Second thoughts
I had liked Hitchcock; already when watching it on the big screen in March - the review is here;- but upon rewatching because I was trying to solve a rl problem, I think I may love it, i.e. this is a film where the affection grows. Not least because I just listened to the audio commentary by the director and the writer of the documentary Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho; which was the film's primary source, and it's always gratifying when the things you enjoyed best in a work - in this case, Helen Mirren being awesome and the focus on the Alma and Hitch relationship as a creativ partnership in addition to being a marriage, and the fact this is a story about a marriage/partnership that has already lasted decades by the time the film starts, as opposed to being about young lovers. Also, it was really important to the director to get more public attention for how important Alma's work was to the Hitchcock ouevre (which film experts know, but not your avarage vaguely-interested-in-films person). And he did not want to do "an overearnest intense brooding biopic"; because this would be missing out the humour and the whimsical side of Hitchcock, which he feels got lost somewhat in the Hitchcock myth but was essential to the man both as a director and a person.
Also impressive: Anthony Hopkins being a cast-friendly pro who was there to read with every single person auditioning, no matter whether the audition was for a key part or for a bit cameo where the role just consisted of two lines. In most cases during auditions you have some crew member reading the other lines for the actor who auditions, but Hopkins made himself available throughout so that everyone could interact with his Hitchcock, not the scriptgirl. On the funny but still professional behaviour side, when they shot the climax, the aftermath of the Psycho premiere where Hitch and Alma leave the cinema and kiss, it was 3 am in the morning, and there was a homeless guy who kept yelling "Hannibal Lecter! Oh God, Hannibal Lecter!". Hopkins gave him an autograph and finally got him to be quiet so they could shoot the scene, and not one word of complaint from either him or Dame Helen about any of the spoiled takes before.
When you think about it: Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville as a creative partnership that lasted a life time is a fascinating counterpoint to other partnerships who didn't and had famous breakups instead. It's not like the fact they were a man and a woman (i.e. marriage being a socially sanctioned way of being together) made it necessarily easier (see also: Burton/Taylor, Olivier/Leigh); the film lets them have their arguments and not spelled out tensions, whether about his blondes and his mortgaging the house to finance Psycho; or her creatively cheating on him by working with another writer. But they do work it out. Of course the movie is fiction. But the writer of the documentary says that one of his favourite stories always was that Alma had to convince her husband to use Bernard Herrmann's music for the shower scene in Psycho;, because Hitchcock at first wanted the scene to be silent. (And Bernard Herrmann was mortally insulted about that.) Can you imagine it without those iconic screaming strings? They're there because he deferred to Alma's judgment. (Incidentally, this makes Alma also an indirect contributor to one of my favourite Beatles songs, Eleanor Rigby, because producer George Martin when working with Paul McCartney on which instruments to use was, according to his own words, inspired by having recently watched Psycho; and being struck by the way Herrmann used strings in the shower scene, and took his cue on how to use strings on Eleanor Rigby from that.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/913765.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Also impressive: Anthony Hopkins being a cast-friendly pro who was there to read with every single person auditioning, no matter whether the audition was for a key part or for a bit cameo where the role just consisted of two lines. In most cases during auditions you have some crew member reading the other lines for the actor who auditions, but Hopkins made himself available throughout so that everyone could interact with his Hitchcock, not the scriptgirl. On the funny but still professional behaviour side, when they shot the climax, the aftermath of the Psycho premiere where Hitch and Alma leave the cinema and kiss, it was 3 am in the morning, and there was a homeless guy who kept yelling "Hannibal Lecter! Oh God, Hannibal Lecter!". Hopkins gave him an autograph and finally got him to be quiet so they could shoot the scene, and not one word of complaint from either him or Dame Helen about any of the spoiled takes before.
When you think about it: Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville as a creative partnership that lasted a life time is a fascinating counterpoint to other partnerships who didn't and had famous breakups instead. It's not like the fact they were a man and a woman (i.e. marriage being a socially sanctioned way of being together) made it necessarily easier (see also: Burton/Taylor, Olivier/Leigh); the film lets them have their arguments and not spelled out tensions, whether about his blondes and his mortgaging the house to finance Psycho; or her creatively cheating on him by working with another writer. But they do work it out. Of course the movie is fiction. But the writer of the documentary says that one of his favourite stories always was that Alma had to convince her husband to use Bernard Herrmann's music for the shower scene in Psycho;, because Hitchcock at first wanted the scene to be silent. (And Bernard Herrmann was mortally insulted about that.) Can you imagine it without those iconic screaming strings? They're there because he deferred to Alma's judgment. (Incidentally, this makes Alma also an indirect contributor to one of my favourite Beatles songs, Eleanor Rigby, because producer George Martin when working with Paul McCartney on which instruments to use was, according to his own words, inspired by having recently watched Psycho; and being struck by the way Herrmann used strings in the shower scene, and took his cue on how to use strings on Eleanor Rigby from that.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/913765.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.