock thought of
the movie. After all she did have a small part in Psycho she was the other secretary where Marion worked.
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