Hitchcock/Truffaut
Conversation between two legends

PostED ON 28.09.2015 AT 4:45PM

DOCUMENTARY - Based on the famous series of interviews that took place between Alfred Hitchcock and François Truffaut in 1962 - today a cult item for cinephiles - this in-depth documentary by American Kent Jones, co-written by Serge Toubiana, reminds us to what extent the filmmaker of The Birds (1963) made his mark on the cinema.

It's been 50 years that the book has laid on the nightstand of millions of film buffs. In 1962, François Truffaut and Hitchcock shut themselves up for a week at the request of the young director of The 400 Blows (1959) to discuss the British filmmaker's directing precepts. A great admirer of the work of the "master of suspense," Truffaut went to Universal Studios Hollywood every day, accompanied by an interpreter, to exchange views with Hitchcock on the cinema and more specifically to question him on the secrets of each of his films. In Truffaut's mind, he wanted to stimulate discussion with Hitchcock, whom he had to thank, he said, for his own development as an artist and his reputation as an entertaining filmmaker.

These original recordings were used to publish a cult book in 1966, entitled Cinema According to Hitchcock. In the eyes of numerous specialists and filmmakers, the work is one of the few truly indispensable references on the cinema. "At the time, the general consensus, the climate, was a dictatorship of the establishment as usual, of what the cinema was supposed to be. The Hitchcock /Truffaut book was a revolution. This is where, as filmmakers we became insurgents. It's as if someone had taken a weight off our shoulders," says Martin Scorsese in a scene in the film.

Thirty hours of interviews, painstakingly prepared by Truffaut, with analysis and anecdotes recorded that week, provided the basis for Kent Jones' in-depth documentary - his fourth - mixing film clips, testimonials and archival photos. The American also went to meet a dozen contemporary directors to discuss the work of the author of Vertigo (1958) and his impact of film history. Thus, many filmmakers such as Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Kiyoshi Kurosawa or Olivier Assyas participate in the film.

"This book has had an incredible influence on generations of filmmakers," says Kent Jones. Following the death of the director who was supposed to finish the documentary, the project was proposed to Jones three years ago. "I was immediately excited. The question was how to tell this story. I worked hard on the script. I realized that they just wanted to be filmmakers. The thing was to show a conversation of directors who talk about the cinema," he says. He recalls this anecdote: When Truffaut wrote to Hitchcock proposing this series of interviews, Hitchcock's response was: "Your letter brought tears to my eyes, Mr. Truffaut."

B.P.

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Hitchcock/Truffaut by Kent Jones (2015, 1h20)

> Friday, October 16 at 4:30pm, Villa Lumière.