Friday, February 1, 2013
‘Hitchcock’ (2012) directed by Sacha Gervasi
Appropriately, it opens with a murder. We’re on the Wisconsin
farm of serial killer Ed Gein, who proceeds to viciously bonk a man on the head
with a shovel. As the victim floppily
collapses we pan up to an incongruous figure salivating at the violence before
him. It’s Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony
Hopkins), who welcomes us to an exploration of his creative process and his
darker obsessions.
Set in 1959 ‘Hitchcock’
finds its subject at a crossroads. He’s
enjoying the financial and critical success of ‘North by Northwest’, but the perceived failure of ‘Vertigo’ still haunts him. He’s frustrated by the pressure to make more
blockbusters, and so, to general dismay becomes fixated on Robert Bloch’s lurid
book ‘Psycho’. Hitchcock wants show audiences something new
and shocking, and he sees ‘Psycho’ as
the perfect vehicle.
 |
| Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock |
His instincts are dead-on, but then we already
know that. Therein lies one of the major
problems with the film; it wants to create a state of tension about whether ‘Psycho’ is going to be a hit or
not. We see studio bosses worrying about
their reputations, forcing Hitchcock to mortgage his house and fund the
production himself. This strains
relations with his wife Alma (Helen Mirren), all of which cranks up the pressure
on an increasingly stressed man. This
attempt to raise the stakes never quite works as the success of ‘Psycho’ is never in the slightest
doubt. Frankly, if you make a
suspense-free film about ‘The Master of Suspense’ then you’ve misfired
somewhere.
Anthony Hopkins is absolutely brilliant as
Alfred Hitchcock. It’s a performance that occasionally tips over into caricature,
but Hitchcock revelled in consciously exaggerating his public image. Hopkins Hopkins
 |
| Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh |
The flip side to the eccentric Hitchcock is his
down-to-earth, practical wife Alma. Alma
was, by all accounts, an incredibly astute and talented woman, but here she has
the thankless role of being saddled with the task of not only trying to
convince her husband not to make ‘Psycho’,
but also of flirting with the idea of having an affair with a slick and slimy
Hollywood scumbag. It’s a testament to
just how good Mirren is that despite this she keeps us rooting for Alma
The ups and downs of the Hitchcock marriage
provide much of the drama, which means that the production of ‘Psycho’ is treated as more of a backdrop. This focus is frustrating because the film is
at its best when we’re delving into how Hitchcock’s production methods and
interactions with cast and crew. Janet
Leigh and Anthony Perkins are compellingly played by Scarlett Johansson and
James D’Arcy, but sadly we don’t get to see too much of them. The film is at its best when we watch
Hitchcock at work in the studio, and realise we’re watching cinematic history
being made. Watching iconic scenes take
shape sends a shiver up your spine, most notably when we follow a length of steaming black
rubber pipe that snakes sinisterly through the set, abruptly terminating in a
gleaming silver shower head.
All of this imagery is ominously effective,
perhaps too effective as I found
myself wishing I was watching ‘Psycho’
instead. ‘Hitchcock’ is a perfectly
serviceable and fun film and director Sacha Gervasi has successfully made the
leap from documentary to dramatic film-making.
The problem is that the psychology of Alfred Hitchcock has been already
been covered much more comprehensively in film by the man himself in ‘Vertigo’ and indeed, in ‘Psycho’.
Perhaps the best you can say about ‘Hitchcock’ is that it’s an excellent
encouragement to go and watch some classic cinema.
*** / *****
'Hitchcock' is on general release from 8th February.
Tags:
Alfred Hitchcock ,
Anthony Hopkins ,
Anthony Perkins ,
film ,
Helen Mirren ,
Hitchcock ,
Janet Leigh ,
movie ,
Psycho ,
Sacha Gervasi ,
Scarlett Johansson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 Responses to “‘Hitchcock’ (2012) directed by Sacha Gervasi”
Post a Comment