00:00What convinces you to say yes on making a documentary about one of the most studies and well-known directors of the history?
00:14Yes, it's a very good question, you know, because I try to avoid the canon, the big names, the great white men in some way.
00:23I try to avoid. But my producer said, you know, it's a hundred years since the first Hitchcock film.
00:30It was during Covid. And I thought, OK, I'll look at the films. I'll watch them again.
00:37And I watched all 52 in order. And I thought, if I can think of a new way of talking about Hitchcock, I will do it.
00:46And so I came up with this idea of imagining him talking directly to us.
00:50And I thought, voila, I can do something new there.
00:54And as well as looking at some of the more traditional themes like escape and desire,
01:00I could look at something really interesting like loneliness and fulfillment and things like that.
01:08And so I thought I can say something new here, hopefully.
01:12Yeah. And it was difficult to find these six topics.
01:17I think so. I think I did want to. I did want to look at some of the familiar things, but even escape.
01:25Hopefully, I look at it in not only escaping from your life or yourself, but escaping the conventions of cinema, of form, of style.
01:36So even there, hopefully, I'm twisting that.
01:39There's a lovely word in English, torque.
01:41You know, the fact that you twist something.
01:44But yes, for things like height, you're right.
01:48I wanted to look at why Hitchcock put his camera high very often.
01:53But it's almost a kind of spiritual, metaphysical thing as well.
01:59And he's brilliant at that, you know, in really popular cinema, in really mainstream cinema.
02:07He's doing things visually that were rare in the 20th century.
02:15You know, it's sort of closer to, you know, I studied art history and I studied Renaissance, Italian Renaissance painting.
02:24And it's, he's close to some of the kind of Baroque film, Baroque painters, I think, you know.
02:31And there's something almost of Tintoretto about bits of Hitchcock, you know, particularly Tintoretto's colours and the swirl that you get in Hitchcock.
02:42You know, there were other 20th century artists like Giappolo Gasolini who attacked us or Frida Kahlo who attacked us with her vision.
02:51But Hitchcock, of course, you know, didn't feel as if he was attacking us.
02:56He was, you know, he was beautiful people, often on holiday with beautiful outfits.
03:01And yet there was an attack there.
03:03He was asking us profound questions, I think.
03:06And I think that's why, you know, even though he's dead, his themes are still relevant, because these questions about loneliness and desire and how people lie to each other and the fear that underlies so many things, these are still today in our lives.
03:25Yes, in fact, his movies are very, very modern today.
03:31I think so.
03:32I think so.
03:32And I think with the women, too, I mean, in some, you know, in some places, there's a lot of criticism of Hitchcock from a feminist point of view.
03:40But, you know, and what he did to Tippi Hedren was terrible, of course, and I've read her book.
03:46But he was also, women loved him.
03:48I knew Janet Leigh and she loved him.
03:51And Ingrid Bergman loved him.
03:54And so many of the great female actors loved him.
03:59So there was a modernity there.
04:00Eve Marie Saint in North by Northwest.
04:03Look at how bold she is.
04:05Look at Ingrid in Notorious.
04:07These bold people, these imaginative, risk-taking women.
04:13Very interesting.
04:14You know, in contemporary society, we have the stereotype, the strong woman, you know, but that's very narrow in some way.
04:22You know, Hitchcock's women were much more imaginative that, you know, they were interested in their own sadness, you know, in their decisions that they had to make.
04:33You know, there's a richness there, definitely.
04:36Your Hitchcock said that he was, he wanted to avoid using predictable tones in films.
04:43Is that a target for you?
04:47Very much so.
04:48And, you know, in everything I've done, you know, that one of the first things that people saw of mine was the story of film and Odyssey.
04:56And that, the whole theme in that is innovation.
04:59You know, how do we do things differently?
05:01Many of our themes are universal and timeless, but we can find new ways of doing it, you know.
05:08So, of course, I could have made a more conventional film about Hitchcock, but I thought if I tried to put ourselves inside his head with his thoughts.
05:20Yeah.
05:20So, in each, everything I do, I try to do something innovative or take people by surprise in some way, you know, because it's fun doing that.
05:30But you have to, you have, you do not want to bore people, first of all, and you have to renew the language of cinema if possible.
05:40In the, in, in your movie, you said that there is only one light, only one lie, sorry, the one about the lighter.
05:51Yes.
05:51But, in fact, there are two lies because we are not listening the, obviously, the Hitchcock voice.
05:59Yes.
06:00And Alistair McGowan, why did you choose him?
06:04Well, I needed somebody who could be completely convincing as the voice of Hitchcock.
06:10And I said to a great British actor, Simon Callow, whose work you'll know, you know, I said to him, who can play Hitchcock?
06:17And he said, Alistair McGowan, who's the best ear in the business.
06:22And so we emailed his agent, and said, about a month later, my phone went, and it was Hitchcock talking to me.
06:29And I was amazed, you know, I have, I have worked with some of the most creative people in cinema.
06:35I've worked with Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton and many, many great people.
06:40But to see Alistair McGowan, he's a tall, skinny guy, but his impersonation of Hitchcock is magnificently precise, you know.
06:51So really fantastic to see somebody bring your script alive in that way.
07:00And in the end, with a beautiful look, with a, like this.
07:08A week.
07:09Yes.
07:10And a look in the camera.
07:13You say that Hitchcock is a trickster.
07:17Yes.
07:17Are you a trickster too, with your movies?
07:20Thank you for that question.
07:22That's a very interesting question.
07:23Yeah, I think the trickster lies to tell the truth.
07:27You know, the trickster is not telling us something wrong about the world, but the trickster is trying to use a kind of magic way, almost a hypnosis, to make you feel strange.
07:44But in strange, you see things anew with fresh eyes.
07:48And definitely, I'm interested in that.
07:51I'm definitely interested in looking with fresh eyes at things.
07:56So to that extent, yes, I'm a trickster.
07:59What do you think about the documentary as a genre who can be falsificated?
08:06Yes.
08:07So, you know, yes, documentary.
08:09Some people think of documentary as a thing about facts or social issues or political issues.
08:15And, of course, right from the beginning of cinema, documentary has been memoir.
08:20It has been essay.
08:23It has been poetry.
08:25You know, it's been many, many things.
08:28So documentary isn't just one genre.
08:30It's multiple genres.
08:32It's half of cinema.
08:34Half of every film ever made is a documentary film.
08:37But on this question about the truth of documentary, yes, you're quite right that, you know, what we call now fake news, you know, there's always been scenes in documentary which are faped.
08:51And Nanook of, by Flaherty, Robert Flaherty is an example of that.
08:57And there will always be, it's easier to make fake imagery now than ever before.
09:04Therefore, the code of ethics of documentary filmmakers needs to be stronger than ever.
09:10Like, those of us who make films with kind of reality imagery really have to be honest with the audience, really have to be honest with the image and with ourselves.
09:21And the people who can check us are the journalists.
09:25And that's why journalism is more important, I think, than at any time.
09:30Visual journalism.
09:32Because more imagery can be fit.
09:34And therefore, more checking and more calling into question is important.
09:40So, it's a very important topic and it's one of the, it's the biggest ethical topic in visual culture today.
