Cronenberg and Lumet on Hitchcock
It's impossible to underestimate the influence Alfred Hitchcock had and continues to have on filmmakers who follow in his footsteps. Two of the filmmakers I interviewed at the Toronto Film Festival last week cited him in discussing their own work.
Fifty years after debuting with the classic Twelve Angry Men, Sidney Lumet is still going strong: his new film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, is scheduled to open in late October. Talking about how the process of filmmaking works for him, he dismissed the popular notion that Hitchcock was only interested in the preparation work he did prior to shooting:
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Don’t you believe what he said for a minute. I saw him on the set, and he loved every second of it. However, it’s absolutely true that he did the picture in his head. I’m sure he’s not the first one who did it, but certainly among the directors I knew he was the first to use storyboards for every single shot. I remember I asked Henry Fonda, who had just finished The Wrong Man, I said Hitchcock is getting on, this is New York in the middle of winter, how did he get through it? He said, Very easily—in the car. He would take his sketch of the shot, the cameraman would come over, he’d roll down the window, hand him the sketch, and the photographer would do the set up. But he watched the performances very carefully. I was on the set when he shot Rear Window—Grace [Kelly] was an old friend of mine—and he saw it all.
David Cronenberg, whose name is as synonymous for terror and tension for a later generation as Hitchcock was for his, describes a scene in his new Eastern Promises in terms of what is probably Hitchcock’s single most famous sequence. Discussing the already-infamous fight between Viggo Mortensen and two Russian assassins in a steambath, he said that there was no question that the star had to do the scene sans towel:
Given the level of reality in the movie, he has to do it naked. And you want that scene to be in the steambath because it’s all about betrayal and vulnerability—it’s like the shower scene in Psycho. You’re naked, you’re hot, and there are guys with knives that want to kill you. That’s pretty vulnerable.
Cronenberg disagreed, however, with the Hitchcockian stereotype of the omnipotent director:
Any artist has always known about chaos theory – you cannot predict the reaction to your movie. I’m always amazed at some aspect of the reactions I get to movies. That whole Hitchcock paradigm is false, the idea that you’re a perfect manipulator, that you know what the reactions of everybody are going to be like a puppeteer, operating a marionette. It’s never like that. I wouldn’t want it to be like that.
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hey,
alfred hitchcock is a wonderful thing to have on tv!!!!!!
please keep at it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanx alot!!!
hey,
alfred hitchcock is a wonderful thing to have on tv!!!!!!
please keep at it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanx alot!!!
TCM: Thank you for your seven nights of Hichcock; however, I wish that you would have included "SUSPICION" on your list of movies? That was one of my favorites! Perhaps you might show it at a later date? Please let me know?
Thank You!
lmgolfer@kc.rr.com
Larry H. McCallister; (913)-8518985.
Thanks a lot for the Hitchock films. They have been a joy to watch. Perhaps you should consider more top films to be added as well -- including Orson Welles' work, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorcese etc.
Thanks a lot for the Hitchock films. They have been a joy to watch. Perhaps you should consider more top films to be added as well -- including Orson Welles' work, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorcese etc.
Thanks a lot for the Hitchock films. They have been a joy to watch. Perhaps you should consider more top films to be added as well -- including Orson Welles' work, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorcese etc.
Thanks for the Hitchcock films. I've enjoyed every second of his masterful work. It really highlights the differences between a master and the present Hollywood imitators. Imitated, but never duplicated! They have a lot to learn.
I'm love watching the Hitchcock movies but have to admit that I can't watch Psycho. It scares me way too much. I know that was the purpose but just can't do it.
I have to say my favorite is North by Northwest. Maybe Cary Grant influences me on that one.
I hope they keep showing the Hitchcock thrillers off and on and am happy about the tribute.
The Hitchcock festival was absolutely wonderful. Vertigo is a very fascinating movie. Was he in love with her, or with a fantasy? It seemed he turned his memory of her into an impossible ideal of perfection, one that would satisfy all his desires. When he found Judy again, he made her over and erased her identity, refusing to accept anything less than a recreation of a perfect fantasy. But people are human and flawed, not paragons of perfection that can satisfy all our needs and deepest longings. No one person can deliver a personal heaven on earth to us. This is what he couldn't accept. Not a coincidence she was destroyed in the tower of a church, the symbol of faith in God. I think it's the greatest movie ever. Thanks!
What is the name of the band or group (think it's a single guys name, may be wrong)doing the music during the Hitchcock movie breaks? Popular in the late 80's to mid 90's? Run Run Run....
My question is who sings the song on the AMC Hitchcock commercial? It's a woman singing something about shadows on the wall... Anyone know?
Yeah who sings that song...shadows on my wall, its good Ken but cant find it online though.
The song it called "Like Murder" by Twilight Sleep. You can hear the full version on their website http://www.twilightsleepmusic.com/#.
Thankyou very much...:)