My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock
Over a hundred years since the release of "Number 13" and countless essays, books and documentaries on its maker, film historian/documentarian Mark Cousins ("The Story of Film") decided to try a new approach to looking at the films of the master of suspense. After watching all of his movies in sequence looking for new themes, Cousins wrote a script and hired impressionist Alistair McGowan to mimic the director as our first person guide to "My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock."
Laura's Review: B
One of the pleasures of sitting down with a Mark Cousins cinema essay is listening to his quiet Irish lilt, but here we only hear him briefly, assuring his subject that his microphone is indeed on. It's a bit disconcerting hearing the voice of Alfred Hitchcock talking about events which occurred decades after his death, immediately making me think 'what trickery is this?' (and, ironically, Cousins' Hitchcock will frequently describes himself as a trickster). After that initial jolt, though, we quickly accept Cousins' scheme and let his 'Hitchcock' lead the way.
Themes often explored with Hitchcock - Catholic guilt, suspense, peeping - are quickly dismissed as having been extensively covered, the filmmaker asking if we can look at his films from more unusual angles and Cousins jumps right in with several examples of something I'd never noticed before, protagonists opening doors to enter a space without us ever seeing the door close. This is attributed to Hitchcock inviting us into his movie and leaving the real world behind. But then Cousins divides his film into chapters and many of the examples he groups within his new themes seem like a reach, a phenomenon also present in his "Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema" series.
Chapter One, Escape, features Bob Cummings' rubbing his thumb beneath the word on a book's spine, before Cousins notes several 'fantastical' settings, like Scotland in "The 39 Steps," autumnal New England in "The Trouble with Harry" and the French Riviera in "To Catch a Thief," as the equivalent of taking a vacation. This is followed with Hitchcock protagonists escaping predicaments, like Cary Grant in "North by Northwest's" crop duster scene, or Anny Ondra 'escaping' her own shock after killing a man in "Blackmail." Perhaps more relevant than that latter example is Hitchcock's decision to take his camera back down the stairs after his serial killer leads a woman up them in "Frenzy," an escape from horror for the audience as it were.
Chapter Two, Desire, begins by pointing out the lesbian allusions to the two roommates of "The Pleasure Garden," and indeed, one of this film's greater pleasures is its emphasis on Hitchcock's lesser seen silent films. A slyly funnier one is Hitch's comment that upon noticing "Vertigo's" Kim Novak resplendent in green satin in an all red room, Jimmy Steward sits straighter, he 'grows an inch.' The stuttering effect of the camera as Grace Kelly closes in on Steward in "Rear Window" is another effective example. The third chapter regards Loneliness, pointing out Marnie striding down an empty train platform, a woman buying a teacup to host a gentleman caller in "The Trouble with Harry," and of course, "Rear Windows'" Miss Lonelyhearts. The empty chair regarded by the widowed farmer in "The Farmer's Wife" depicts the memory of a happy marriage and the film is called up again in the chapter on Fulfillment, perhaps Hitchcock's suggestion of his own to lifelong collaborator Alma. He claims to have recreated his proposal on a boat in "Foreign Correspondent" but the inclusion of her importance to his work is largely told without relating it to his films.
The last chapter, "Height," is the oddest, the climactic Statue of Liberty scene in "Saboteur" or the use Mount Rushmore in "North by Northwest" obvious examples, but the initial Alpine setting of "The Lady Vanishes" or an overhead shot of a murder in "Torn Curtain" not so much (better is his use of the latter scene to illustrate how time stretches out in "Time").
It is indeed a pleasure to see clips of so many Hitchcock films viewed from the 'different angles' McGowan promised at the onset, but Cousins also uses stills of the man as well as depictions of his themes to kick off his chapters, some, like the modern clip of a woman in a yellow sweater perplexing in its meaning. "My Name Is Hiyvhvovk" is an enjoyable meander which sometimes strays a bit too far away from the path.
Robin's Review: B+
Documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins examines the copious works of that master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, but not is a way you would expect in "My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock."
Director Cousins casts an unusual narrator for this in-depth analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's – Hitch himself, resurrected almost 45 years after his death (voiced by Alistair McGowan). This gives us an unusual insight into the man, his many works and the techniques he developed that are still in use today.
The document on Hitchcock is divided into six different qualities and characters of his work. Part one, Escape, delves into that subject in the man's movies so we see scenes from such classics as "North by Northwest," "Psycho" and "Torn Curtain." Actually, it seems that nearly all of Hitchcock films fill each category.
It moves on to part two, Desire, and brings in "The Lodger," "Rear Window," "Young and Innocent" and "Spellbound," among many others. Loneliness, part three, and we see "The Trouble with Harry," "Rear Window" and "North by Nortwest" again, and, of course, Norman Bates in "Psycho."
Part four, Time, I found the most interesting, and relevant in all of Hitch's films, like "Sabotage, "Dial M for Murder," "Rope," "Rebecca," "Marnie,"" and "Blackmail." Part five, Fulfillment, is mostly about Hitch and his making movies that "fulfill." Some of these are "Strangers on a Train," "Young and Innocent," "Foreign Correspondent." "Stage Fright," "Blackmail," "Under Capricorn" and "Jamaica Inn."
Wrapping things up is part six, Height, and, obviously, "Vertigo," is top of the list. Then there is "Notorious," "Stage Fright," "The Man Who Knew Too Much (1952)," "Murder!," and "I Confess."
The faux Hitch narration is done well and convincingly by Alistair McGowen. Cousins also uses some odd statuary of the Maestro, interspersed throughout the story – for color, I suppose.
As a film lover, I have seen an analysis or two on AH's films and career and most of the info I am familiar with. Cousin's give us a fresh and quite thorough perspective of all of his movies – some of which I did not even know about. A good documentary should teach you something you did not know or think about before. That happens here.
Cohen Media releases "My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock" in theaters on 10/25/24. Click here for playdates.
